Although it's true that you have to pay attention while doing either one, driving the average car, on an average road, is a long way from combat conditions in a military fighter. Ask Bob Lutz himself...not only an auto exec, but a retired Marine fighter pilot. Besides, as you note, GM tried putting that crap in the windshield years ago, and almost all but Corvette buyers complained

 

HUD is not a must-have for many consumers- in fact, many people dislike it. It's one of the technologies I see staying as a separate option on many cars for the foreseeable future.

 

I would say yes and no. I had HUD in my '13 GS and swore by it to check MPH. I said I would never own another car without it. Then I traded for an Audi S5 that showed the speed digitally in the middle of the screen between the guages. It was definitely a step back, but it was fine. Now my A4 with the virtual cockpit displays the MPH digitally inside the ring of the speedometer. If the nav is on it automatically shows the next turn in that same ring. I haven't missed HUD.

 

hahhaa, will take more pics when the car is clean, plus on a stock car i always think manufacturer's pics look far better

ambient lighting on the pre-facelift is "boring", i only have 3 choices, blue, neutral, and amber. unlike the GLS where the color choice is just like the S class i think. nonetheless it's still cool and far more noticeable than the ones in Lexus i think

yes i don't understand either, somehow it seems like a very "rare" option here in the US but for the rest of the world it has been a very common option for decades.

i don't think it's a dead needed option though, i think of it as a cool option. my thinking though is on a 80k GL450 fine, but on a 100k GL550 that they manage to stuff in massage seats and RSES, why no HUD?!

 

^ I always liked the HUD in the Corvettes I've driven. Pretty cool that I think BMW now gives you navigation directions through the display. Anyways, its a neat option, not totally necessary, but then that's kind of the point of having a luxury car is to have stuff like this that your average Camry driver has never even seen before.

 

i think a lot of HUD systems can do navigation now as well already. pretty sure audi and bmw do

 

Yeah that's old news. Mercedes does it too. Here's an interesting tidbit from Bharat Balasubramanian from 2011 before MB starting putting HUD's in their models:

Explains why its still optional.

 

haha that's an interesting explanation

 

BMW M HUD display is cool, it shows rpm rev and gear selection, really like playing a video game.

Btw, the 17' GLS only has 3 colors to choose from as well! I didn't turn it on to verify it but the owner told me so.

 

really?! that would be disappointing. i thought i watched the video about the multi color changes on the GLS just like the s class

 

That's what I thought so I asked the owner but he told me otherwise. Sucks I didn't have time to play with it to confirm.

btw my other client just got a GLS450 17', no down, 1100 a month. The one who got the GLS550 really got ripped off lol!!!

 

sounds like i got the GL550 for GLS450 money, now i feel better