Alt title: Why would you pay $1,000 for something you'll never use?

Imagine the scenario…

You’re driving your family of four down the road, when suddenly, a thick, inescapable fog rolls in.

You can no longer see 10 feet in front of you, but you gather that all the other cars on the road are starting to panic. You hear faint screams from behind car glass, screeching tires, and you sense that the situation is spinning out of control.

In a moment of brilliance, you remember that you purchased the car package with fog lights. You switch them on, and suddenly instead of seeing 10 feet in front of you, you see 15 feet. Just enough to spare your family’s lives. “Well worth the extra $1,000 I paid,” you say, forever thankful that you made the sensible choice.

I can only imagine some variation of this mental scenario is why anyone agrees to the up-charge of the fog-light package when purchasing a new car. But does it ever happen? Do you ever even switch these lights on once after leaving the lot?

Compared to $40k for a new car, only $1k extra for the fog light package seems like no big deal! But compared to zero, $1,000 is a tremendous waste of money.

Car manufacturers know and exploit this human weakness. As a consumer, be aware of add-ons. As a seller? Understand the enormous power of hypothetical situations that will never materialize.