Defective Paint Now What?

Picked up my 2022 Tundra i-Force Max Limited TRD 4x4 this week. Midnight Black. When I did my final inspection I found three paint defects. Looks like they painted a dirty truck. Next day service manager inspected and found several more. Most of the panels and roof have them.
Dealer contacted Toyota and they said I can take it to any Toyota body shop and have it painted.
Should I go with that plan or push Toyota to replace it? Seriously 70K on a truck and have to deal with that on day one!

 

Body shops usually guarantee the paint work for life. Yes it does suck to have to have your new truck painted but if the paint ever fails down the road they should repaint the messed up panel again.

 

That’s a tough one. Bummer the paint was defective. I’d have it repainted for sure. The paint on these trucks sucks from the factory. Use a really good high end shop that uses the best products and have them lay it on thick and perfect. Let Toyota foot the bill for a killer paint job that’ll last.

 

Must have missed the part about a “Toyota” shop doing the future work. They can’t properly torque my oil filter canister so there is no f’in way I’m having them paint my $70k truck.

 

“Toyota” doesn’t have paint shops afaik. I’m assuming you mean a Toyota approved paint shop yeah? Meaning Toyota has contracted them to paint vehicles. There’s no reason you can’t find out a list of approved shops, do some homework and select one. Furthermore you could probably talk them into a better paint job than Toyota will approve and potentially pay the difference. I’d do that in a heartbeat if Toyota was footing the bulk of the bill.

 

Exactly. Toyota doesn’t have paint shops just like they don’t have mechanics - they have dealers that have to do what they say for the rate they say. Dealerships hate warranty work for a reason. Those same dealerships have body shops…

 

Would you mind sharing more details on the paint defect? Was it dust nibs? What exactly were the defects?

I'm going through the same thing for my truck's paint, see my post here, item #2 and #3, and I'm not that successful with my dealer, so any info you have, I'll try to use it on my end to justify a repaint as well.

Worse case, send me a message with your # and I wouldn't mind talking directly to get more details.

 

I personally know someone with a reputable body shop that gets nearly all of the referrals from the local Toyota dealers for body and paint repair. He always said you can’t really get a better paint job than the factory paint as far as it being even and defect free. I think I’d live with it, or depending on the defect have a paint correction place see what they can do with it. You may fix some issues but then have some new ones with a repaint. Stuff like this is disappointing to see.

 

My truck is black so I am sure paint defects are more noticeable. Me personally, after I get over the sticker shock and defects, I would probably get it professionally painted. Those that talk about OEM paint don’t know Toyota paint. It’s thin and garbage. Toyota paint is soft, swirls just appear by looking at it, etc. Question is how much is Toyota willing to pay for paint. And I wouldn’t do spot or panel patches. I would want the whole truck sprayed, this way there is no mix match of paint color.

 

how does stuff like this make it passed the final QC inspection?

I think toyota needs to start firing people at the plant, they are letting out some real shit and this is unlike any thing I have seen from toyota, including first year models. thats not an excuse for total shitty QC on obvious things you can see.

 

I had to have my driver's side rear quarter panel repainted. Some of it felt like 24 grit sandpaper when I got the truck. I'm thinking with COVID and all Toyota QC personnel are working from home.

 

they have a zoom meeting camera watching the line of trucks viewing in 480i res, lol

bummer, I really was ready to buy one of these things, crossing my fingers the 2023 has this kinda shit worked out

 

Woah... really? So my dealer should be pushing for a repaint as well then, that's good to know!

I wouldn't hold my breath that the 2023 are any better than the 2022... That's if Toyota don't change anything at their plant. My truck that was built in June 2022 has these same defects.

 

As stated in previous posts, the dealership didn't do any of the paint work. In looking at the Toyota app, they drove it about 15 miles to a paint shop.

 

Yea, figured they wouldn't repaint, how was the quality of the job after?

That's my only concern, if I get approved for a repaint, then the new job is sub-par or not to my expectation!

 

I don't think I'm near as critical as some on here, but to me and my wife, we couldn't tell a difference between that quarter panel and anything else on the truck.

 

Paint from a decent body shop will be far superior to what comes from the "factory". As mentioned above, a lot of shops warranty their work for the life of the vehicle, so there is some comfort in that.

 

How bad is it? Repaint adds too much risk that the color may be slightly off. If a couple small blemishes bother you, how will mismatching panels? I would take it to an Autobody shop and get an estimate. Then ask them to either get you a new truck or give you a check for the amount of the estimate. But repainting a brand new truck is out of the question. Even if they offered you half that, take it and spend it on mods.

 

Funny you say that. My 2020 Tundra had the first two oil changes done at the dealership under the initial ToyotaCare. I did the third myself. Two skid plate bolts missing, one of the plastic screw anchors gone and no crush washer on the filter. I wish they gave us the option to just pickup the oil and filter but then they wouldn't be able to try and sell us tire balancing for $80!

 

Exactly

 

Today I close my tailgate and hear something inside. Tear it down and find a random bolt lose inside left by the factory.

 

I had a 2011 dodge ram crew max, that when you opened the rear doors, the door sills and jambs only had a dusting of paint, you could see gray it was so bad, I showed the dealer then I started laughing. They offered to have it re painted, I replied its a dodge paint is the least of my worries, sure enough a month later, transmission was pulled to have the torque convertor replaced, ah yes dodge.

I never had it repainted, kept it a few years then traded for my first tundra.