[SideburnsOfDoom]

Mini Cooper: There is a speedometer directly behind steering wheel, in a smaller secondary instrument panel, as shown in the picture.

Toyota Yaris: Not shown in that picture is the Head Up Display projected onto the windscreen, even closer to the driver's line of sight. I drove a Yaris for a few days a while back, and the HUD is good - not distracting there's and no need to turn your head, which would be dangerous.

Citroen C4: Another HUD http://www.citroen.co.uk/about-citroen/technology/head-up-di...

Saturn ION: Seems to be the only valid example. I don't know myself, can't remember ever being in a Saturn ION. Wikipedia tells me that GM does not make them anymore.

it still seems to me that for reasons of safety , you want some instrumentation to be very close to the driver's default line of sight. Not necessarily all of it, but a few key indicators such as speed.

[MarcelGerber]

I drive a Yaris myself (the center display looks different than the one pictured, but the concept is the same). It doesn't have a HUD and I actually love the center display. As stated before, it is never blocked. In a turn, when a normal instrument panel is behind the steering wheel, I can still monitor the speedometer and shift gears according to the speed. Also, I totally have the road in vision when looking at the speedometer.

[laydn]

I know for a fact that the one in Yaris and C4 is an option... And for a while, it wasn't available in many countries. For a C4 Picasso, this is still the case.

[vsl]

Not sure why you think C4 comes with the HUD, but rest assured the 1999 Xsara Picasso didn't. I drove it for many years and it was fine. Glancing down at the behind-wheel display is equidistant to glancing right to Model 3's (which has the important bits in the same position, perhaps even closer to the driver, then Picasso did).

It'll be fine. Don't judge it before actually trying it for yourself.

[ilikepi]

The Scion xA and xB both had center console instrument clusters, and AFAIK neither had HUDs.