I have been searching for an f-type to park next to the f-pace svr. I have noted several examples of relatively low mileage cars where the various interior buttons are just wrecked. The start/stop button seems to take a particularly hard beating. Here is one at carmax with 24k.

Used 2014 Jaguar F-Type in Tampa, Florida | CarMax

And I have seen this on many low mileage F-types. Is there something going on with defective plastic?

I saw one with 60,000 that looked brand new including the buttons, so is there a year where the buttons are particularly vulnerable?

 

The soft touch coat on the buttons decomposes and gets sticky. The new replacement buttons seem to have a hard clear coat on them. At least on the buttons I replaced in my car do.

 

It's not the plastic, it's the coating that is applied. I don't think anyone knows for sure the "exact" cause. However, this does seem to happen to cars which are located in states that are warm/hot most the year. Personally, I think it's a combination of heat, humidity and lotions. I've noticed my steering wheel can get sticky depending on how recently I had just applied lotion (whether just hand lotion or sun lotion).

In short, it's an easy fix to either clean all of the coating off the buttons and leave them bare, or just to replace the buttons.

 

It is not defective plastic, it is drivers with finger nails too long who insist on hitting rather tha pushing the buttons. That said, the rubberized coating on switchgear of the period can get sticky with heat. This wear pattern is found not only on Jaguars but on many other makes as well.

 

I have seen this in many of the F Types as well. I think they just simply wear easily. The first one I looked at had under 20k and the Jaguar lettering on the inside of the door handles was worn off as well as all the interior buttons including the start/stop. I am horribly OCD and wear driving gloves in this car simply worried about that situation. Yes I can change all the pieces if they wear but first sign of seeing it, I would replace it.

 

There was definitely an issue with the earlier F-Types with the coating on the buttons getting sticky over time and showing wear. They fixed this in the MY18 refresh. Fingernails can still cause wear but that's true of all cars. The start button is particularly prone to wear since it is used the most and it's low enough and vertical enough that if you press it with your finger your nail is just about perpendicular to the button face so anyone with long(er) nails will almost certainly make nail contact with the button.

 

It doesn't matter how low the mileage is, this happens sooner or later with the buttons in the earlier F-Types because of the crappy coating used. Jaguar made the idiotic move of implementing buttons like that around 2012 although it was already known for years that such coating deteriorates and gets sticky over time. This was one of a bunch of things that they actually made worse in the facelift of the X250 XF which came right before the launch of the F-Type.

Newer F-Types don't suffer from this but I'm not sure what year they changed the buttons for lasting ones. As said, cars as of the MY18 facelift definitely have good buttons but it could be that it was introduced a bit earlier.

 

I had my buttons replaced under warranty which the dealer's service department did on it's own when I took my car in for a check engine light that turned out to be a bad O2 sensor. Much of the other rubberized material was replaced as well. The replacement center console and steering wheel buttons are not subject to the sticky rubber issue because Jaguar switched over to use a hard plastic.

However, the door handles and edge of dash AC vent surrounds (at least on my '14) are of a grippy rubber material that you need you need to be careful touching. Don't want to leave fingerprint, or worse, fingernail scraping divots like my pre-replaced ones suffered.

 

They are relatively cheap, especially the P button, and easy to replace.

 

Part of my Fall maintenance (besides changing needed fluids and filters) is to clean any sticky buttons. As stated, its not a question of IF, its a question of WHEN this will need to be done.

Lots of topics explaining procedures here. The method is to soften the sticky coating, then use a fingernail or plastic zip-tie to rub off the coating. Don't forget to use a (clean) toothbrush to remove the coating in the seams and edges.

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My philosophy stems from the old question:

How do you eat an elephant?
ONE BITE AT A TIME.