A week shy of having the car for a month and these little issues are really annoying.

First off, absolutely love the car! Great power, I am getting 19mpg in city driving, and so glad I didn't go the AWD route. RWD is just too much fun.

With that said, take a look at these photos, and you will see what needs fixing:




Clearly, the previous owner was a female as her rings did some damage around the wheel. Also, all the writing is faded off. Otherwise, the car is in excellent condition.

Thankfully, next weekend the windows get tinted.

 

If it really bothers you, you can get the trim wrapped in whatever color you want or go the carbon overlay route.

 

You can also buy the trim and replace it yourself. There's a DIY in the DIY section of the forum.

 

It's only AWD if you need it ..... it's RWD 99.99999% of the time. It's not a Subaru.

 

seriously? I thought the AWD was full time. Figures...

I will check into the DIY forum to see about getting the trim and switches replaced. The prices are not bad but the labor around the air bag always worries a newbie.

Thanks for the replies guys!

 

Mine did the same the same thing and I just replaced the trim piece. It's a VERY easy DIY, took me less than 30 minutes.

Don't worry about the airbag. While they can be dangerous they are not as delicate as eggshells. Just be sure to replace the torx bolts with new ones.

 

There's a trim piece in the for sale section FYI...

 

Mine did the same thing. It's almost a cheap plastidip coating on that bezel. I took it to the dealership and complained about it and the leather showing a lot of wear. They replaced the whole damn steering wheel under the factory warranty. LOL They ate the cost of a $1200 steering wheel!

 

For the 2008 and I think 2009 this was a defect in the paint/process used on the wheel. Its covered under warranty although at this point I doubt whether any dealer is going to do warranty work on a 2008. I had my steering wheel, shift **** and door pulls replaced under warranty before I even took possession of the car. As you can tell from the responses, its a known (common) problem

 

Guess you didn't do your homework ... AWD does add some weight (and wheel gap) so I guess in theory a AWD is fractionaly slower than a RWD.

 

My dealer did the same thing. After the warranty had expired. They said it was because I'm loyal. I always get my oil changes there. Really happy about this!

 

cheap to fix - but for the most part, dealers will swap out under warranty.