What would happen if cars were subject to the same market conditions as Navy warships? The industry would have to amortize the $1.5 billion cost of a new car design over just a handful of units. It would buy only one fuel pump a year from a machine shop, so it could never gain any efficiency from the mass production of parts. Every time it needed a right front fender it would have to pay a new fabricator's setup costs, because the shop that stamped out the fender last time had gone out of business for lack of work. It would have to deal with dealerships that promised to buy two units next year but suddenly could afford only one. And it would have to update the design after every car was finished to incorporate new technology that the customer demands.
