[Gasssman]

Wow. How many miles are on that red Camry?

The quality of Toyota paint has fallen over the past decade for a few reasons, cost, environmental regulations, and so on.

A lot of manufacturers are experiencing the same issues with paint on newer cars. Each new Toyota that I buy has paint that is slightly worse than the Toyota that it replaced. The paint on my 1998 Camry was pretty great- and still looked good for the most part after 100,000 miles. The 2007 Camry that replaced it had paint that chipped pretty easily from rocks or other road debris. I noticed the first scratch in my 2022 Highlander within about two weeks of buying it.

I don't think that a recall is in the cards. Recalls are generally for safety-related defects. Toyota could extend the warranty or offer a service campaign for the paint- but that's doubtful. Toyota did extend the warranty on the paint of some colors/models- but the 2018+ Camrys weren't included. It generally was their Blizzard Pearl paint that was used on a bunch of different models that caused the most problems.

That red Camry is the worst that I've seen of the 2018-2023 Camry generation. I just had a 2021 Camry SE in that color as a rental- it had 61,000 miles on it and the paint looked pretty rough- with lots of weird scratches and chips. Strangely- none of them were in the normal places that you'd expect to find them- the hood/front bumper/mirrors still looked pretty good.

Since Toyota charges $400 for this red color- you'd think that it would hold up a bit better.

A rental with an up charge paint ?
My last 3 leased cars, 2 Camry’s and my current ‘21 Venza all have the Ruby flare pearl paint,
I agree the paint has faired poorly in recent years especially with rock chips and road debris getting kicked up on the hwy, every panel roof included has chipped paint and now rust spots.
Roof is steel, hood fenders, are aluminum so there are “white” spots where paint chipped.
Leasing a vehicle with these issues are considered normal wear and tear. I don’t expect an issue with turning it in unless there are no new Venza’s at that time which I may buy out and then decide if I want to have it touched up.
Daily drivers on shitty roads, we pay the price. 😐

 

[Gasssman]

Was the Camry that you are having issues with the paint made in Japan or Kentucky? My new 2022 Venza is the Red Ruby Flare and it is a complex paint process. That is why we pay more for that color and as I remember there are two other colors that are $400 plus for the paint. Did you know that for the past few years they are now using latex paint!?!? I'll have to be visual on the paint. Fortunately both my cars are kept in a garage. I've owned Toyotas since 1978 and never had a paint problem. Our son's 2004 Corolla which was a Ruby Red started to have paint issues on the bumpers and door handles when it was about 10 years old but it sat outside.

When I had to have my drivers door replaced thru his insurance by my neighbor backing into it, the shop that did the painting of the new door, (not repaired) the Ruby Flare Pearl was applied perfectly by a paint shop that does mostly custom work and show car quality work. It was flawlessly done you cannot see anything that would indicate the door was painted. That door is the only panel that has no paint chip issues to show, it happened with 1,700 miles, now I have over 30K. So that tells me Toyota of Japan applied paint process sucks as far as my Venza is concerned. Now if I decide to keep it, that shop will be the one to do the repaint or touch up, which ever they recommend. It’s sad that we have lost quality control of a much vaunted OEM nameplate, Toyota has fallen down in this dept.

 

[Gasssman]

If you decide to have plastic surfaces repainted, or replaced and repainted, consider going with a paint shop that will flame treat (or equivalent plasma treat) the surface shortly before painting. These treatments chemically alter the plastic's surface that promote adhesion of paint, adhesives, etc. One also can do this at home using a propane torch equipped with a flame spreading tip, there are a number of video demos and some scientific articles describing the process and underlying chemistry.

My first experience with plastic bumpers was my new ‘78 Z/28 Camaro. I was told that they use a flex based primer and paint onto the polyurethane bumpers. Has this changed since then ? I have not been keeping up on the paint technology in recent years, but I have noticed paint quality in general has degraded from OEM and JDM suppliers.