2003 W203 turning yellow !?*&%

[ddentrec]

My wife's 2003 C-Class estate has had problems with the light grey interior plastic trim apparently changing colour!

We had several small items of interior plastic trim replaced under warranty as they were turning from pale grey to grey + light yellow. Note that this is very slight shade shift but it is certainly noticeable. 'Must be the effects of sunlight' said the dealer..

However, now I have noticed that the front door panels are also turning ever so slightly yellowy/gray: dashboard is still the normal grey however. But with the doors shut it is obvious that the door panels are changing shade.

Has anyone else seen this???

 

[190surgen]

it seems a well known fact that its cheap materials that is used Its utter Sh***

 

[nicky]

mercs are not made the way the used to be made,after all it is made by Crysler and that says it all...

 

[paulcallender]

Since not even cheap manufacturers' cars trim changes colour like this, I can only assume it was a faulty batch. The colour dye is added to the base plastic before the moulding stage and would have included a stabiliser. I can only assume that they got the dye composition wrong, at the time.

Trim is the first thing to become unavailable, as a car gets older. So, you might want to replace the entire interior of the car, before the parts are no longer stocked.

Classic car restorers typically use extensive plastic welding, then texturing/colouring techniques to repair unavailable trim.

 

[SLinKyjoe]

as this is a 2 or 3 year old car, it is totally unacceptable to have colour fade.

go to you dealer and demand he does something about it. but first go to another dealer and ask there advice. any car with that age should not fade noticably to the eye.

Nicky, I think you will find the Merc c class estates are hammered together in Germany. and, if you take a peek inside the latest Chryslers, you will notice a distinct improvement in trim quality since the Daimler takeover, sorry, merger.

 

[jberks]

I have to second that. I drove a couple of big Chryslers in the US this year and have had a jeep fro the past couple of years. I have to say that the build quality is far superior to what I expected. Admittedly not to MB standards but way better than they used to be. Some of the switchgear is straight out of the Merc too.
If the door cards don't match the dash, I would agree that its grounds for a full trim replacement under warranty.