How was the paint quality on your new Tacoma?

Is your concern the swirl marks? That wouldn't be a deal breaker for me. Annoying, sure, but they did give you money off. For the price you can probably get a quality detail and ceramic coat done which would be better than anything the dealership would give you anyway.

 

I think I would be okay with the frosted look if it meant the paint was more durable….but knowing Toyota they probably figured they could save Xmillion by spraying a cheaper/thinner paint on the plastic parts.

If you do end up taking it to a dealer to have them fix it I’d be happy to dig up some pics of my old MGM’s where the bumper aren’t frosted and you can show your dealer the difference between the two.

 

Thank you. I'm sure they won't need it. I showed them the bumper and they took one look and said they would take care of it. I'd expect the same here. I'd just use the pic you already shared to confirm it for them. I'll keep you posted, but still interested if it's just a '22 "covid production" thing as well.

 

Dude I would be on fire.. I worked for Toyota as a teenager many moons ago. They sent us to a headquartered facility to teach us and certify us on how and what was expected of a pre delivered vehicle. Toyota has standards. I would be notifying the corporate offices if I were you. Take as many pictures as possible. That is sub par. Unacceptable

 

friend of mine picked up his $90,000 GMC two months ago at night. He got it home in his garage and it looked like the dealer prep kid washed it with 120 grit sandpaper. Sent pictures to dealer they told him bring it back we will detail it. Instead he brought it to a professional to be fixed and ceramic coated. The bill was over 3 grand. Far cry from the $500 they gave the OP. OP, the fact that they gave you a discount off the escalated price is moot. A "deal" is paying less for a quality product, not paying less for a lesser product. And they reduced the price before the subject of the crappy paint came up.

That being said it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me either. Paint on everything sucks these days they're all cutting corners to save costs.

 

Toyota has always had thin scratch prone paint. It has always sucked.
I want to know where the OP’s taking the truck…..

 

If I remember correctly, it's Adak.

 

The $500 was on top of the $2000 that they wouldn't have otherwise given him. You can shop around for better deals than $3000 for a quality product, and, again, they'll likely do a much better job than the dealership.

I also say it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me given that I have a black truck and swirls are, unfortunately, a part of life for me.

 

Sucks on a new truck but a good orbital and some griots correcting cream and it will look better than anything on the lot. That’s pretty minor

 

A few things:

1. If you hate swirls, have the paint corrected and PPF then ceramic coat it. The entire front of my LR has PPF and entire truck has ceramic.

2. If you don't want to spend that much, have the paint corrected and entire truck ceramic coated.

And if you want to be 100% sure a dealership "detailer" doesn't rek your paint, tell them not to wash your car.

Or better yet, some enthusiast friendly dealers will let you take the car like I did with my STI.



One last thing, if you are going to have a detailer fix it, ask if he has a paint meter, if not, find a different guy. Taco paint is extremely thin and I did not have the dealer "detail" the car. a good detailer will meter the paint before he starts work and carefully meter it again, especially on paint so thin.

 

Sorry, 100% disagree with saying someone needs a paint thickness gauge. I have been doing this for 15+years and if you are doing a simple polish on a brand new car there is 100% NO need for it. If you are going nuts and doing like a heavy cut correction to try and make it perfect and not knowing the history and not new then I can see the need for a thickness gauge. But saying you need someone who has one for a light polish to remove some light swirls is not needed and most of the time I feel it makes people act like they are a better detailer because they have a gauge. When in reality its not needed at all and just added fluff

 

I worked in dealerships for 14 years. The one place didn’t have a carpet extractor. So what the one guy used to do was was dump dirty water from the wash buckets, on top the carpet of minivans, then take a dirty tire brush and use that to scrub the floor. Then take the old shop vac with a filter they rarely ever cleaned out and suck up what they could.

I got stuck detailing a bit so I was able to turn some hours working their (paid flat rate). I’d atleast clean out the wash buckets and hose out the brushes before using them. And probably was the only one who rinsed or cleaned the shop vac filters. Just running those they smelled like shit. Your get done vacuuming a car out and half of them would smell worse after than when started. Drove me crazy. Anyways this kinda stuff happens all over. But that’s def the worst I’ve even seen. The guy doing it too had been detailing for like 20 years to boot. A lot of it a blame on the flat rate. Just in a hurry to do Whats fastest, so they make their money. I did remember them saying they had an extractor but they had it hidden somewhere and never used it. So can’t even blame that on the company for not giving them the tools they need.

 

Sorry, I have put meters on 100's of cars, and based on the readings I have seen from cars being "detailed," I would rather trust someone with one than without.

We are talking what? 500 bucks for a really good elcometer and 200 bucks or a budget meter?

I can't tell you how many panels for example that I have seen with paint in the low 3's from "detailers" that "I got your paint smooth like butta."

And Taco OEM is already in the 3's from the factory, there is not a whole lot of clearcoat to be taken off.

 

My '21 Super White was perfect, I polished it anyway because I ceramic coated it a few days after picking it up, but it I had no issues. That is insane that a dealer can mess up a brand new truck that badly so fast.

 

So you put meters on a bunch of cars. So what does that mean? A light polish to remove some very light marring is NOT going to cause any issues even with some thinner factory paint. This is a useful tool for serious corrections but it is also a tool to try and act like they can charge someone more because they have a paint gauge that isnt needed. It's a tool ONLY needed for certain scenarios.

 

Out of all of the high-end detailers I have seen and used, none of them started measuring paint lol.

 

It means most "detailers" shouldn't even detail a matchbox car.

In my previous life I was in the bodyshop business. And I would tell you that most painters also shouldn't paint a matchbox car let along a real car.

In the case of Taco's, a truck with paint already in the 3's from the factory, there isn't a lot of room to begin with to take some clearcoat off to get rid of the swirl.

DetailerS I have used always take before readings before they begin work, not really sure why that's such a bad thing. It sets the expectation and covers everyone.

 

And almost no PPI meters a used car you might buy, so what?

 

I literally couldnt give 2 shits about the paint quality on a mid size 30-40k dollar truck that will be my daily driver with a high possibilty of getting hit in the parking lot. On a show car its a different story