There are various threads, photos, videos, and sets of instructions on how to do this, but none of the pictures exactly match my car, and as many of the threads have cautionary tales about having to start at exactly the right spot - and that exact spot differs from model to model (even to where I've seen one video say absolutely start at the rear of the panel, and another say absolutely start at the front ..... ), before I scratch and break stuff, I'd like to see if anyone here has the exact model that I have, and if they've figured out the magic procedure to open that panel ...

Photos below.

When I first bought the car, I looked to see whether it would be possible to fit a sunglasses compartment in this panel. The answer is no, not on this model; there's just not enough room. Between the innermost edge of the functional part of the panel and the actual innermost edge of the panel butting up against the panoramic sunroof, there's just not a sunglass frame's worth of space. That's already different than I think I've seen in any of the photos/videos on this topic.

Separately, although I don't think this is relevant to getting the thing open (without breaking anything), there are what look like two tiny little LED bulbs inset between the reading lights switches and the front edge of the panel, but I've never seen them light up. (The apparent light in these in one of the photos below is just the reflection of my phone's camera light). I believe these are non-functional by design in my car; I saw some discussion of "cat eyes" which exist but are disabled on models with the panoramic sunroof.

So, any experience with this exact panel, or, failing that, which is likely to be the closest advice and how to get this open to replace the lightbulbs without scratching stuff up or breaking anything?

thanks!

-Jay

The two tiny LEDs on my MK3 cast light down onto the gear lever area, they are quite dim and can only really be seen when it's dark. Looks like I cannot see the bulbs I saw in my car on yours, so maybe they are omitted on cars with pano roof.

If you're looking at getting to the "reading" light bulbs, the trim around them pops off, get a thin plastic trim tool or the like and tease it down. The middle thinnest area does flex (green arrows), but it not going to break if you just work gently to pry it down and the work towards the bulbs. My comments are from memory of 7 years ago when I changed all mine to Philips w5w LEDs, 4000k. They were very bright.

Edited 23 July23 Jul by paulski

Edit, I can see the tiny bulbs, I seem to remember they were called submarine lights, they are quite effective lighting just the gear lever,

There was another in my SEL model in the cubby in front of the gear lever.

So, in the end, it turns out that the rectangular frame directly around the two round reading light lenses (and the two tiny cat eyes) does, quite easily, come out, without having to remove the whole panel. I started just outside of either cat eye, and the plastic clip there easily opened; then did the other; then the whole rectangular frame comes out easily.

The original halogen bulbs are W5W, like the ones in the cargo area light assemblies; these simply pull straight out.

(Not that I figured that out right at first; it looked like they might rotate. So I rotated them. Which rotated their entire socket. Right out of its rotate-to-clip-into-place, well, place. Which meant that I had to finagle the half-a-gram-if-that plastic socket back into the right 3D orientation above the lightbulb hole, and use a small pliers to grab a little metal tab to allow me to pull it back down through the hole, and rotate it back into locked position 🙄).

The same "Astur" bulbs that I used for the cargo area lights work fine in the centre overhead console, too (polarity: + side of both bulbs faces towards the left/driver's seat on my car). And, as with the KATUR bulbs that I put in the over-door lights for the rear passenger seats, these DO dim down like the original halogen bulbs did.

I also cleaned a small, dead bug off of the inside of one of the two front reading light lenses.... 🦟