Had several Mercedes. Flew from Arizona to Florida to pick up this car that my husband got a deal on and we have never seen this. He took it to "Goodies" (high end car shop) and it's $1,000 because you can't replace just the plastic faceplate you have to replace the whole unit. There must be a way! It looks nasty and I'm thinking of covering it with some type of black tape or sticky back shelving paper. It doesn't bother him as much as it bothers me. Maybe a wrecking yard?

Mechanic said he's seen this with 550's. WHY?