Interior Rubber coating coming off on Audi Allroads 2002-2004 Models

This might be well-known, but I seem to fail finding anything about it.
I've now seen about 10 used Audi Allroads between yrs 2002&2004 and all
of them looked really horribly inside -- all the buttons and door
handles had the black rubber coating coming off and showing a shiny
black plastic underneath. Is this known in countries other than Hong
Kong as well? Is Audi not doing anything about it, it seems that any
single car in the local market here has this problem!

I am not sure exactly what you are talking about. But I have a 2003 A6
wagon which had a similar problem. In the arm rests there is a grip or
handle used for pulling the door closed. A hard plastic surface which was
part of this handle, the part your fingers would wrap around, was covered by
a very thin rubber-like coating. In my car this thin rubber-like coating
was disintegrating or shredding. This happened within the warranty period
and all of the affected parts were replaced by the dealer. But it sure
struck me as dumb design. The thin rubber coating is so thin that
disintegration or shredding should have been easily predictable. I'll add
that it wasn't really that noticeable. But I noticed it and it seemed to me
that it shouldn't have happened and I wanted it fixed.

Bob

"HaJo" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> This might be well-known, but I seem to fail finding anything about it.
> I've now seen about 10 used Audi Allroads between yrs 2002&2004 and all
> of them looked really horribly inside -- all the buttons and door
> handles had the black rubber coating coming off and showing a shiny
> black plastic underneath. Is this known in countries other than Hong
> Kong as well? Is Audi not doing anything about it, it seems that any
> single car in the local market here has this problem!
>

eBob.com wrote:
> In my car this thin rubber-like coating was disintegrating or shredding.

This is exactly what I observed on all the Allroad Audis over here.
However, not only the door handles are affected but also all the
controls around the dash board, the climate control, ... In short,
everything dark black which has this "rubbery" touch is disintegrating
on all the Allroads I have looked at :-(

Will probably call up the local Audi dealer next week and see what they
have to say. They don't seriously expect a 2nd hand market with all the
cars having these faults and them only watching, do they...

> I'll add
> that it wasn't really that noticeable.

To that I have a different opinion. It's quite obvious especially with
the controls around the dash -- they are background-illuminated at
night and since the rubber provides the icon-shape of the respective
button, at night all the buttons are a bright red square with no symbol
identifyable...

This is one of those well-known issues with the B6 A4's, and probably
other models as well. I had it on my flip-up lighter, but since they
don't make it flip-up any longer (i.e., if they replaced it, it would
be with a fixed type, which I don't like) I just peeled off whatever I
could and it doesn't appear to be any different now. I have heard that
the dealer will only replace switches once, so if you bring a car in
and get one replaced, then it happens again on another switch, they
won't replace it.... I read this on audiworld.com, so take it FWIW....

Dan D
'04 A4 1.8Tq MT-6
Central NJ USA