Privacy glass
 

Am I alone in disliking darkened privacy glass for rear side panes and rear screen? The staggered side view in my opinion destroys the beautiful aesthetic of e.g. the S90 but others too.
For me it is a deal breaker in any potential 2/hand purchase.
I assume the glass itself is tinted, rather than some kind of laminate overlay?
Has anybody attempted or achieved a reversion from dark to standard?
I assume a wholesale replacement of panes would be prohibitively expensive. And (worse) risk the build integrity of the car through the necessity to remove interior panels, mess with electrics, re-fit and generally fiddle about.

No you're not alone, I just don't see the point of it. We had a rental car while ours was in for repair and the rental had dark windows, it made the inside dark and looking out it made even a bright day look dull.

That’s three of us, then!

I cant say im a fan per se, but when my R Design is parked next to my Daughter's SE in the sun my car is noticably cooler inside, even with the black leather, so it does have some utility.

Most modern cars are far from attractive anyway, but just so long as they're not pink and shaped like a hippos scrotum I'm not that bothered - theyre for driving, not looking at.

I dislike it. for safety reasons, I want to be able to look through a car.

I don’t understand that. If you mean looking through a car at a junction then I wouldn’t want to rely on that as a way of assessing whether to pull out from a junction.
Most of my cars in the past 10 years or so have had privacy glass as it:
Keeps the sun off little ones in the rear
Keeps the car cooler
Deters people from looking in to see what’s inside (I don’t rely on that alone for my security)

How do you manage on the road with all these vans and lorries?

I like it. I wouldn't have paid extra for it, but was pleasantly surprised with it. As someone's said, it does help keep the car cool (not a lot, but it does take the edge off depending on how you are parked), it (in my view) adds to the sporting look of the car - mine is black so it all blends together), and adds a security element as people cannot see what is in the back so easily.

The other day I had to run into a shop on my way home, and had already put my laptop bag in the back seat footwell, not wanting to stop somewhere to move it to the boot (where it would invariably have fallen over and rolled around), I left it there, safe that unless someone pushed their face up against the glass that it wouldn't be seen. I wouldn't use it for long term storing of things as it isn't perfect, but for a quick dash in a shop it worked fine.

My wife's Fiesta has the same, and I've seen a lot more cars big and small with it, so it's becoming more common.

The Volvo privacy glass is excellent - from the inside it's almost as clear as normal glass, as if they are one way glass because from the outside you can't see in....

Keeps car cooler, yet bright as day inside.....

So wish my S90 R-Design (MY17) had it......

i agree. i have on mine. Volvo privacy glass is not that kind of glass with dark film... that makes the inside of the car completely dark. horrible in my opinion. In this photo i've taken, you can see clearly that the light enters through the glass. In a bright sunny day the cabine doesn't look too dark and there's some light going on. But when it gets dark, late at night, you barely can't see anything from outside as I show also in the photo.