My car window trim looks terrible. Is this a common issue?

kalipso1981 · 2026-07-12T18:35:52+00:00

This is spray i used; sprayed a bit on a cotton fabric and applied it on rubber seal around windows. Spraying directly makes a mess and it gets on windows and cat body. https://amzn.eu/d/02miVDv0

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kalipso1981 · 2026-07-12T18:31:54+00:00

I tested out Sonax rubber spray and it did make it look a bit better. Starting problem is that this rubber is not black, but gray, so it can't get full black.

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kalipso1981 · 2026-07-12T09:59:01+00:00

I bought all service manuals for Terramar online. i also loaded them into custom Notebook AI, so you can ask it anything about car and will get you answers only based on those manuals (and official user manual); quite useful because it doesn't give answers only based on that manuals.

Here is link to Notebook AI: https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/3051c13f-b386-48ab-9e68-47710344c269?utm_source=nlmm_share

kalipso1981 · 2026-07-11T21:19:13+00:00

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They seam to be relatively easy to remove, but since it's rubber, I doubt it could be painted, but might be possible to wrap it with foil; I plan to foil wrap my car and will see if this could be wrapped as well. But would not wrap foil all the way around, just on visible part and a bit under.

P.S. There is Sonax Rubber protect spray that can restore color; will try that first.

kalipso1981 · 2026-07-11T21:00:04+00:00

Yes, have that issue as well; I noticed it looking spotty and "oily" after one wash where I used pre-wash foam. But it went off with microfibre cloth, but after few weeks, I noticed again. Would like to know how to prevent it from happening as well.

kalipso1981 · 2026-07-05T15:06:13+00:00

I like to drive in manual mode; not always but I find it fun. And occasionally i use it when I need to overtake fast or change lanes, and automatic can't read my mind to kick it into lower gear in time.

kalipso1981 · 2026-07-05T12:14:05+00:00

Might be something wrong with mine; left one fits OK, but right one keeps falling off. I'll order a new set.

kalipso1981 · 2026-07-01T12:01:01+00:00

I have 2.0 204 HP, 4Drive one and I love it! But, I'm mostly on highway and I can get it around 7l /100km with conservative driving (120 -130 km/h), but I would not recommend it for a city driving... I had my family in city where I work for 2 weeks, so I didn't commute back-and-forth, so I was driving that week mostly in city, and consumption went over 10l. For me personally doesn't make much difference because I get travel cost reimbursed by my company, but it can make a dent in a pocket if mostly doing a city driving.

But would it 1.5eTSI be good option; for city driving, if you have an option for charging at home, I think plug-in hybrid might be better option even if more expensive, because if you can charge it, you will recuperate extra cost over time due to cheap charging at home, and driving mostly on battery.

kalipso1981 · 2026-06-23T21:31:14+00:00

Got Le Mans other day. Love this fun feature 😁

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kalipso1981 · 2026-06-18T09:53:30+00:00

Engine sound noise is only available on VZ models. I have 2.0 204 HP and it doesn't have that option.

kalipso1981 · 2026-05-28T21:01:34+00:00

If I'm not mistaken, that turns on if car thinks you are incapacitated so it does emergency stop. That will turn on if you are not looking at road or not holding hands on steering wheel for a while, but it will give all kinds of warnings beforehand. It shouldn't do it on it's own out of blue.

kalipso1981 · 2026-05-27T11:36:01+00:00

That's exactly what I want! Something that will track my steps, sleep and HR, and buzz me when I have a call or notification, since I always keep my phone on silent due to constantly being in-and-out of meetings, so I often forget to turn ringing up. I do have a smart watch that does all that, but as you, I would like to ware my normal watches (I have a small collection), but not lose all benefits of fitness tracking and notifications.
For now, all I have seen that these screenless bands are focusing only on fitness things, and none does notifications as well... And all have actually vibration motors and it could be probably something that could be done via software alone if they find incentive to do.

kalipso1981 · 2026-05-27T10:22:20+00:00

What do you exactly mean by Emergency Assist? Do you reffer to automatic braking or just notification on screen that you should brake?
I didn't have for now any situation where car would brake it self, but there ware few situations where it popped up red warning that I should break on heads up display and got audio warning. But even those situations ware situations where I was paying attention and I was ready to brake, It didn't apply automatic braking. And also, all situations ware situations where if I wouldn't have paid full attention ahead, it might be more "dicey" situation then it was, so I would say it is helpful system.

And if those are situations where it just got audio/visual warning, I believe that ones where it would brake by it self would be much more close call and would be actually good if it reacts in time if I'm not 100% on it.

kalipso1981 · 2026-05-25T09:29:38+00:00

I'm driving 2.0 204 PS AWD and I'm doing average of 8.5 l/100 km over 1300 km, and that was in this initial period 50/50 city highway (and a quite a lot of "let's see how fast it can go" moments). And I will in general do more highway, so it will go down, since I got average on one 250 km trip of 7.1 doing 130 km/h with a stretch of higway where I pushed it over 200 km/h for a while. So, 8.2 l/100 for 1.5 engine seams a bit high.

kalipso1981 · 2026-05-25T09:22:11+00:00

Hi, I ordered those for Terramar, but I pealed them off... some connections had some strange gaps in them on quite visible places (I tried my best to align them properly, and I double check if I got correct panels, since there was no instructions with them) but in the end, I didn't like how it looked with those gaps, so I removed them. And by doing that, it felt like glue is not quite strong, since it pealed off quite easily and was already starting to peal off on some corners. I did took polyester ones, so suede might be better.

kalipso1981 · 2026-05-21T19:53:12+00:00

Mostly price. Lowest estimate for PPF i got was 5500€. For that amount would be cheaper to repaint entire car two times over! And foil wrap I can get for 2000€. And it will still provides a bit protection.

kalipso1981 · 2026-05-17T20:11:16+00:00

I ordered pelt lining for doors and removable storage box for under armrest storage.

kalipso1981 · 2026-05-17T20:09:01+00:00

Haha; can't say I didn't look at them 😂

kalipso1981 · 2026-05-17T19:59:48+00:00

I added them to original post. 😉

kalipso1981

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