When good haptics become a mortgage
11/04/2019
Do you remember? In the late eighties and nineties, some car manufacturers began to install switches with pleasantly soft surfaces in their cars. This was known as "soft touch". Ferrari was one of the companies that did this in the 550 model, for example. The haptics benefited, everything felt more pleasant and more valuable.
Unfortunately, the longevity was less good. The plasticizer in the material evaporates or changes, the switches become sticky. Not a big deal, many will say. But replacing all these surfaces in a top-of-the-range sports car can quickly cost several thousand euros. The bad thing is that the switches can even become sticky in the spare parts store. And even if the car has always been stored in the garage, the effect will occur sooner or later. In the meantime, specialists have even established themselves to deal with this problem.
The simple metal switches of the fifties were much more durable, but with the advent of Bakelite and plastic in the sixties, even pre-soft-touch operating elements could and can become brittle. And here too, replacement is not always easy ...
