As a Ferrari owner, I was unaware this was a thing, until some of the buttons and air vents on my 2003 Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale started getting a sticky when touching them. Arghhhhhh. Very frustrating.  Now anyone with a car that they cherish, or love will be with me on this. For me this was an aspiration to be able to buy and own an iconic Ferrari. Do you want your car to be in immaculate condition at all times? For me as a perfectionist I’m never comfortable if any car that I own is not in tiptop perfect condition.

So like most people I looked up online. Was this normal? What were the options? Could I try and sort it out myself? This seems to be a thing for Ferraris and the fact it’s taken 21 years before my car started to see them visually and to the touch deteriorate, I suppose, if I look on the bright and positive side, I am lucky. There were various recommendations online and on the supercar WhatsApp groups I am a member.

No I am at the end of the process and now have my car back, I think I was a little naive (it happens to us all) and stupid now comes to mind, however, hindsight (as they say) is a wonderful thing. So I thought I would offer my thoughts and experience here, to help any other Ferrari owners that may get the similar situation. Does this happen with other cars or just Ferrari? I have cars from the 1970s and the buttons in those cars are fine. Does Ferrari do this on purpose to make more money from selling parts or servicing? What do you think?

So fixing the Ferrari sticky buttons

First off I tried nail varnish remover.  DON’T DO THAT. What actually happened is a stickiness didn’t actually change all that happened was the decals were removed from the plastic. I only tried this (luckily) on one for the circular air vents (drivers side).  Arghhhhhh.  I was now was now very annoyed at myself, and very concerned.  I continue to read, looked at forums (I am a member of the Drivers Union) and tried to glean more ideas, what would work? What would work without question? I then concluded from some of the research that I was doing that Guitar String Oil was indicated would work, so my second attempt I tried this. DON’T DO THAT EITHER.

So trying to do it myself. Trying to save money. Absolute made a pigs ear of it and my advice is if you have a cherished car that a Ferrari or any other expensive car that you love and cherish, let a specialist do it. Less stress and anxiety, save yourself the time, but it will cost you.

So, I had decided I would let somebody else do it, and started making phone calls.

My car is always serviced by Meridien Modena down in Lyndhurst, in the New Forest, Hampshire (UK), as that’s where I bought the car from in 2008, just before the UKs financial crisis. Great timing as always Will. Anyway, I have always trusted Meridien to get the car looked after and in tip top condition, as they would any car they would sell. Meridien had the car in for a service and MOT in early June 2024. On speaking to Meridien about stickiness problem they indicated and eye watering price, and I quote them (MM) “For the sticky buttons; just air vents refurbishment cost is £1148.00 including VAT. However, all other parts started sticky as well. If you’d like to refurbishment for every part, the cost will be £5,300.00 including VAT.” I’m sure that you can imagine I was a little gobsmacked. I bought my Abarth 595 for roughly that amount. I responded to Meridien (WW) “This is ridiculous pricing.  I am a member of a supercar club and quotes I’ve heard about are £1000-2000.  You outsource it to Sticky plastics or Carplastx so I am told.” A few days passed, and the response I got from Meridien was “I am really sorry about this. However, we have quoted the ‘Rolls Royce’ level of intervention, which the same level that we use to prep our sales cars to make the trims like new. They have a similar look and feel to the original adding laser etched decals to replicate the original finish. There are cheaper alternatives, where they do not remove the trims and just wipe them down or just paint them black.“

This is how the correspondence then went:

WW = “I want the car back as new as I always have done, but as I said I am not available today and need to call other companies, as I am being told by other seasoned Ferrari owners that companies do a great job for half the price you have quoted.  Most people on the planet would say £5k to clean some buttons is extortionate.”

MM = “I am sorry we are not at liberty to disclose who we use to carry out this service on our behalf, however I can provide you with more information which will make the pricing clearer to understand.

For sure this is an expensive service however it’s the best quality you will see by a country mile! Ferrari chat rooms are full of people saying that they can get this service completed for half the price but for sure people have different levels of expectations and in some cases accept a lower level of service but then champion it as a top-level service when its clearly not!

I know the service we provide is the best and is that our clients expect from us.

The service incudes the labour to remove and refit all the trims from the vehicle apart from the heater vent strips along the top of the dash as this would mean a full dash removal!

Once the parts are removed, they are boxed up and dispatched! The sticky coating is removed, and any repairs executed using 3D printed components, refinishing all parts with a black coating before laser etching any decals.

The Labour to remove and refit all trims (apart from dash vents) totals £870.00 Inc Vat

The refinishing costs including courier costs £4,430.00 Inc VAT

The service usually takes between 4 and 6 weeks to complete

Bill if you would like to use and alternative company who is offering to refinish the parts a lot cheaper then, we are more than happy to remove and refit the parts for you.”

WW = “I hear what you are saying, but that does not distract from the fact that £5000 for tidying up some sticky buttons is extortionate.  Even if this is a premier service, it’s just buttons.

I am calling your competitors today and tomorrow and will come back to you.

I’m not liaising with Muppets, who have given me their view on prices for their cars that they have had done.  I’m a member of this super club Drivers Union and all of those people are very knowledgeable and we certainly help each other with reviews, feedback and advice.

It’s probably a good chance for me to reach out to your competition as maybe I should start getting my car serviced by a different company just for a change.  I’m not saying you’re taking my custom for granted, but I’m absolutely gobsmacked with the excessive cost compared to others.

Thank you very much.”

At this point I started calling around. As I advise anybody to do, it’s always good to shop around and get a few more quotes, get some more advice.  I wanted to do this also.  I spoke to two other companies that I was referred to, the issues that I had with these other companies was one timescale to get fixed, it seemed to be months, and I was getting no assurances that this would fix the problem permanently.  One of the companies that I spoke to was Autofficina, a Ferrari specialist based in Epsom, Surrey (UK). They said they could fix it, but they wanted me to take all of the parts out, which I’m never going to do. They could do that also, but didn’t have time in the next couple of months to do it. Although the cost was nearer to £3500, I was just not comfortable with the fact that they stated they could get the buttons back to how they were from factory, but the problem would come back again in 15 to 20 years.  That may not be a problem for some people, but with my personality, it would eat away at me in the background, because I want the car to be perfect, and I’m pretty certain my car would be one of the best looked after Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale in the UK, and also when it does come time to sell, I want to be able to look the person in the face and tell them this is as perfect a Ferrari 360 CS as you are going to get. Autofficina also stated they could fit original parts, but those parts, although new, will have been sitting on Ferrari shelves since 2003 (or therabouts) an in time will sucum to the same stickiness issue. So that was a non-starter for me. Autofficina also stated what they would do, “get the buttons back to how they were from factory” would mean that in 20 odd years I will have the same problem.

I also spoke to Sticky Plastics, in Birmingham, West Midlands (UK). Again they were very busy, stated they wanted me to remove parts from the car (which I am just not prepared to do, no have time to do). From memory that also could not do the decals. So for me what I was hearing was not the best job that I could do for the car.

So as painfully as it was to make this decision, I decided to entrust Meridien with the work whilst the car was in for its yearly service anyway.  Meridien also stated the work that they would do would ensure that the buttons wouldn’t have to be done ever again and it’s what they would do if they were preparing the car for a sale. That’s piece of mind for me and although the financial cost is painful, it’s only money, and overtime you forget the money that you have spent and you enjoy the car/asset that you have.

So all plastics would be removed apart from the vents near the front windscreen, as do do them would require a complete dismantling of the dashboard. I was fine with that. They were all good anyway.

On giving the go ahead to Meridien I was told the price they had quoted me was a mistake and that they had forgotten the labour costs for part removal, but that they would honour the original quote.

I received the car back late July. All stickiness gone and very happy with the end result. As I said earlier in the article, as painful as a cost as it was, having a car in perfect order is peace of mind that I want. Very happy, and as a bonus the final cost was lower than quoted, coming in at £3955.51 + VAT

If you’ve come across this article and you have sticky buttons in your car as well. We’d love to hear how you went about fixing it, and I’m sure there are lots of people looking for advice and guidance similar to how I was when it happened to me.

Have the same/ similar problem, well then you’ll have to make your own decision on this. What are you comfortable doing? If you have a Ferrari at the lower price point maybe you will want to do yourself, if you have a higher end or concours Ferrari then find an expert.

These videos below and their content are not recommended by me, however, there are quite a few videos out there. Here are some I came across that you may want to watch to make up you mind on what you want to do:

Fixing Sticky Buttons with Alcohol & Spray Paint?!

Want to have a go yourself then check out what Ratarossa say (below), or contact them, maybe they will help you do it.

I also came across this company carplastix now when putting this article together, and this video (below):

AI cannot comment on carplastix and the quality of the work. But if you have used them, let us know what you think in the comments below. Let us know your car, what you had done, the costs and your feelings on the results.

We’d love to hear from you. If you can add value to this article, whether you have had the same issue and what you did to fix the problem, or you are a car specialist/ company and can fix the problem, let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading. See you around.

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