2005 Volkswagen Jetta: Armrest Flakes, Not Just for Breakfast Anymore

It's a VW. They (and Audi) used low-quality plastics and no primers for their 'coating' to fool automotive journalists and the like into a false sense of quality for their interiors. They all peel off because these cars are cheaply engineered and built. Soon the black trim around their air vents and door handles are going to flake off, the upholstery glue is going to give and the fabric is going to sag.

Eh, three or four years is about that time for interiors to start showing age. Look at the leather seats on any of the Big Three domestic carmakers. They are mostly cracked within a year. The fabric on my Dodge's cloth seat started splitting at the seam within a couple years, and the material was wearing off the steering wheel. The first-generation Mercedes SLK was really bad for interior trim peeling. My Toyota had a worn center console lid after 2 years, I didn't really think it was indicative of the overall reliability of the car.

The armrest has an angled down position for shifting lower than in the picture. Try that.

@mbtech208

Hate to say it, but the only wear and tear that is comparable to what you're seeing was on a 13 year old Toyota Previa. and yeah, that thing had bigger issues than buttons slightly peeling off.

5 year old Sienna LE (fabric), 5 year old Accord EX (leather), 2 year old Tucson Limited (leather) and NONE of them have any buttons delabeling, plastic blistering, fabric or leather torn/cracked/etc. Not like we've gone above and beyond in maintaining them, either.

It's true. My '05 A4 has the exact same peeling issue as the Jetta on the same spot as well. Also, my power window switch has chipped off at the tip of the switch. The interior seems premium, but my 10 year old Honda Accord had very little wear and my '04 Accord has no wear at all. Even the leather on the Accord is holding up better than the Audi.

my former car, a 2001 focus, had lost several button labels and had some flaking on the dash trim about 3-4 years after purchase. the light that illuminated the odometer also burnt out about 6 months after i bought it. car ran well though.

I haven't noticed this on either of my 2004 Golfs, but there is some fading on the arm rests where the elbow touches. Other then that, the interior quality has been stellar.

Like some of the other commenters, I've noticed plenty of problems with aging 'high percieved quality' interior materials in VWs. They like to use a rubberised plastic in a lot of cars that would get stained and scratched up badly as well.

My friend's '02 Passat has the same problems: looks and feels expensive when new, within a few years all of that "high quality" interior finish and button labels are peeling off. Throw in the monthly electrical and mechanical problems that arise (would need a whole lot of space to list), and needless to say, he will never buy another VW again, no matter how nice they look and feel when brand new. Too bad his lovely Passat has not held up nearly as well as my '01 Olds Intrigue. My interior may not have been as nice when new, but it looks as good as it did on day one, and runs that way, too.

"They are mostly cracked within a year."

That is BS. My old car was 6 years old and had no cracks in the leather. Didnt even have many bad wrinklers. The only portion of the interior that really showed wear was the dash under the windshield which developed ripples from intense sunlight. I saw this on other Aleros as well. Seats, console and door trim were solid.

This once again shows that material quality has nothing to do with build quality or durability. One day automotive journalists will get this- I hope. VW/Audi interiors look and feel great but that has nothing to do with durability.

WYH do you guys do in your cars? My god, between this and what you did to the Miata, I think you tie 6' long rebar all over your bodies and then have wrestling matches in your cars! I had a 1999.5 Golf that I put 150k miles on and gave to my girlfriend who still drives it, and it doesn't have one scratch or blemish in the interior anywhere...and while I had it I hauled all sorts of lumber, tile, gravel bags, etc in it.

govplan,

In spite of experiences like yours the media continues to attempt to link initial interior quality with build quality. The truth of the matter is that interior finishes or softness have nothing to do with build quality, cost of materials or durability. The auto media will tell us the Passat "must" be a much better car than a Sebring or Avenger because it has softer plastics and more shiny trim inside. reality is the Chrysler will probably be less problematic and durable over 5 years than the VW in spite of its hard plastics.

WTH..not WYH...How come no edit feature Edmunds?

1487-- funny you should mention Chrysler. My Dodge SRT-4 is 5.5 years old now and the interior is exactly as new, except for a tear in one of the side bolsters on the driver's seat that was scratched open by excessive sliding into the seat while having a knife clipped to my belt. Can't really blame Dodge for that, though.

Sorry mbtech, I gotta go with 1487 on this one. The leather in my 2000 Big 3 product is still in great shape. Normally, I don't like to use specific examples, but this is a wear-n-tear item so I think it has some credibility.

@Govplan

Funny you mention the Intrigue- mine definitely didn't hold up so great, as I dealt with low-grade leather drying out (especially in the back seats), buttons falling in to the dash, the dash vinyl warping (just about EVERYONE has, too... especially around the air bag and vent covers... just look on eBay Motors and you'll see this on every one for sale) , and numerous electrical problems as well (turn signals, brake lights, etc.)

BUT, agreeing with the "Lower quality but durable" argument, My friend's Escape may have a junky plastic interior but it's in the exact same condition as when it was purchased despite abuse.

It looks like there are a lot of similar comments, but we had a 2000 Bug that had the same problem - peeling from the armrest, and really bad on the door grabs (not sure if it's the same style as on the Jetta), basically anywhere you touched on a regular basis. Knobs, radio buttons, and steering wheel too. That started in 03 or so - about the same relative age as your Jetta.

mike:

warping of vinyl on dash in Intrigue seems common. I have experience with a '98 and that was the most significant interior issue. Panels, seats and armrests were in good condition last time I checked the car. Even if the Intrigue's interior did not wear well lets not forget that Vws are actually praised for superior build and material quality which makes the Jetta's lack of durability slightly more disheartening. GM's interiors have improved quite a bit since the Intrigue.

@Mike: Oh yeah, the Intrigues had it bad (and still not as good as what Nissan, Honda, or Toyota were putting out in terms of durability) , but they were still not as bad as bottom-of-the-barrel VW.

This is also a 2005 TDi, too... 3 years old. That will give you an idea of how sloppy VW's "German Engineering" really is. In fact, how are they still in business? Who buys this junk?

See that - there's something to be said for the hard plastics in some of GM's older vehicles - they may not look expensive, but they wear very well. The interior of my '99 Suburban with 175k miles still looks almost new condition. The only areas showing just a little wear is the leather at the edge of the front seat cushions where people slide their butts out to jump in and out of the truck, and the painted marks on the infamous GM cruise control/turn signal/wiper stalk are fading away from wear. Everything else is like new. No cracks in the dash, no wear marks, no peeling, no bumps, no blisters, or even fading. Everything works too - all the heated seats, the A/C, power lumbar, all the power windows, locks, and other gadgets, everything. Sure, VW's had tighter panel gaps and what looked like higher quality plastics in 1999, but I can guarantee you they didn't hold up as well as most of GM's interiors of the same vintage (with a few exceptions).

My '02 Corvette - same thing - everything looks new except for a slight bit of wear on the leather of the side seatback of the driver's seat. No squeeks or rattles either at 44k. And this was an interior constantly critized by automotive journalists for being "cheap."

Ideally, it would be great to have asthetics AND durability in automotive interiors. But given the choice, the higher quality interior is the one that still looks and functions like new 10 years and 200k miles later. Not the one that looks rich when new, but falls apart in 3 years. JMO.

My '01 Intrigue does have a slight pull upwards in the middle of the dash above the vents, maybe 2 mm. Hardly noticeable. Maybe because the car spends its days in the underground parking garage and out of the sun it has kept any dash warping to a minimum and the leather in fine shape. Otherwise, knock on hard plastic, the Olds has been very reliable and phyically looks like new.

My friend's VW Passat is still a nice looking car overall, sans the interior finishes/buttons peeling off and the numerous electrical and mechanical issues. He still is leaning towards another European model (probably BMW) for his next car. I know it would be hard not to enjoy one of those. Hope he has better luck next time.

I guess I have been very fortunate that the domestic vehicles I have owned over the past 18 years (5 of them total)have not given me any significant problems.