I have to confess, I am not a Porschephile really, but I've had a slew of bad luck with BMW's (most recently an E46 M3 Coupe), so I might be a convert. I did have a 944S2 back in the day, but it was mostly a track slut.
My mother has a 2006 997 Cabrio. Beautiful car... think it had a price tag when new of over $90k.
I have been in Florida for a few moths with her and noticed immediately that the interior doesn't appear to be holding up well (
especially for a car that isn't that old, and only had 13,800 miles on it!)...
The biggest concern is the
Volume and
Station Tune knobs, which appear to have turned "gooey"! I at first thought maybe something was on it that was sticky, but realized that it appears that the material it is made of (
some sort of rubberized coating on top of plastic, from my estimation) has turned this way on it's own.
I notice that the
Temperature Up/Down, and
Fan Speed switches are also exuding the same "sticky" like feelings, but not turned to the gooey mess that has plagued these other two knobs yet.
I am also amazed at the sheer number of vinyl painted surfaces in the vehicle (which is most of them)... They all have not held up well in the humid Florida environment and all are starting to "chip" in areas. I saw this a lot on early 2000-ish VW's, but I didn't think I'd see it on a $90k plus Porsche. Yup, same thing.
I'm really unimpressed with Porsche for doing such nonsence... Even the trim around the ignition is coated with this paint.
My question is... has anyone else had these issues with these vinyl coated plastic bits?? Is there a way to simply replace the knobs, or is it more involved. I'm guessing I'm not the only one who's experienced this, but I'd like to know.
Here are some pictures.. The Volume knob...
Eeeewwww... it's all gooey!
The Temp Control switch
Just to prove, the mileage... hasn't hit 15,000 miles yet.
The paint chipping around the ignition switch...
Seems like a horrible place to put a paint covered part. Anyone would know it's going to get chipped to bits by putting the key in/out of there repetitively.
Any input appreciated on what to do about these gooey knobs. I don't even want to touch them anymore.