Vehicle door lock assembly

In a vehicle door assembly including a bolt projecting from a sidewall of a door opening in the body of a vehicle, a metallic latch having a pair of leg sections defining a bolt receiving recess, rotatably mounted on a sidewall of a door member hingedly mounted in said door assembly, means operatively interconnecting said door sidewall and said latch for rotatably biasing said latch in an unlatched position with said recess registered with said bolt, a metallic retaining pawl having a hook section engageable with contact portions of said latch leg sections when said leg sections are disposed in prelocking and fully locking positions, rotatably mounted on said door sidewall, and means operatively interconnecting said door sidewall and said retaining pawl for rotatably biasing said retaining pawl in a direction toward said latch, the improvement comprising the left receiving recess of said latch being coated with a sound absorbing material except for a plurality of spaced segments disposed along the periphery thereof.