Is your door armrest padding squished flat?

When I first bought my 2017 Prius the driver door armrest was quite cushiony. I have noticed that only 6 months later the spot where I rest my arm/elbow have become completely flat, the cushioning has been completely smashed flat. I can easily compare this to the front half of the same armrest, or any of the other 3 armrests in the car. It is completely flat and very hard at the back portion of the armrest, unlike, any of the 3 others which have shown no change at all(but only have a passenger probably 1/15th the time as the driver).

I have found online where I can purchase another armrest, but I am reluctant to do so if it will also squish flat in short time. Basically I am wondering if anyone else has flattened their door armrest out, or if mine was some type of fluke. I'm not heavy, and I very rarely press hard on it.

I first noticed this after I got my car back from the bodyshop from a deer strike, and the body shop for sure managed to dent my seat permanently on the back part of the bottom cushion(it has been months and hasn't gotten a single bit better, you can feel the dent with your hand easily, the softex isn't dented, only the cushion) so I do believe that someone there might have flattened my door armrest too, or maybe just that I noticed it shortly thereafter due to increased attention.

I have taken the door armrest off several times, it appears that the cushioning is some type of blue squishy styrofoam stuff, which is underneath the softex layer which is glued on, so if anyone knows how to restore this padding somehow that would be helpful too.

 

It's standard wear and tear according to the dealership. I'm just trying to see if that is true and everyone's door armrest has flattened also.

All the gen 4 Prii have the padded armrest as far as I know, even the cloth seats and the 2 do, so if your armrest is hard then it has flattened, it wasn't built hard. When I bought new it had about a half-full centimeter of padding. I can buy a new one online for 50$ or less, and would seriously consider it, but not if it will re-flatten in short time. The padded armrest was one of my favorite upgrades on the gen 4, but I don't want to pay 50$ every 2-3 months to maintain it. I thought it was very nice, more padding than any vehicle I have ever been in. (the best I've had prior was a thin piece of cloth fabric over top hard plastic, or just straight up hard plastic with nothing over top). The very first thing I noticed was how great the padded armrest felt, I could stick my finger into it and feel/watch it depress and pop back up.

I'm a stickler for symmetry, so I wouldn't like knowing that my drivers armrest has a different padding from the passenger, but would definitely consider it if the stock padding will always go flat.

 

I can see where they are coming from, if the armrest really does go flat every 2-3 months then I have about 10-13 more replacements under warranty.

 

I did not realize interior was only covered 12/12, which my car still falls under. I knew that wheel balancing/alignment was 12/12, but I did not know of any other warranty item that fell under that, I assumed interior items that were not considered cosmetic/normal wear and tear were covered under 3 year 36,000.

 

It seems I have 1 answer that says, "it always sucked but it hasn't degraded" and another that is completely flat(maybe). The body shop could very well have damaged it, but I would gladly spend 50$ of my own money to never have to talk to the body shop ever again.



Anybody who sees this, if you press your finger into the armrest on the door, does it visually depress AT ALL, because I understand the initial padding isn't as good as a Lexus, but you can still see it visually depress, unless it has flattened like mine.

 

Anyone have any updates on this? If I look at parts stores 74220-47010-C0 seems to be a replacement armrest, and it seems to be that there is only one part model for all Prius, even though from some research I've done Prius 1-3 have "soft touch armrest" and 3 Touring,4 and 4, touring have "softex armrest", whatever the difference between those may be.

This could explain why some people say their armrests are hard, they may have "soft touch", whereas mine was definitely squishy when new, and all 3 of my other armrests are still squishy. My issue is, if I order that part number will it be hard or covered with softex?

And also if anyone has noticed if their arm rest at 3 and below is hard and in no way squishy, not even 2mm of squish.