I got in my car this afternoon and noticed what looks like cracks in the silver door trim. I had noticed it in a couple places before, but they were barely noticable. I am almost positive it didn't look like this yesterday. The drivers door is the worst. Now they are pretty much all along the bends in the plastic on the bottom half of the door oval. The passengers door only has it in a couple places but it is very noticable. It seems to be down in the plastic because you can't feel them with your finger. The car is less than 3 months old. I'm assuming the dealer will replace it under warranty, but I'm wondering if it will keep doing this. Has anyone else seen anything like this?

 

looks like the place most people hit their feet when you get out of the car. i dont know if the dealer will replace it if its normal wear and tear on the car.


does that mean the dealer would replace a seat cover because it was starting to wear from sitting in it?

 

It is along the entire piece, including the top piece which isn't likely to get hit when getting out of the car. The car is less than 3 months old so I feel it is awfully soon to be having wear and tear issues. I've also heard of dealers replacing the down tubes and door handles under warranty because of the paint scratching off. That is why I thought they might replace this. I've just never seen this before.

 

all the matte silver in the car scratches very easily, but that glossy silver shouldnt. i'm not sure what might have caused that, perhaps bad prep before it was painted.....

 

I've never seen that either.....but my recommendation is to take it to the dealer. They'll have to document a failure in order to proceed with the warranty repair/replacement. Don't mess with it too much....especially if your tinkering will impair the dealer's ability to make this documentation.

I had paint failure (silver, non-clearcoated paint went soft for some reason) on both downtubes and both interior door pulls. Everything was replaced w/o question under warranty...in fact replacing the door trim involved replacing the entire door panel assembly!!! I did have to take it in to the dealer for evaluation though.

Good luck!!

 

Actually, I noticed a spot on my door a few weeks back, and when I showed it to my dealership, they offered to replace it no questions asked. I, too, couldn't feel a surface crack with a fingernail. My spot was along the top edge making me wonder if a snap from my jacket could have scuffed it, but I think it's from the inside out, not the other way around.

As for replacing the unit, the dealership had to order the part from Germany since there were none in the USA. It came in last week, and I have an appointment to have the panel replaced under warranty.

 

hm... i brought up the issue with my dealer once and he says they cant cover that as they say its wear and tear.... mine is in the matte silver part, near the arm rest in the door, and the grab bar especially...

 

Unfortunately, the "White Silver" interior trim is still JUNK in terms of durability. We experienced this in our '02 Cooper.

Based on the negative experiences with Silver Trim, I went with Anthracite in my first '04 MCS and now again in my '05 MCS. Have never looked back

Antharcite is 1000 times more durable and scratch resistant than Silver, not to mention it looks much classier and ads "ambience" to the cabin.

In the '04 MCS, the Anthracite trim still looked showroom fresh after 16 months of use.

It seems the matte painted Antharcite surfaces feature a much higher quality paint that is scratch resistant and not as soft as the Silver trim flat paint.

Whatever you do, stay away from Silver!

 

Thank you for the feedback. I'm going to try to get it into the dealer some time to have them take a look at it. Hopefully they will replace it under warranty. I'll keep you posted on what they say.

 

I had my driver's side door panel replaced under warranty because all of the silver paint had worn off from where I grab the bar to pull the door closed. This was after 2.5 years of owning the car, and was certainly due to regular wear and tear (the material is just total CRAP), so I was suprised that it was covered. In your case, the door trim is clearly faulty in addition to being crap to begin with, so you should really press for replacement. Any legitimate dealer won't give you a problem.

Mine also had to be ordered and took a couple of weeks to come in. The armrest padding piece still hasn't come in.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!
Chris

 

People hit their feet on the speaker surround, but not where you indicate. No way it rubbed off in those spots from wear and tear. They should replace all the trim affected.

I had some minor pit marks on my MCS gas cover, and they replaced it at 18 months because I asked. Good luck!

regards,
Red

 

Don't want to say that some don't have troubles with the trim,but mine looks like new.50K miles within a couple of weeks.

 

Tarzan,

Could you tell us which dealer replaced this for you and the date? It would really help to get some uniformity of warranty coverage going .

Thanks

 

Actually, the door panel trim is manufactured in the UK. I don't remember the name of the vendor that manufactures it for MINI, but I have seen the insides of these trim panels and the engravings have as point of manufacture Great Britain. Perhaps they stock 'em in Germany...

 

Hendrick MINI, in Charlotte NC.
My car is a 11/04 build 05 MCS.

 

I had this exact problem on my 05 as well. The dealer replaced it under warranty and the part had to be ordered. It took about two weeks to come in.

 

Anthracite = durability and great looks.

 

I picked up my new 2005 MCS on 6/4/2005 and noticed the same scratches on upper and lower panels (Silver) of both doors within a few hours. This is not normal wear and tear. Dealer (Hendrick MINI) ordered 2 new door panels and maybe this will work.

Has anyone had SILVER that did NOT CRACK. Or am I going to be going through a bunch of door panels?

 

I've had the silver trim since 01/03 & haven't had a single problem with it. It seems I've had problems most everywhere else, but not with the interior trim. My Spacecloth is beginning to show a little wear on the driver's seat, though...

 

I'm not alone in this, this is happening on both my doors, at first I thought it was since I had a convertible the heat was cracking it. When I go in for my 10k mile check up I'll let someone know.


Howard

 

This problem is somewhat common, apparently in silver finish.

It is a warranty replacement situation. You can PM shooler about it, as he has had his replaced already and he has an 05.

 

I've had my car a month and I have this on my driver's door. I assumed I had scratched it at some point, now I'll have to show it to the dealer.

 

Hi, I have the same problem. But I just called up my dealer and brought it in to get it looked at 'cuz i also have mine on all 3 dash board panels..but if u run your fhand across it and you can feel the cracks then, they will replace the piece cuz its cracking of the clear coat. But if you dont then i guess its just stress cracks that is inside of it from feet or it being hit (my dealer wouldnt cover that). I have both but i still have to get both doors and 3 panels re-done... consider talking to your dealer hopes this helps!

 

i have the Antharcite trim and mine is cracking just like that too. so it is not just the silver. mine looks just the same but it is cracking UNDER the clearcoast plastic finish. so it is not chipping off or anything. it just has the appearance of little cracks like small little spider webs everywhere.

 

Zero problems with my anthracite trim door panels.