You know, I think it's a red herring to talk about what people spend. First of all, people will spend what they have to spend (and usually then some). Secondly, people who buy a car they had someone build for them are paying top dollar x 10^3.

Cars that cost $50k that you just send a check to have built cost a lot less if you do all the work yourself. IMHO about the only thing that is hard to duplicate DIY is an engine from Sunbelt, Milledge, wt al. The rest, with some time and hard work can be duplicated for significantly less.

My car is getting everything but dipped. If I could write a bigger check, I would have dipped it, but the $700 for dipping could be better spent elsewhere in my case. So I scraped. Instead of buying a brand new harness for a 22 year old car, I removed it and I'm mapping it and replacing all questionable wires. Yes, It's taking me a while, but it damned sure isn't costing me $50k. It's just costing me a lot of time. Of course, I'll know every damned nut and bolt on the bloody car.