Why did Halo models not get facelifted?

[Triumph Man]

Not so much seen now, but in the early 2000s, quite a few Halo models didn't seem to receive facelifts when the "lesser" versions did, and I've always wondered why? Presumably (although it is very much a presumption) that trend died off because people like to be seen with the "up to date" version.

For example

Mk1 Focus RS - although it got the headlamp units from the facelift, the integral indicators were blanked and it got bumper mounted indicators like the prefacelift focus

E46 M3 - although it got the "ministry of sound" LED tailights, the headlights didn't change as the rest of the E46 coupe range

Alfa 156 GTA - retained the prefacelift (and arguably prettier) head and taillights.

Volvo S60R - retained the Prefacelift headlamps.

[Davie]

Triumph Man said:

Volvo S60R - retained the Prefacelift headlamps.

S60R and V70R headlights were unique to the R only and pre and post facelift cars had the same units. Non R models were facelifted in 2004ish but no non-R models ever came with the R lights. So not sure this applies here.

[Decky_Q]

With the 147 and 156 the facelift was a cost cutting excercise as much as a sales booster.

[samoht]

Lights are very expensive things to tool up for.

If you've already made a set of unique parts for the hot model, the cost/benefit for creating a second set of unique parts for the relative handful of cars you expect to sell post-facelift (considering sales tend to taper off through a model's life) probably isn't worth it.

[Every day a journey]

Decky_Q said:

With the 147 and 156 the facelift was a cost cutting excercise as much as a sales booster.

And particularly with the 156 it would have been literally a whole new, therefore expensive, front end and probably would have lost some of its, IMO, striking difference between that and the standard models. And it was pretty low volume.

[Zetec-S]

The Mk1 Focus RS was limited to about 4000 units, all the same colour and pretty much all the same spec. Although it was released after the facelift, I guess the design was done earlier and it would have been too much of a faff to go back and tweak the design to align with the facelift front end? Especially for such a limited production run.