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> Especially for large-scale production the cost of offering some variety in colour should be marginal.

No?

You need to overproduce more items that might not get sold, you need more floor space to have all the variants on offer all the time. It's less efficient than a single variant. Whether that's "marginal" depends on the product. It's not like everything is gray.

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But what about cars? Many of them are only built after they have been ordered. Nevertheless, we also have the trend towards black, white and grey here. At a classic car meeting, on the other hand, you see so many different, often much more appealing colours and combinations. Why was it so different in the past?

Most people also consider the need to sell the car down the line. Choosing the colour that maximizes your chances (or at least copying what every one else dose in the hope that it helps).

It wasn't. Classic cars are a biased set. Interesting ones have been kept and boring ones are not.

I'd also wager that most classic cars you see around these days have been repainted. When the cost to repaint is roughly the same why not go for an interesting color over gray or white?

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