How bad is the 5th gen white paint?

I'm kicking around the idea of grabbing up a new 5th gen before they're all gone and the only color within a pretty big radius in the specific trim/options I want is white. I'd consider holding off a few more months to see what comes in but I'm a little worried I'm going to lose out and there are some good deals out there below msrp. I'm not opposed to the color white, but I avoided it on my current 5th gen and went with silver due to all the stuff I read about clear coat and poor longevity. I'd plan on keeping this truck for 10 years until I pass it to my son so longevity or the paint is a big factor for me. For the owners who have older white 5th gens, what say you?

 

Bad enough for Toyota to issue a TSB over it. When I ordered mine last year I told them my dream colour was Lime Rush, but I would take an ORP in anything but while.

My father in law has a body shop and as soon as I told him I ordered a 4Runner he told me to make sure it was not white.

 

I had 0 issues over the short 3 years I owned mine.

I did lift it less than 2 weeks after owning it so not sure if that helps any.

 

The air is thinner at higher elevation, so lifting it probably caused less wind related damage, less drag.

 

It's so bad, that they made 6 other colors so you DON'T get stuck with a boring ass color that doesn't have a TSB on it.

 

Not bad at all.

 

I think it's more a shared OCD among us 4Runner owners when we have the smallest of paint chips. I have a white 2014 SR5 with 113k and the paint looks close to new when sitting next to a 2022. Yes, very small (pin point) chips on the front and a few on the back bumper but again, something only someone with OCD is going to notice... 75% of us in here

With that, I my be an outlier but I think regardless of the fact that a white paint job is harder to care for among all vehicles, you're going to have a rough time keeping the paint pristine if you're out there using the 4Runner in the woods, desert, mountains, etc... If it's going to be a pavement princess then I think you'll be alright.

Good luck with the purchase and decision.

 

Personally I haven't faced any issues with my Rav4, Venza & 4Runner white paint. But I stopped buying white after I got to know about the issues. No white vehicles in my garage now.

 

It's bad. My 2020 had issues within the first 6 months

 

I have a white 2022 SR5 Premium 4WD. It just rolled over 35,000 miles. I have no paint issues and no paint complaints on my white 4RUNNER. I just shot these three pics of my T4R earlier this month, May.

I am in central Texas- the Texas hill country. I’m not sure if that has anything to do with the absence of white paint problems on mine.

My wife has a 2021 white RAV4 XLE Hybrid, currently at 31,XXX miles. No paint complaints on it either.

 

When I had my 2016 Limited in Blizzard Pearl, I had no issues. 110k miles and 4 years of ownership

 

2018, no issues, love it, especially in the summer.

 

21 with no real issues here. Stone chips but to be expected where I live. I haven't noticed any real issues on any of the other white ones I have looked at either. Does it happen, I'm sure it has. Is it common, that I'm not very sure of. That chart a few posts above looks like they stopped on 4Runners after 18 if I'm reading it right, so just get newer than that?

 

And again, those TSBs are for Blizzard Pearl and Super White, not ICE CAP

 

We have had our 2020 4Runner for 3 1/2 years, been driven in salt in the winter, gravel roads, no problems here other than a rock chip here and there. I have heard about difficulty in fixing and repainting though.

 

I had a 2016 SR5 purchased in 2015 traded in 2021 for a 2022 SR5P I still have. No problems with either.

 

So is it possible that those vehicles with the paint problems are all coming out of a specific manufacturing plant? It is my understanding that 4RUNNERS are built at several different plants.

Our neighbor’s son works in service at our local Toyota dealer. One day a few weeks ago when I was at their house, he asked if he could check my T4R’s serial number. I said of course and asked why. He said he just wanted to see where it was built. I went out to the vehicle with him. Within seconds, he proclaimed mine was built at a factory in Tahara. Ohhhhh-Kay…… Lol. I didn’t bother asking what the names of the other T4R plants were. (Cities???)

Since my white paint on my above aforementioned 2022 SR5 Premium 4WD is perfect thus far, I don’t know if I can assume that those vehicles with white paint problems came out of a plant other then Tahara?

If you are shopping for a white T4R, you may want to check the serial number and be sure the vehicle came from the Tahara plant, or, research which of those other plants is putting out the vehicles with the white paint problems, and avoid purchasing one that came from the offending plant.

Hell I don’t know, I’m just theorizing this as a possibility and throwing this out there for consideration.

 

Nice. Yes, the summer heat. We live in central Texas and the summer sun and heat is brutal. That’s why we ended up choosing white for both my T4R and her RAV4- in hopes of reflecting away some of that killer sun.

Initially, I wanted to get a T4R in Barcelona Red, but wifey over ruled me, due mainly to the idea of white reflecting the most sun and heat. My second choice was white, and my third choice was silver. So, this white one fell into my lap at the right time, so we snagged it. Now that I have it, I love the white, and she’s very happy with her white RAV4 XLE Hybrid.

 

Nor are they for current/recent model year 4Runners.

 

I think they all come from Tahara.

 

Take it offroading asap, the you get all kinds of chips and pinstripes, which relieves you any kind of new vehicle OCD that would torment you for months. It took me 8 months, I wish I had done it earlier. Now I do not care, especially knowing it is my forever vehicle, dont even have to worry about fixing it up for sale. If the paint gets too bad I'll touch ip or maybe even spray paint lol. Who cares, as long as it can take me places its fine.

 

Yeah I got white for those reasons as well.

 

Yes, but Ice Cap is still the same 040 paint code as Blizzard Pearl and Super White.

 

Yes, but

 

Probably because not enough issues have been recorded to trigger a TSB. If the paint did not change, why would later models be exempt from this issue?

 

Because they fixed the base e-coat?

 

The thing I don't understand is if it's the same paint code, is it maybe just the way it was being applied? It's crazy there's only speculation around this and for such a major TSB there isn't a statement or any insight to what/if the resolution was. That's what makes me nervous. A lot of Tacoma's have the same paint issues but Toyota didn't include them in the TSB, which is super shitty for those owners.

 

No idea, but I can't imagine that if it was still a huge issue we wouldn't hear more about it. Especially give we are on forums where people would 100% complain about it. 1 or 2 lemons doesn't to me = a huge issue, especially with what I perceive to be the color with the most out there.