When using method chaining like:

var car = new Car().OfBrand(Brand.Ford).OfModel(12345).PaintedIn(Color.Silver).Create();

there may be two approaches:

• Reuse the same object, like this:

  public Car PaintedIn(Color color)
  {
      this.Color = color;
      return this;
  }
  

• Create a new object of type Car at every step, like this:

  public Car PaintedIn(Color color)
  {
      var car = new Car(this); // Clone the current object.
      car.Color = color; // Assign the values to the clone, not the original object.
      return car;
  }
  

Is the first one wrong or it's rather a personal choice of the developer?

I believe that he first approach may quickly cause the intuitive/misleading code. Example:

// Create a car with neither color, nor model.
var mercedes = new Car().OfBrand(Brand.MercedesBenz).PaintedIn(NeutralColor);

// Create several cars based on the neutral car.
var yellowCar = mercedes.PaintedIn(Color.Yellow).Create();
var specificModel = mercedes.OfModel(99).Create();

// Would `specificModel` car be yellow or of neutral color? How would you guess that if
// `yellowCar` were in a separate method called somewhere else in code?

Any thoughts?