A new car can come with enough buttons, screens, sensors, and fancy extras to make the cockpit of a small airplane look restrained. Some features genuinely make driving safer or more comfortable. Others look fantastic on the dealership window sticker but spend most of their lives waiting for someone to press a button.
That creates an odd little problem for car buyers. They can spend extra money on equipment they love during a test drive, then forget it exists after the novelty wears off. Automakers know how to make optional features sound irresistible, especially when they bundle them into expensive packages.
