I have no clue why, but the metal piece around my shifter is all scratched up. Car only has 20,000 KMS and I'm always cautious in it, and I don't really do anything that would cause such amount of scratching. Are the shifter plates prone to this after regular wear and tear? My buddies S also has similiar scratches around his shifter. I love my interior so much, but this is the one ugly thing about it. Everytime someone gets in my car I get compliments on how nice it is, then they see the shift plate, are like, what the hell is all that from? It really takes away from the beautiful interior of the S. Anyways, does anyone else have this problem? If so, did you re-finish it? And if you did, what did you use?
Are there aftermarket plates I can get that will not be prone to scratching?
Here are a couple pics of what I'm talking about.

 

Do you wear a watch or cufflinks?

Or pinky ring?

 

I do wear a watch, but on my left hand.

 

Who cares *how* it happened. Its enough to say that there is simply a light tint-type coating over the shifter. Do yourself a favor, pull the piece free of the leather boot (you'll need to first pop the entire plastic console cover free @ about 6 points) pressing it up and out from underneath of the console cover. Then gently scrub it with an SOS Brillo pad for all of...oh...a minute. You'll remove all the tint coating and expose a chrome-ish plastic base that will match your floor pedals for color/tone & be impervious to similar scratches in the future. Fun little mod and really sparks up the console once everything is put back together again

- Dave

 

You don't need the brillo pad, rubbing alcohol removes the tint.

 

Sounds like a cool idea, do you think you could post up some pics of your console?

 

It's an idiot free job ... Just remove the shift knob, then remove the centre console. Alcohol, nail polisher remover etc and some cotton wool. Slowly rub and you'd see the paint coating disintegrate showing a shiny smooth chrome shifter surround.

 

awsome, thanks!

 

Was driving today and have a thought: Do you wear a jacket with metal snaps on the cuffs? When I rested my hand off the shift knob, I could feel the snaps rubbing against the console... just one more reason to hate driving with a coat on!

 

my 01 has the exact same kind of scratches..the rubbing alcohol is a good idea..can't you just rub it on with it on the car?..it doesnt seem like you really have to take the shifter and all off...