That what I,m saying you'll never see the difference & it last a long time LOL ashtrays does not get the abuse a steering wheel does & mine lasted four years before I redone the tint (or dy) but what I my saying:

 

You will probably find the reason only one colour of trim is available is because Porsche no longer makes 944s so when they need things like trim parts for spares they will have to order a certain number of them from the supplier ie one batch could be 5000 units.Therefore they will take them in what ever colour is easyest (cheepest) for the supplier to make hence only black available in some parts and brown in others.If you think about it it is ionly simple economics.

 

So, I received my new OEM ashtray today and I have an answer to the brown/black trim mystery.

The color of my new OEM ashtray is...
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BLACK!

So, there's my answer. It's REALLY not brown. It's 100% black and there would be no way to confuse the two. Especially when you compare them next to each other. So it appears that, even though many of us have the dark brown trim in our cars, the oem replacements are going to be black.

For me, it doesn't really matter. My trim is perfect and I only really need the metal tray part of the ashtray. For others, it looks like finding used trim or re-coloring is the only option.

 

I took the sliding door out, then I used my dremel to cut away the other side to make the ashtray completely open (while keeping the border of the plastic trim). Then I lined it with speakerbox carpet, and voila, I had a clean, soft little nook for my cell phone.

 

The one thing all you gents did not mention. Now you can change out the LIGHT BULB forward of the ash tray. It is to shine into the ash tray when the lights are on.

Cheers,
Larry