I noticed over the weekend that my mum's 05 elegance fabia has slightly cushioned armrest bits on the doors.

My 04 Fab vRS is just hard plastic. Both look exactly the same, but the ones in the 05 elegance are a softer plastic.

Is this because it is an 05 car or is it because it is an elegance???

probably because its an elegance i would have thought

When they did the facelift (well bumper change ) they apparently upgraded the plastics, so it may be that.

When I went the other way a few years ago, the plastics were the same.

yep its because of the "facelift"