perhaps you are accurate.

but here is what i have encountered.

A. when i acquired a 2006 cl500[pewter silver, charcoal interior] in march 2009. all switches, all plastic were hard and smooth. this was one-owner[lessee] and was sold as a cpo'ed car by m-b houston north[an autonation store].

though this dealership avoided living up to all the cpo conditions established by mbusa, that i knew the local tech rep did coerce them to finally live up to the cpo terms.

something important is that this car was leased by a gastroenterologist in december 2005. it was never garaged at his residence in the woodlands. it was only driven from his residence to his office. where it was exposed to houston heat and sunshine.

after i acquired it, it became my mostly daily driver. that meant that it spent nights in my un-airconditioned garage. and days exposed to the heat and sunlight in my corporate parking lot.

when i purchased it, it had 19,200 miles as i recall. when i sold it in january 2013, it had approx 46,000 miles.

when i purchased it, when i sold it: NO STICKY SWITCHES - NO DISSOLVING PLASTIC.

B. in december 2010, looking for a used, cpo'ed CL55, i found one at m-b sfo.

it was a one owner[lessee] car that spent all of its original operator's life in monterey/hollister, ca. it had approx 43,000 miles. it was brilliant silver with a java interior. though i did not inspect it in sfo before it was shipped to me, it arrived in virtually new condition. no dings. its only flaws were some "curbed" chrome-plated, two piece wheels.

all switches. all dashboard plastics were hard, not sticky.

this car has never been a daily driver, but it does get driven. when not driven it lives in a windowless, air-conditioned warehouse. when driven, it resides in an un-airconditioned garage at night. and in the daytime, will sit in a parking lot exposed to houston heat and uv.

over the last 2+ years, it has also spent some time at sugarland m-b dealership.

as of today, at almost 51,000 miles, there are no STICKY switches. NO EVIDENCE OF DISSOLVING PLASTICS.

C. having owned benzes since 1973, mbna was a notorious for loading its cars. as i recall, the only option for years was orthopedic seats.

so, it suprised me after i acquired my first 215 coupe in 2009 that the keyless go was one option of many.

and options that i would have wanted. and options that i would have wanted.

recognizing that mbusa had decided to play an options game, the 2006 cl55 that i acquired had all of them.

and i looked for a 2006 cl500 with all of them. found one. regrettably at another autonation store[m-b greenway]. brilliant silver. charcoal interior.

it was cpo'ed. inspecting it, i noted some deficiencies.

but, at that pre-purchase inspection, all switches[especially steering wheel switches were all black with white icons. nothing in the interior was sticky.

i gave this dealership a punch list of aspects of the car that needed to be corrected[should have been corrected before it was offered for sale as a cpo'ed car].

when i was informed that those deficiencies had been corrected, i went to that dealership to pick it up. much to my astonishment, none had been corrected. and there were new deficiencies.

the most interesting one was how some of the steering wheel switches had been so "buffed" that the black surface with icons had been eradicated. some of the switches were now down to the white nylon base layer.

but none of those steering wheel switches that were still black with icons were sticky.

eventually, m-b greenway admitted that they had made no efforts to correct the deficiencies that were on my punch list. nor would they. once again, my local mbusa tech rep intervened and this cl500 was transported to m-b sugarland to put in into proper cpo condition.

and m-b sugarland mostly squared it away. as i recall, the two switches that had been buffed down to the white nylon substrate had been replaced. but, now, all the steering wheel switches were sticky. even the new ones.

this is when i learned that a "make ready" contractor had replaced this dealership's in-house personnel.

i was convinced that these contractor personnel had applied some chemicals that dissolved the "finish" of these steering wheel switches, rendering them sticky.

the steering wheel switches were replaced by mbusa as a consequence of the cpo procedures.

though i am an engineer, i did not request the failed switches for my analysis.

but here is what i think i saw. the base switches are molded with a white plastic[nylon?]. then the switches are "painted" with a mask, which allows the white nylon to be revealed for the icons.

in other words, the black, java finishes for the switches are paint.

recently, this 2006 cl500 was in the m-b sugarland dealership for a warranty replacement of a crank position sensor.

picking it up on a saturday afternoon, i noticed nothing unusual about the intererior.

it was returned to its dark and air conditioned garage.

but taking it out at night some days ago, i felt that the black headlight switch escutcheon had become sticky. all of that escutcheon left of the headlight switch had become sticky. and had experienced something that melted the "paint". the right side of that escutcheon remained firm, unsticky.

it is my guess that at its heart, this bit of plastic is also a white plastic. painted black using a mask so that the white plastic is revealed for the light switch positions.

and that some make ready personnel applied some chemical to that left half that began to dissolve the paint.

i think that there is no rubberizing of these switches. they are painted and some chemicals applied initiate the dissolving of the paint.

study on that analysis.

all ears for any comments.