Faux TRD Pro Grille Quality Review

I wanted to write a review on the quality of the faux TRD Pro grille I recently installed on my 2014 Tacoma to reassure anyone out there with questions. My review is only a sample size of N=1, so other's experiences may differ from mine. I won't go through the installation process as lot of others have done write ups and videos for that. For my review I will consider this faux grille to an OEM part. If you want the quick summary here it is....

Quick Look Quality Review Summary [score/10]:
A 10/10 score would mean it matched the OEM part for that category in my opinion.
1) Price: 12/10
2) Shipping Experience: 5/10
3) Packaging: 9/10
4) Grille Quality: 8/10
5) Assembly: 10/10
6) Long Term Durability: 10/10

Bottom Line Comments
In my opinion if you want to save a few more bucks then go through Ebay. You are already going cheap by not buying the OEM part. Wait till they offer a coupon and snag one up! If time is no issue for you I believe this grille is close enough to the OEM part to serve it's purpose on my truck, sit there and do nothing.

After w/ Faux TRD Pro Grille:


Before w/ SR5 Chrome Grille:


I know a lot of people have purchased these from some third party dealers here in the US that act as "Quality Control" for these faux grilles coming from China. I just struggled with the concept of paying for someone to act a quality control for a non OEM part that certainly didn't go through the product development of a Toyota OEM TRD Pro grille. So for the extra mark-up I would be paying someone to basically look at the grille and say "yay" or "nay" to shipping it to me.

I figured I could save a few bucks and do the same thing, if it was a poor quality I could work with the seller though Ebay to get a return and/or a new product. Now this is all speculation on my part of what these third party faux grille sellers are doing, I am in no way knocking their efforts. I just thought it would be something I could do myself.

So here are the detailed explanations of my ratings.....

1) Price [12/10]
I ordered my grille from Ebay w/ a coupon and paid using PayPal. My thought here was to add two barriers of protection [Ebay and PayPal] incase something went wrong at any point in the process. It was advertised for $169.99+free shipping. With my coupon I got the grill shipped to my door from China for $144.49. I rated the price at 12/10 considering that an OEM TRD Pro grille from a dealership for a 2012-2015 costs ~$400 bucks [Part Number:

$429 PTR5435150 Toyota Grille - PTR54-35150

PTR5435150]. I paid approx. 1/3 of the OEM cost for something that in my eyes probably only cost less than $10 to make. I still think that $145 is way too much for a piece of plastic on the front of a truck, my rating is considering OEM parts so I was overly pleased with the cost when thinking relatively. I also purchased a brand new color matched grille from the dealership to remove the chrome surround.

2) Shipping Experience [5/10]
My purchase was made on Ebay on 8/28. The advertised arrival date was anytime between 9/12 to 9/20. The next day i was sent an email that said the packaged had shipped and was given a tracking number which eased my apprehensions about the purchase. I would periodically check the status of my order the next few days. On around 6-7 days after I had made the purchase I went onto my Ebay account to see what the status was and the posting had been deleted. I thought I had been taken at this point. I called Ebay and talked with a representative over the phone and explained the situation. They were able to still track the package and said the listing was removed because of violating some Ebay policy. The people at Ebay reassured me that if I didn't get my package I would be issued a full refund no questions asked. The package arrived on 9/12 as expected. I only gave it a 5/10 because of this gray area and an OEM grille would probably be able to be picked up at a dealership the next day after ordering.

3) Packaging [9/10]
Shipping all the way from China I thought this would be one of my largest concerns. But in the end I was pleasantly surprised with the time and effort spend on protecting this grille. The box was undamaged and the components [Grille and TOYOTA logo] were bubble wrapped and protected well. 9/10, exceeded my expectations, I know OEM TRD Pro grilles ship in a large box and are suspended in the middle with pieces of foam and wrapped with a thin cloth. So the OEM grille has no chance of ever touching the sides of the box.




4) Grille Quality [8/10]
I was expecting to get a part that was warped and had flash everywhere from the molding process. To my surprise the grille was in amazing shape for quality and OEM style looks. I went over this thing with a fine tooth comb and below are images of the only "poor quality" areas I could find. From 6ft away I don't think you could even see them, these are certainly not a make or break deal in my opinion. Most of the flash I was concerned about I was able to remove with a razor blade. The rating of 8/10 is only because of these small issues [I can't imaging an OEM Pro Grille getting out the door at Toyota with these] and I had to reuse my weather stripping and foam seal from my SR5 grille insert.












5) Assembly [10/10]
Assembly was a breeze and went extremely smooth. I referenced other write ups on here that other members have done to remove and install my insert in the color match surround. I believe the assembly matched what it would have been with an OEM grille so I rated this a 10/10.

6) Long Term Durability [10/10]
I am writing this review now as I have had the grille on for a bit over a month. I haven't seen any issues with the grille to date. I realize I can't review any fading issue or cracking yet, but so far I believe this is a 10/10 and matches OEM durability. The winter is coming up and hopefully that will test it in some cold snow/ice conditions. Until then I give it a 10/10!

Please comment and let me know if anyone else has had the same or different experience! Also anyone with an OEM TRD Pro grille might be able to chime in and speak to their experience on the categories i've reviewed. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Do you have a link to the eBay listing? Thanks

 

Link...?

 

Link please ...

 

I also bought mine from ebay. This was the seller;
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Toyota-Tac...473558707?epid=2293573823&hash=item2f245d52b3

 

i put one of these on, pretty happy with it. Only beef with it was getting the damn grill back off. Bottom clips were hanging on for dear life (the ones in the middle, not big ones at edge)

 

I do not have a link that works. The seller removed the listing and there is no link. The seller’s eBay name is “junchuang2”, but it appears his eBay store isn’t selling this pro grille anymore. I’m sure all the faux pro grilles are coming out of the same factory in China.

 

Yea during installation I took my time and was very careful not to break anything.

 

Mine arrived today. Piece of crap. There is no channel for the weather strip. If you use adhesive it’s not going to stick for long. Lots of casting flash and a poor fit. I asked E-bay for a return label.

 

They made them for the 2010? Havent seen those. Sorry you had a bad experience man. That sucks

 

Wow that is frustrating. Sorry to hear. At least you did purchase it through eBay so you have return protection there.

 

Same one I just bought. I should get it later this week. How did you like yours ?

 

Fitment is good and I was able to transfer the foam and rubber seal from my old grill to this new faux grill. I just painted the logo with a rattle can.

 

where did u pick up the matching paired bezel that the grille insert sits in or did u get it painted ?

 

Hi, mine is a TRD sport model so the sorround is color matched.

 

Well the before pic showed the chrome bezel and the afters showed color matched thats all

 

hes not op

 

Did u paint the bezel or get a different one thats color matched?

 

Does it really matter if the end result looks the same.
I had my chrome color matched by a shop. It costed $50 vs $190 for the OEM color matched.

 

I purchased a color matched grille assembly from the dealership. Just removed the insert and replaced it with the faux TRD pro one. Was a very easy process.

I agree if the end result matches. I also just wanted to make sure it would last. I’ve had some poor experiences painting over chrome, just my opinion.