Front bumper paint mismatch on ordered car, what should I do?

[GrabberBlue5.0]

Glad to see it was nothing. Often times cameras and lighting can play tricks on our eyes

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[Rev Happy]

Yeah, I guess my thought was in the case of a paint issue it might be more general than just the 350 specifically.

I wound up in West LA, yourself?

I'm out in Studio City. Normally there's Supercar Sundays (Cars & Coffee) out in Woodland Hills, but there's not much going on right now do to COVID. Hopefully things start to get better soon.

 

[Rusherific]

I'm out in Studio City. Normally there's Supercar Sundays (Cars & Coffee) out in Woodland Hills, but there's not much going on right now do to COVID. Hopefully things start to get better soon.

Yeah it's no fun. But at least I'll get to maximize one of the few activities you can do unhindered still--driving!

Do you have any dealership recommendations for down here? I've never in my life taken a car to a dealer for service before, but I bought an extended premiumcare package so I might as well use it, but only if I find a dealer I'm confident they know what the hell they're doing.

 

[Rev Happy]

Yeah it's no fun. But at least I'll get to maximize one of the few activities you can do unhindered still--driving!

Do you have any dealership recommendations for down here? I've never in my life taken a car to a dealer for service before, but I bought an extended premiumcare package so I might as well use it, but only if I find a dealer I'm confident they know what the hell they're doing.

Ya I hear ya. I tuned down that package since I can do the basic maintenance myself but as far as a dealer tech wise, I would probably say Galpin Ford. They've sold and dealt with a number of these cars that I'm sure they have techs there that know what they're doing.

 

[Modulom4]

Hi,
I have the same problem with mine. the front and rear bumper are not the same color and the car is not the same color. the front and the back of the car not the bumpers are not the same. i had the test color card from the body shop cause i had a hit and run on my front bumper and if i start from the front and go the rear of the car the color is changing or fade and that's from the factory. mustang gt 2018 orange fury

 

[okfoz]

1) The reason why the paint does not match bumpers, mirrors, gas cap cover, door handles etc is they are not painted on the car. These parts are shipped in painted from the supplier. My ex Brother-in-law works for Keykert and they paint the door handles, and other panels in-house they make for the big 3. Therefore when the Body of the car is painted in the factory the paint does not match because they are not painted at the same time.

2) This appears it could be the wrong color bumper, it is possible because they offer both "Wimbledon White" and Oxford white, there may have been a mix up in the factory while placing the bumper, or it was mislabeled and shipped incorrectly from the supplier. More than likely parts are crated in and they are in sequential order to the production number of the car. I have found shipping documents from carpet suppliers where they have a sequence number assigned from, this way when the line worker, in a poorly lit area fits a bumper to a car, or a door handle to the car, they do not have to rummage through to find the correct part, they just grab the next part and throw it on. Obviously if they are the wrong color they will know. But when you are looking at two different whites which are similar or look identical under florescent lighting, they may not notice. Or they could say, screw it, and ship it out and let the dealer deal with it rather than set the vehicle aside. This is part of JIT supplying of parts.

3) I purchased my Mustang in Chicago, and I live in Flint, MI area, My local dealer (LaFontaine Ford in Birch Run) has worked with me with absolutely no issues with my 2016 RS3, and I came back and purchased a 2018 Edge Sport from them... The Chicago dealer was a PITA from the word go, from missing parts, to holes in the seat of a new car (Fox Ford Chigago, I would not buy a box of rocks from them again).

 

[oneheadlite]

Glad you got it figured out.
I would have been worried as well, especially with the distance and price of the car.

When I had my '15 Camaro SS, the lines of the car caused me concern
that the car had been damaged on the lot because I could see
variations in the paint from different angles.
It looked like a rear quarter panel had been painted where someone
didn't do a good job matching the paint.

Can't see it here much........

 

[ionpig]

So hello everyone! I wish this wasn't my first post on this forum, but I ordered a 350R a year ago and it finally made it to the dealership a week ago. They finally sent me pictures and I noticed that the front bumper looks a little off compared to the rest of the car. What makes this complicated is that I moved 400 miles away since I originally placed the order, so I can't check it out in person and I have a shipping service already scheduled to pick it up 2 days from now.

I've read up on bumper mismatch issues and understand already that it's 1) a common issue for many manufacturers and 2) a reality of mixing aluminum and plastic body panels from different suppliers so it's never going to be perfect and 3) that paint is more complex than just pure color, it can look right from one angle and not so good from a different angle or lighting condition. I get all that.

That said if it looks as bad in person as it does in these photos to me then I feel like that's unacceptable in a $72,000 car. I attached a couple of closeups from what they sent me, the left side is original, the right I enhanced a little bit just to make clear there is in fact a color difference (white can be hard on screens, I happen to have a really nice PC monitor at home for work which is probably the only reason I noticed it at all). I don't want this to turn into an argument about whether it's bad or not--there's no way for anyone to know from photos, it could be fine in person, or even worse, who knows!

What I want to know is, assuming it is bad, if anyone has dealt with Ford on this issue and whether they'd fix it under warranty. I've found a lot of threads about Tesla Model 3 owners with the same problem getting fixed by Tesla, but I don't know the reality of that with Ford. Can I wait for it to arrive for me to see for myself? Or do I need to refuse delivery if that's the only way to make them responsible for it? Maybe I'm being crazy, I dunno, just want to know my options.

You’re always going to get slight differences in colour match when painting on a variety of surface types. In this case it’s plastic matched up to metal. On white and light coloured cars this can be more obvious.
Reading through the various answers here, especially the ones that say don’t refuse it, my advice, based upon experience in UK, is to absolutely refuse it. What you have to let them do is repaint it. The idea here in UK law, is that you give the dealer a fair chance to put it right. If you’re not happy with the repaint (I personally would be pleased it’s the bumper as they can repaint without effecting the metal panels) then you can keep rejecting the work until you are satisfied with the finish. To draw this process to its ultimate conclusion, if they fail to reach a standard you are satisfied with, they have to change the car. In UK Consumer Law anyhow. (I was always lead to believe US consumer law allowed better protection with cars than UK.). The only issue is in this scenario is that you may have a long wait for the car and since the GT350 is based on the 2015 GT, you’ll end up with a 6 year old model. That’s worse case scenario. If you refuse delivery, I am sure there are a ton of eager potential owners who would take it off their hands and the dealer would call your bluff.

Point out your concern, take delivery, allow them the chance to repaint, if the dealership is large enough and they have other showrooms, get them to deliver the car to the nearest to you.

Good luck!

 

[Bikeman315]

You’re always going to get slight differences in colour match when painting on a variety of surface types. In this case it’s plastic matched up to metal. On white and light coloured cars this can be more obvious.
Reading through the various answers here, especially the ones that say don’t refuse it, my advice, based upon experience in UK, is to absolutely refuse it. What you have to let them do is repaint it. The idea here in UK law, is that you give the dealer a fair chance to put it right. If you’re not happy with the repaint (I personally would be pleased it’s the bumper as they can repaint without effecting the metal panels) then you can keep rejecting the work until you are satisfied with the finish. To draw this process to its ultimate conclusion, if they fail to reach a standard you are satisfied with, they have to change the car. In UK Consumer Law anyhow. (I was always lead to believe US consumer law allowed better protection with cars than UK.). The only issue is in this scenario is that you may have a long wait for the car and since the GT350 is based on the 2015 GT, you’ll end up with a 6 year old model. That’s worse case scenario. If you refuse delivery, I am sure there are a ton of eager potential owners who would take it off their hands and the dealer would call your bluff.

Point out your concern, take delivery, allow them the chance to repaint, if the dealership is large enough and they have other showrooms, get them to deliver the car to the nearest to you.

Good luck!

Post #61. OP already has the car.

 

[okfoz]

Glad you got it figured out.
I would have been worried as well, especially with the distance and price of the car.

When I had my '15 Camaro SS, the lines of the car caused me concern
that the car had been damaged on the lot because I could see
variations in the paint from different angles.
It looked like a rear quarter panel had been painted where someone
didn't do a good job matching the paint.

Can't see it here much........

If you look at the Camaro, the rear quarters never match the doors, I have looked at hundreds of these and it is always the case. It is the angles of how the door meets the quarters, I believe this was intentionally done that way a mismatch is not as apparent.

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