I live in france, and where we are can go over 40 degrees ( as it is now) but also down to -16 degrees, ouch! I have a heated screen and have tried blowers, scrapers, covers, and all kinds of de icers. I have a heated screen and it works great. The difference is you are not teying to defrost the car by applying something from the outside of the screen, but the inside. Ice just quickly melts and slides off. Mist just dissapears. Nuff said.

I had the HUD on a couple of Peugeot’s a few years ago, although they were only the piece of plastic which came up out of the dash above the dials, it was very useful and when I changed to the Mazda CX-5, it took me a while to get used to not having it.

I do like the heated screen, and have used it a few times over the past 3 winters but being retired, I seldom have to go out early on so don’t have to use the screen much.

Overall, I think I would opt for the HUD.

Wow that’s the closest poll I’ve seen. Pity you can’t have both.

Never experienced the delights of HUD or pre-conditioning, but have had two Volvos with HW; XC60 and my current XC70; and a Ford Galaxy way back in 1999 (why did it take Volvo so long to catch up?)
OK, it’s not needed very often, but it’s such a benefit when it is, esp. compared to scraping etc.
I rarely notice the elements so they don’t bother or distract me.
Maybe when I can afford a SPA car, my attitude will change...

I would never ever be without a heated windscreen and I live in the south and garage the car every night. Just one night out in a bad winter makes it worth while and I have lived without HUD for ever so don’t miss what I have never had.

It’s a very logical chain - aux heater is one of the best options on xc90 - I use mine all the time for about 7 months a year. If you accept aux heater as a no brainer then heated screen is redundant. Add to that that wires can be spotted in the windscreen. HUD is a safety feature - it lets you keep an eye on the road instead of peeking at the dash and refocusing (you only realise how much more tiring it is to use the dashboard when you are used to hud).

The problem with remote start was there were several very cold days last winter when VOC was down and couldn’t make a connection.

Also some concerns over leaving a running car unattended, for example if you don’t have a drive way. I can see some over zealous council traffic warden raking in the fines...

Heated screen every time for me. It was a godsend last winter when I was driving in a snow storm in my old XC60 - on several occasions the wet snow froze on my wipers and prevented them from clearing the screen. I was thankfully able to just switch on the screen heater, which melted the frozen snow and enabled the wipers to get their flexibility back.

IMO the HUD is a nice-to-have all year, whereas the heated screen is an absolute must-have for a few key days of the year. It was the number one feature I looked for during this last car purchase.

Wouldn’t the heated Aqua blades have helped you ?