They've gone through a couple (!) of policy/quality changes in the past few years.
At least Colt stayed relatively consistent in the arrogance challenge.
(NOTE: 'arrogance' does not imply justification.)
I dropped the mdl 66 off at the gunsmith. Apparently the bolt plunger spring and plunger got loose and when I removed the grips to take a look at the frame the parts must have dropped somewhere. Anyway the smithy said the parts are 30 bucks plus labor, about 70 bucks total. So it is not the extractor rod but the thumpiece that would not slide forward to release the cylinder.