New Tacoma paint match issues

Hey everyone. I’m new to the forum. Just wanted to drop a line on a new Tacoma paint issue I encountered on my new 2023 Tacoma in case anyone can benefit from the hell I’ve been through. I purchased a magnetic gray metallic sr double cab 4x4 in October 22 from a local dealership in Michigan. I knew exactly what I wanted and did an online purchase and took delivery of the truck after a short test drive to make sure all was good. The test drive took place in the dark in late October 8pm in the rain. So in short I neglected to notice the horrible paint match between the body and the atrocious front bumper cover. I noticed immediately the next day and contacted the dealer and was told basically, too bad you drove it out of here. It’s your problem now. It obviously meets Toyota quality control standards or it wouldn’t have left the factory. Point of my story is after almost 3 months of fighting with Toyota customer care and countless trips to dealers to show that many magnetic gray Tacomas have this issue and to have my vehicle inspected multiple times by Toyota reps. They now have my vehicle and are repainting a new bumper cover to match the factory paint. I was lied to and told my sr was supposed to have a black bumper non painted from factory and that was somehow buried in my vin number and they could tell. I had to separately contact different dealers and Toyota customer care to contact a Tacoma “product specialist “ to verify that NO double cab Tacoma has the option of black unpainted bumper covers. Once I dispelled that lie I was told the real problem is the bumpers are painted off site at a different facility then brought to the plant and bolted on randomly to trucks as they come off the line. So that’s the issue. I apologize for my long winded essay on this subject but I feel my misery could help others. It IS possible for all these ugly ass bumpers to get repaired if you squwak loud enough and are tenacious enough. They also we’re going to try and order a prepainted bumper and bolt it on as the solution. I was told however that one they receive and install was the final solution no matter what it looks like. I refused to accept that and was guaranteed that the body technician could paint match the truck to the new bumper cover to assure a better match. I should have my truck back next week. I’ll update when I get it back. I’m 100 percent new to the forum so I will try and post pics and answer as many questions as I can if I can figure out how to do so. Lol

 

Holy shit that color difference is horrible.

 

In my experience, this is pretty normal, but Magnetic Gray is one of the worst of the bunch. The bumper is plastic. The fender/hood is metal. They are painted different and the colors never match exactly, especially in bright sunlight. You can take any of the dark metallic colors and look at them in certain sunlight angles and see the same problem.
But I do agree, yours is an unusually significant difference.

 

It is absolutely terrible. You wouldn’t think there would be much fight about it but it was an act of god to get them to even acknowledge it. FYI that picture is the worst I could make it look in bright sunlight. It is terrible in all lighting conditions but that is the photo that captured the worst scenario. Just to give Toyota something to chew on

 

They should be able to handle matching that. Good luck!

 

Only on the Utility trim I believe, which is a 4 cylinder SR access cab.

 

holy smokes that paint job is terrible, I'm glad you insisted

 

Wow that’s awful

 

My truck was hit by a delivery driver and I had to get it repaired. Even a Toyota certified body shop messed up my paint repair. I had to insist on them making it right. They said they accidentally added too much flake to the fender lol

long story short quality work has gone down the drain

 

That's why I deleted my post, I researched it.

 

I wonder if that bumper didn't get damaged in transit,and got repainted? My MGM looks nothing like that.

 

Is that panel gap normal?

 

The bumper looks good to me, it’s the whole body that’s needs to be repainted..

 

Yeah it just looks bigger because it’s super zoomed in. Matches the other side that wasn’t hit perfectly lol
Toyota may have messed it up though lol

 

th

this is what I was thinking. Many vehicles get damaged in transit and/or on the lot. Of course the dealer probably isn't going to own up to it, as they want Toyota to cover the damage, rather than coming out of their pocket.

 

Welcome! Too bad you had to go through this. Hopefully they get it right.

 

I thought the same thing as far as damage from dealer except I went to several dealers in the area and looked at other new tacomas in mgm. Even the dark red color and the bright metallic blue are like this. I have several photos of bad paint matches from different colors. I had to bring this up with Toyota customer care several times and show pictures. I’m pretty sure they did the right thing in my case because I had so much ammo against them they just wanted me to shut up and go away. I believe it’s an issue that more people will be bitching about in the future. Not sure if it’s just 2023 models or how many are affected.

 

This is not just a Toyota issue. I had a white Honda Crosstour with the same issue. The plastic bumper looked yellowish. For whatever reason, you can paint metal and plastic with paint from the same batch and it will look different.

 

Update. I just picked my truck up from the dealership after the repair. It’s an excellent match and looks great in all aspects. I even checked it at the dealership in multiple lighting conditions. Just wanted to post the good news. Thanks to all who chimed in. Glad to be a part of the forum.

 

Looks good!