06GTVERT4DE said:
It seems you may not know eactly how much it cost to produce that part. I rather doubt that it is only $0.32 or possibly $0.37. Maybe the raw materials but more than likely not the final cost when considering production overhead costs. Now it might only be a few dollars. But I don't think anyone here has truly accurate manufacturing prices on that particular piece. Then of course we assume that the part would be recieved at a Ford warehouse somewhere. So some money has to go to that. Since there would be people worknig there. And it was likely handled more than once. Since someone had to ship it to the dealer. Do you knid of see where I am going with this? There are more costs than you think there might be.
Now as far as the bad design. So what other method would you have like it put on there? I would assume you would have to remove it when replacing the windshield (Mind you this is an assumption. Since I do not repair windshields). So permanently attaching it would mean possible damage to your car. In the event of a need to repair the windshield. Of course they could have used a bolt or screw. Which would have then upped the cost for engineering and producing the part (You have to add in the cost of the screw to that as well). And then you would have a rather ugly fastener head in the middle of a smooth trim piece. This is of course assuming you could get a screw small enough to go into the trim piece and not out through the corner of the windshield frame. Now of course there is also the popular plastic tabs method. But with a few years the plastic gets brittle. You repair the windshield and a tab breaks. Now you have to get a new trim piece anyway. You might be surprised at how tough tape can be made.