The bicycle analogy you just made is hard to make an example of. The way manufacturers put things together is scary sometimes.

A $2500 bike can be 10 times more rugged than a $1500 bike. Your bike can have most of its cost in components and have a completely crap frame. Or you can have adequate components and a bullet-proof frame. Ti isn't the only metal that takes the costs way up. Composites too of course.

My younger brother pieced his bike together himself. He took it in for a tuneup last summer (or the summer before that) and a few guys at the show were all "wow." "Crap, you've got at least $6000 of stuff on there!" (CDN $$) No doubt the bike would have retailed for at least that up here near Toronto. My brother didn't pay close to that, managing to find all sorts of great deals in and around the net over a couple of years.

And my bike was about $1000 before swapping out to a few better components. Even though the swaps didn't cost me that much, having had those things on the original retail purchase would have put it well over the $1500 range back then. And that's for a hard-tail mtb with no front suspension. The dynamic of the mtb marketplace has changed a bit over the past few years. Lots of nice goodies out now too.

Bruno