Centre armrest retrofitted

[ahfh1]

I have just retrofitted a new centre armrest into my BlueGT.

Looks and feels lovely! Comes with a handy cup holder too.


Before pics below.





After pics below:

[27_craig]

Looks good, where did you buy it?


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[SRGTD]

Looks good, but doesn’t it make using the handbrake awkward?

I’d probably end up with it pushed into the upright position out of the way, which kind of defeats the purpose of fitting it .

[RUM4MO]

Unfortunately on my wife's 2015 Polo, yes, but I always drive with it up, operating the handbrake with it down is not smart, the other thing with my wife's car that I have never reported when it was new is, 8/10, the ratchet will not engage when you drop the arm rest with the handbrake on, but it will engage 10/10 when you drop it fully with the handbrake off.

Now, I've noticed that at least on that Blue GT, there is sticky Velcro covering the surface of the seatbelt buckle - my Audi S4 has that and my wife's 2015 Polo 1.2TSI 110PS SEL does not, so at certain seat height settings, the buckle rattles against the plastic trim of the seat - so I have bought self adhesive Velcro, but 18 months on I have still to fit it!

[ahfh1]

Looks good, but doesn’t it make using the handbrake awkward?

I’d probably end up with it pushed into the upright position out of the way, which kind of defeats the purpose of fitting it .

You have to flip up the armrest when using the handbrake, which isn't too annoying as I only have to do this when I'm parked up.

The car is also a DSG so fortunately I rarely touch the gear shift/handbrake which the armrest would get in the way of.

I would say it's more practical for cars with DSG rather than manual.

And if you do have a manual it would be good for motorways, but would get in the way for town driving.

[ahfh1]

Unfortunately on my wife's 2015 Polo, yes, but I always drive with it up, operating the handbrake with it down is not smart, the other thing with my wife's car that I have never reported when it was new is, 8/10, the ratchet will not engage when you drop the arm rest with the handbrake on, but it will engage 10/10 when you drop it fully with the handbrake off.

Yes, that's right, you have to drop the armrest with the handbrake off as that's the only way the armrest ratchet will disengage ready to be set at the correct height. But I'd say the comfort of having the armrest outweighs this minor annoyance.

[RUM4MO]

I agree, but when parked up with the handbrake on, you then need to put the handbrake off so that the ratchet/height limit function can engage, then struggle with reaching the handbrake to put it back on now that the armrest has been put into a convenient position/height, it would have though most if not all other folk would report that what I've described is a fault and not intentional by design, and a fault that I now need to live with as I did nothing about it during the warranty period.

I'm guessing that your car came with Velcro wrapped round the front seat belt buckles, my 2011 Audi S4 did and that was why I have already bought the Velcro strip to copy what is on my S4.

The arm rest is very handy when parked up no denying that, plus the storage area in it is handy for keeping a Carista dongle and disposable napkins stuff like that - as long as you don't accidently cause the lid to open when its in the vertical position! I still find the small ledge/lip on the hinge point quite handy for leaning on when driving, I think!

Edit:- I was not allowed to retro fit this to my wife's previous Polo as she considers that it has no value for her, but as my old Passat had one, and I used that maybe while driving, it had man trans, getting the handbrake on was a bit tricky but doable. What annoys me about the one on my S4 is that it extends so it can end up getting retracted a bit when used when driving! Nothing that a serious bit of bodging couldn't sort out, but I'd never do that to my car!

[ahfh1]

Looks good, where did you buy it?


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Ali Express. Took about 1 week to deliver:

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/uYM0NtQ