As a small business owner myself, I find it a recurring theme that large companies simply do not care... If you're big enough that people consider you the 'go-to' or top-rated business in your field you can afford to piss off your customers because you are the king. I'm in online marketing and I see this happening frequently... In the early 2000's Google was king, they wouldn't care about their customers that much because they knew they were king. Fast forward to 2020 and now they call you and almost beg for your business if you own a reputable e-commerce store. Because now Facebook is the new king, and they have the same attitude towards their advertisers that google had in the early 2000's, they simply don't care if you stay or go because they are the new king. They know their advertising product is best in class, it runs circles around Google's advertising product. Sadly, Ferrari won't get their act together until it's too late and they are no longer king anymore, but who knows if that would ever happen... Look how Ferrari treats their customers currently with their 7-year "free" maintenance program that now doesn't even allow for annual oil changes. When I bought my car I expected free oil changes for 7 years, but they took that away after the first service. Having 7 years of free service was actually one of the deciding factors for me in choosing a 488 over the 720s. Now when I take my car in for service the dealer scans my car and tells me Ferrari won't pay for my oil change, but I should pay them instead because I do need it. I couldn't imagine a small business pulling a stunt like that. For now, we'll have to deal with sticky buttons until a new king can finally emerge. But rest assured that new king will most likely treat their customers like crap because they know they are the best. Long live the king...
My theory is that no changes are made because to Ferrari, it’s a non-problem because it takes long enough to occur that it’s well past time they have to fix it under warranty. Like many other parts that only fail after they are no longer covering them. This is exacerbated by many owners not putting many miles on their cars, so an item that might fail within 11,000 miles escapes warranty replacement; that could be five plus years after new. Sent from my iPad using FerrariChat
Absolutely spot on. I fully agree. I see it in my trade too. Once you have a good reputation, after a while nobody holds your feet to the fire and just seem to simply stop looking at the quality of work or the results. I think it's a matter of most feeling like buying this car instead of that one is only a matter of trading one set of issues for another. It's the overwhelming feeling that being mistreated, not appreciated, or taken advantage of is just the way it is anymore. There was a thread here some time ago about the issues with paint on folks' new Ferraris being delivered from Italy. The consensus was that most dealers were unapologetic and were happy to have the car "paint corrected" at the customer's expense and that the dealers were basically unfazed by the customers' outrage and dissatisfaction --- Customers who just spent high six figures on a new Ferrari. I don't get it. If "pride goeth before the fall" what does customer indifference eventually bring.
Im hoping it wont happen to my 488GTB but if it does I will be throwing consumer law standing at them. Our consumer law in Australia ignores warrantee . An item has to be fit for purpose even after warrantee has expired. And especially if there is a well documented issue that has not been resolved ( like sticky buttons, battery ) they have to fix it.
Its not a coincidence that the car has changed hands maybe a couple times before it happens so the stuck-e didin't pay full boat for the car like original owner. Flippers have some responsibility here as well.
This has been an interesting thread and is making me wary of dipping in and getting the car of my dreams, which I can now finally afford. I have a couple of questions for UK owners, where luckily heat and humidity aren't much of a problem. Is it an issue here, and what's the typical time frame for this to start to happen? And then, thinking ahead for when it does happen, is there. a recommended refinished?
While environmental factors may be at play (higher temps, humidity, etc), don't discount the actual individual who owned the car. Did the person use a chemical to clean the interior? Maybe the person sweats profusely. I imagine even the variance between people's oils might contribute. I wouldn't let something like this deter you from picking up the car of your dreams. I was in the same boat last year where I had been dreaming of a Ferrari for 20+ years and finally pulled the trigger on a '15 Speciale. Does it suck that my car has sticky buttons? You bet. I recently ordered new turn signal switches from scuderiacarparts for $290 for the pair as a quick swap since those are the things you touch the most and is most off-putting when driving the car. I'll figure out what I want to do with the rest of the buttons down the road.
We can certyainly help with all your sticky interior needs - Just send us an email. [email protected]
I now have the dreaded sticky buttons. Its not so much the cost of refinishing but the cost for a Ferrari tech to disassemble the car. I've worked on cars all my life, but disassembling this car definitely gives me pause. Breaking a part could cost more to replace than having the work done at the dealership. Not many online videos to see any "gotchas" I would like to order new turn signal indicators but unsure on how to get the old ones out. Any pointers??
YES! There is a real fix...and I refuse to even talk about those guys who charge 10K for what is NOT a soft touch finish. The process requires patience, and I had to learn that virtue the hard way on this project. If you've never removed the sticky subassemblies and/or disassembled them, seek the assistance of someone who has. There are posts and videos that will help you too. I'm going to focus on what happens next...individual components in hand. Denatured Alcohol is the only solvent you should even consider. Anything less, simply doesn't work. More importantly, anything hotter is going to do more damage than good. PLEASE do not even let a Goof Off can in the room! The smaller printed switches (HVAC controls, overhead switches, multi-function buttons) will clean up relatively easily, because they are only carrying a thin clear matte coat. But those printed areas require a very delicate touch. They are essentially decals overlayed on translucent plastic substrates. You destroy that overlayed lettering, you've ruined the part. The larger black surfaces, most famously the steering column cover, will take a bit more scrubbing. Employing a Scotchbrite pad with the Denatured Alcohol, is essential to maintaining your sanity. Don't panic that all the "black" parts aren't the same shade of black...or have the same gloss. The good folks who built your Ferrari didn't, they just sprayed that matte soft touch clearcoat on everything to make them match...and that's how we got here in the first place. But I digress... Once you've done all that cleaning, you no longer have a sticky problem...you have instead a very cheap looking bunch of very expensive parts. SO how do you replace the look and (more important) the feel of the factory new interior? On the surface (no punn intended) all you should have to do is spray on a new soft touch clear coat. That, however, is easier said than done. You see, the chemistry that created such coatings is fussy, and the sales volume potential low. Very few companies have bothered to R&D the product, and those that have are charging $500-$1500 for a quart of the stuff. That's the minimum kit size, and is way more than any one owner will ever need. This makes for very expensive experimentation! May as well call the 10K guys. The obvious alternative is a quick (not too wet) spraying of any matte finish: lacquer (nail polish) or PU automotive clear coat. With everything disassembled, this is within most enthusiast's skill set. I've done several sets of switches this way and they look just fine. But they really don't feel like the real thing...actually they feel exactly like what that 10K bunch are delivering. I guess the good news is that you're finished for less than a C note. You may be delighted with this solution, there is no shame in that. Just do it and move on. Still after all that work diassembling and cleaning, I was still missing that feel thing... It took several months of dead ended searchs, but I did finally find an affordable soft touch clear coat that really sticks to the parts and not to your hands. I've just sprayed my first set of parts. Their subassemblies are back together, and I'm reinstalling them into my Cali as we speak. They look and feel just right. The next step is to drive with them a while and see how they weather the rigors of real life. If you've read this far, and are interested in the outcome, please let me know. If it works anywhere as good as it should, we might just repackage the stuff into single use kits that you or your local airbrush guys could spray. This could well be the final solution to restoring the factory look and feel to so many Ferraris out there. I'm hoping so.
My opinion after having experience doing tens of thousands of parts over 14 years, there is lots of bad advice here. This may work in your one car application, but not even knowing what the long term effects may be should give you pause.
Here's a quick video of my experience fixing this issue on my 458 Italia. Removal: denatured alcohol + MF cloth Resurface: Mr Hobby Premium Flat TopCoat
This is the best DIY solution I've seen yet. Thanks for sharing. Did you remove any of the buttons or just mask everything off? I'm not sure I'll be able to get a good angle to spray certain areas. Also curious if you did the piece that wraps around the tachometer, or the rear view mirror...
Thanks for the feedback. I left the upper dashboard controls (media & car status) in place because I didn’t want to pull apart the entire dash. I did remove the mirror controls, gear selector and trunk/fuel filler opener for better cleaning and coating. Those were all easy to remove. My tach surround wasn’t sticky at all so I left that in place. I do think that would need to be removed to get an even coating all the way around. Similarly, my overhead controls were also fine, but I believe that panel is also relatively easy to remove. Hope that helps.
This looks like Ferrari blaming its customers. I’ve never used any cleaning product inside and I have sticky buttons. It’s the heat/humidity in my opinion. Ferrari should have stopped this years ago. I’ll never buy another Ferrari until they stop this nonsense. $300k+ cars shouldn’t have this problem for decades. They had every opportunity to fix this a long time ago. They’ve known about it and were plain lazy.
UK-based 355 owner here. My 1997 car went sticky at 17 years old. It happened almost overnight. For some reason the round buttons that require laser etching to get the graphics right didn't go sticky - and still haven't. I DIY'd everything else by removing the parts and stripping the sticky stuff using electrical contact cleaner (it's just alcohol in an aerosol), then priming and finishing with black bumper paint. The finish is excellent, even if I say so myself. My missus made some replacement decals for the air vents on her Cricut. Nothing else needed decals; the toggle switch graphics were all in good condition. Dave's work at Sticky RX is obviously of great quality; you can see that from the photos and feedback on here. I haven't used him for de-stickying, but I have a set of his bumper protector plates and you can just tell he pays attention to details. If you don't want to send your parts across the pond, Roland at "Sticky Plastics" has a good rep in the UK.
Yes totally agree. My buttons are not sticky but I can tell the silky rubber finish is starting to feel more like soft rubber and slightly tacky. I cringe about taking the dash, doors apart to get the buttons off. I worry putting everything back together would create rattles everywhere.
That's the best DIY i've ever seen. With the buttons left in place while spraying it, there was no issue with tackiness or problems with the functions of the buttons? I would think the topcoat would work it's way into the gaps.
Thats exactly what is gonna happen, whatever cleaner was used, the residual of that has now seeped down into the cracks and surrounds, eventually the buttons will start sticking and will not be useable, I have seen it 100 times. I have even seen it seep down into the electronics and short them out
It seems a new easy DIY solution was found: The Best DIY Sticky Button Fix on a Ferrari 458 Italia - YouTube
