I think what you're saying is true, but only when it comes to choosing the available colors offered, not the quantity of each color. In other words, we know that the staple colors (like black and white) will ALWAYS be offered on every mass produced vehicles. But it is up to the manufacturer to choose other colors that will appeal to the masses. That's where focus groups, surveys, and other marketing techniques come into play. Once the color choices are made, there are normally no limits to how many of each color vehicle are produced. That is dictated by orders, both from dealerships and individual purchasers of the vehicle. And of course dealers know which colors are more popular than others, so they tend to shy away from ordering the unpopular colors. So I'd say that Salsa Red is a semi-rare color not because Toyota decided to produce them in limited numbers, but much more because there really isn't a big demand for the color. Think about it--if it became a hugely popular color, we'd see a ton of them everywhere.
