My red bumper doesn’t match!?!?

[Love2Run]

I bought a Red demo P3D with less than 900 miles on it. When I went to pick it up and was pointing out a few paint defects (dust in the paint and couple paint chips) they had the attitude of, take it or leave it, even though I warned them before driving a couple hours that I am pretty picky. I got a good deal, so I figured there would be minor wear and tear on the car. I accepted the wear and tear items I saw given the discount I received and there was no other P3D to fall back on. Today my friend and I noticed that the front bumper looks darker than the rest of the car. So, I looked closely at where the bumper meets the fender and it doesn’t even look like the same paint. The rear bumper matches the car perfectly. The front bumper looks like it has black in it. Maybe it was damaged and repainted? VIN is in the 55xxx range.

Has anyone else seen this? I consider this a manufacturing defect and would like them to fix it.

By the way, I am aware of bumpers not matching on white, but didn’t see anything on red and since my back bumper matches, I know they can do it.

Thank you for your feedback.

 

[Shizzrock]

they're pretty much all like that, some people are luckier than others

 

[Love2Run]

they're pretty much all like that, some people are luckier than others

That is sad...

 

[Matt L]

I bought a Red demo P3D with less than 900 miles on it. When I went to pick it up and was pointing out a few paint defects (dust in the paint and couple paint chips) they had the attitude of, take it or leave it, even though I warned them before driving a couple hours that I am pretty picky. I got a good deal, so I figured there would be minor wear and tear on the car. I accepted the wear and tear items I saw given the discount I received and there was no other P3D to fall back on. Today my friend and I noticed that the front bumper looks darker than the rest of the car. So, I looked closely at where the bumper meets the fender and it doesn’t even look like the same paint. The rear bumper matches the car perfectly. The front bumper looks like it has black in it. Maybe it was damaged and repainted? VIN is in the 55xxx range.

Has anyone else seen this? I consider this a manufacturing defect and would like them to fix it.

By the way, I am aware of bumpers not matching on white, but didn’t see anything on red and since my back bumper matches, I know they can do it.

Thank you for your feedback.

I can’t tell from the picture

 

[UnderCharged]

most of the time bumpers are painted separate from the body, this is because bumpers cant withstand high temps like metal can.

 

[vjason]

Yes but they should be painted at around the same time (paint batch) to ensure consistency. Back in the day when I bought a truck cap the vendor had 6 possible paint chips of “GM black” they used in order to match my truck as close is possible.

I wonder if the bumper was replaced, that might explain it since I’ve heard Tesla ships replacement bumpers prepainted.

most of the time bumpers are painted separate from the body, this is because bumpers cant withstand high temps like metal can.

 

[UnderCharged]

Yes but they should be painted at around the same time (paint batch) to ensure consistency. Back in the day when I bought a truck cap the vendor had 6 possible paint chips of “GM black” they used in order to match my truck as close is possible.

I wonder if the bumper was replaced, that might explain it since I’ve heard Tesla ships replacement bumpers prepainted.

paint lays completely different on plastic then it does on metal, being how tesla uses metallic paint this will only make it more noticeable

 

[jkoya]

So, I looked closely at where the bumper meets the fender and it doesn’t even look like the same paint. The rear bumper matches the car perfectly. The front bumper looks like it has black in it. Maybe it was damaged and repainted? VIN is in the 55xxx range.

Any other pics from a further distance back ?

 

[Perry]

I bought a Red demo P3D with less than 900 miles on it. When I went to pick it up and was pointing out a few paint defects (dust in the paint and couple paint chips) they had the attitude of, take it or leave it, even though I warned them before driving a couple hours that I am pretty picky. I got a good deal, so I figured there would be minor wear and tear on the car. I accepted the wear and tear items I saw given the discount I received and there was no other P3D to fall back on. Today my friend and I noticed that the front bumper looks darker than the rest of the car. So, I looked closely at where the bumper meets the fender and it doesn’t even look like the same paint. The rear bumper matches the car perfectly. The front bumper looks like it has black in it. Maybe it was damaged and repainted? VIN is in the 55xxx range.

Has anyone else seen this? I consider this a manufacturing defect and would like them to fix it.

By the way, I am aware of bumpers not matching on white, but didn’t see anything on red and since my back bumper matches, I know they can do it.

Thank you for your feedback.

Wow! that is drastically different. Have them repaint it.

 

[rainforest]

The picture is too closeup. Take a photo of the entire bumper.

 

[Love2Run]

paint lays completely different on plastic then it does on metal, being how tesla uses metallic paint this will only make it more noticeable

Understood, but the back bumper matches the body perfectly. Makes me wonder if they replaced the front bumper at some point.

 

[ewoodrick]

I bought a Red demo P3D with less than 900 miles on it. When I went to pick it up and was pointing out a few paint defects (dust in the paint and couple paint chips) they had the attitude of, take it or leave it, even though I warned them before driving a couple hours that I am pretty picky. I got a good deal, so I figured there would be minor wear and tear on the car. I accepted the wear and tear items I saw given the discount I received and there was no other P3D to fall back on. Today my friend and I noticed that the front bumper looks darker than the rest of the car. So, I looked closely at where the bumper meets the fender and it doesn’t even look like the same paint. The rear bumper matches the car perfectly. The front bumper looks like it has black in it. Maybe it was damaged and repainted? VIN is in the 55xxx range.

Has anyone else seen this? I consider this a manufacturing defect and would like them to fix it.

By the way, I am aware of bumpers not matching on white, but didn’t see anything on red and since my back bumper matches, I know they can do it.

Thank you for your feedback.

I don't think that you have much recourse, you bought a demo car at a reduced price, you had the option to reject it, but pressure to buy evidently overtook you and now you have buyers remorse.

 

[SSonnentag]

I've seen worse color mismatches.

 

[ngogas]

Bumper was likely repainted at a crappy body shop. Plastic or metal you shouldn’t see contrast color like that.
My model 3 is a darker silver and color match. Since your rear bumper isn’t the same issue it is likely it was repainted by a crappy body shop.

 

[Runebane]

I can see a slight difference in color, especially in the thumbnail version. Time to get the whole thing repainted now. Go for a non-Tesla color. Lime Green, Orange, Taxi Yellow, Neon Pink, Metallic Purple!

 

[ngogas]

Lol

 

[tkline]

Is this just an issue with the colored options? If I just stick with basic black will it all match?

 

[jkoya]

Is this just an issue with the colored options? If I just stick with basic black will it all match?

My Deep Blue Metallic bumpers match the rest of the car.

 

[dhrivnak]

The Tesla picture looks just fine to me.

 

[thewishmaster]

Is this just an issue with the colored options? If I just stick with basic black will it all match?

For what it’s worth, I’ve seen these types of threads mostly for red and white. I don’t think other colors have as many “common” issues (eg. bumper covers not matching the body). Red cars in particular have been hard to paint for some reason, at least early on.