Bumper colour different? 2018 2.0 Hatch in Red

[JohnNZ]

Hi all. I noticed a week or so after I bought my Corolla, the front bumper is a different shade of red. Kind of annoying.

Since then I found other examples like the one below. Is it a known thing? Thanks. JC.

[TonyHSD]

They might be two reason for that:

it’s the shadow created by the light due to the colour been metallic and the second is because of the difference in materials but that should be done with primer so should be one even shade. Talk to Toyota head office in your country. 
Regards  

[olddriver]

6 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

They might be two reason for that:

ithe second is because of the difference in materials 

I don’t know why differ materials should have any affect, but the small panel above my rear number plate is plastic and is a totally different colour, but I think it took many years to become noticeable, certainly a lot longer than 2 years.

 

As Tony said, I would complain to your Toyota dealer.

[Swanthecat]

There is a good reason for this and many manufacturers have similar problems. Obtaining paint adhesion to difficult plastics like modified polypropylene used in bumpers and other painted components is difficult. The paints are typically applied using specialist equipment and paint lines different to the metal bodywork. The paint type is also different due to the different heat resistance of the materials involved. Colour consistency is therefore a problem but should be measured and within certain tolerances. The fact that you can see this difference suggests the tolerance has been exceeded and/or is significantly wide to allow such differences

[CurranShelter]

I noticed the same effect on my Auris (but blue paint in my case), rear bumper in particular. It's more noticeable at certain angles and lighting conditions, but I think I've just learnt to ignore it (even though it did irritate me at first). It seemed plausible to me that it would result from the difference in materials (metal vs plastic), although I can't say I've noticed it on other cars (but then I've maybe not been paying them so much attention!).

[Wudzi]

Mine's in white and I got a local detailer to give the paint a ceramic coating the other day. It was bright sunlight and he mentioned when he finished that in those conditions and when it's just been cleaned it's possible to notice the difference and it was due to the different materials used. I could sort of tell but it was very marginal. I can't notice it again now. Perhaps in red it's more noticable than other colours.

[JohnNZ]

Thanks for the comments. I've contacted Toyota and they're going to check it out for me. We'll see what happens and report back.

[Biomecanoid]

Nothing you can do about it and you don't want it repainted, it will be even worse than the original factory paint job

[Swanthecat]

Not correct. Bumpers are usually painted by third party ‘tier 1’ suppliers to the OEM. They are not painted on the same paint lines as the bodywork. A re-painted bumper would be done by a skilled refinish painter who should be able to colour match to the bodywork much better

[JohnNZ]

14 minutes ago, Swanthecat said:

Not correct. Bumpers are usually painted by third party ‘tier 1’ suppliers to the OEM. They are not painted on the same paint lines as the bodywork. A re-painted bumper would be done by a skilled refinish painter who should be able to colour match to the bodywork much better

I would have thought so. My previous (also metallic red) Corolla had panel damage from a side swipe, and also had the bumper replaced by insurance from being hit from behind. In all instances the paintwork was perfectly matched.

[Biomecanoid]

I doubt that the dealership will give you a new bumper. At best they will offer to repaint the existing one and probably use someone locally that will not do such a hot job like Toyota's 3rd party.

[Swanthecat]

A skilled refinish painter will measure the colour of the bodywork and match the paint to that. In addition their skill with spray equipment should allow much better colour match. Think about it - refinish shops match old faded paint perfectly. This of course assumes the refinish painter is skilled.

[JohnNZ]

I'd say they'd be able to do a better match than this: