According to the manual, there should be both a Max Defroster (removes condensation as well) and a Defroster button.

Any reason why my car would skip the latter?

 

I see both in your image. The first is the "MAX" defroster which turns on the AC and blows the fan at max. The button (rectangle with 3 squiggly lines) 2 over from "MAX" is the rear defroster which heats up those lines on your rear window.

 

the manuals says i should have two front and one back. The second front would go in that gap

 

This is what the manual shows

 

That's the windshield heater in some markets. Not available in the US.

 

Interesting and thank you. Wonder why not offered

 

Interesting that it was offered in the Canadian North American market. Our 2018 has it.

 

That's so strange. Is there some kind of regulation in the US preventing it?

 

Simplest explanation is that it was an option and simply wasn't ordered with it?

 

I wish it was that simple...but after looking at 12 or so other 2019 countryman listings on carvana and a local dealer, none of them seem to have the second "basic" defroster. So weird.

 

Found this using Google. Seems like the Non-USA idea may be correct.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...indshield.html

 

For whatever (dumb) reason, very few vehicles are offered with heated windshields in the U.S. This, despite much of the country’s population living in areas that would GREATLY benefit from this technology. I wish MINI offered it here. I guess the good news is that it seems to becoming a becoming a bit more common in the U.S., so maybe it’ll make it to the next-gen MINIs. One can hope!

 

Heated windshields used to be offered on some luxury cars. But then they discovered that it interfered with the toll tag readers. Now they have hesters for the windshield wiper area to free up the wipers quicker.

 

Heated windshields are definitely still offered in the U.S., even on some non-luxury makes/models (e.g., VW ID.4 with AWD). I only know of a few makes that offered a heated windshield wiper park area, for example Subaru, Jeep, and more recently, Tesla. The heated wiper park position is definitely useful, but the heated windshield is even more so.