It wasn't just the red painted bumpers that are a problem for Tesla. It's all sorts of colors. The problem is that the paint process is slightly different for the plastic bumpers vs. the aluminum panels, and I suspect there are some shortcuts being taken in the factory to get these painted fast enough -- namely, that bumpers are painted by different people at a different location in the factory. A lot of people would just accept it as is, and I know they are banking on that.
We took delivery of my wife's White Model 3 SR+ on Dec 28th. One hell of a car. I liked it so much I stole the car from her that day, gave her my Audi, and promptly ordered a P3D+ (which arrives in the next 2 weeks, and she'll get her Model 3 back
).
However, the white color and texturing were different on the bumpers than the main panels. It was pretty obvious to me. But you had to look in different lighting. There was also a dent/ding on the side/edge of a door panel (from the factory! you could tell because it was fully painted and clear coated over).
During delivery it was such a rush through, and the guy handing over the car wasn't even someone who worked in that department. So we didn't get it documented.
After a month, I made a service appointment through the app, went into the appointment, an advisor and a technician looked at the car and deemed it a Tesla problem and scheduled the repair at a nearby partner autobody shop. I got a Model S loaner via Enterprise for over 2 weeks, and the auto body shop knocked it out of the park.
$3500 for the repair, $1500 for the Tesla Model S loaner. Tesla's dime.
Sad to think they could have saved $5000 and a whole lot of hassle if they had just made it correctly to begin with.
But at the end of the day, I'm happy! And I'm still getting the second car.