If you’ve been keeping up with me, you’d know that I recently purchased a Toyota Supra GR in Absolute White. Well, this is technically the second Supra that I purchased. The first one was in Renaissance Red 2.0. So, what happened? Why did I get rid of the red Supra?
Well, from what I saw, this red Supra had what seemed like a paint defect. When I purchased and inspected the vehicle, it sat in direct sunlight. It was a bright sunny day so everything was very vibrant. It was also a bit difficult to actually make out everything because of all the bright reflections.
When I took the car home, the sun was setting so the light began to diffuse and wasn’t as harsh. It was a lot easier to inspect the Supra. As I looked around, I started to see all these white spots. It wasn’t water spots because I could tell that this wasn’t on a surface level. The spots looked as if they were under the clear coat. As I looked at it more and more, it really started to look like clear coat failure or delamination. It looked as if the clear coat was separating from the base coat.
I’m no paint expert but this didn’t really make sense because this is such a new car. Clearcoat failure typically only happens on old or neglected vehicles. It’s very uncommon to see it on a new vehicle, but you just never know. Anything can happen. I even thought that maybe it was just a bad paint job.
Well, I contacted the dealership immediately. They contacted the local field rep and got an official answer. Apparently, this is a known thing. I don’t want to call it an issue because Toyota doesn’t think that it’s an issue but if you didn’t know, BMW paints these Supras and according to Toyota, whatever process they use, it can result in these spots. The remedy is heat. You can either take a heat gun to the spot, stick the whole car in a paint drying booth or just let it sit out in the sun for a few months. I was told to take a heat gun and try it out for myself but to be careful because when I do this, there is a potential of burning the clear coat. I hit one spot with a heat gun, but ultimately stopped when I wasn’t feeling comfortable doing it anymore. I tried for a while and got no changes so I didn’t want to possibly burn the clear coat and be responsible for damages. Toyota was confident that they can fix it so I ultimately gave them the car back to do whatever they want with it. My dealership got me in my Absolute White Supra and I’m happier with it. I like the finish better, in general, and there’s no spotting.
For me, the decision to get rid of the red Supra was ultimately determined when I asked myself, how much trust do I want to put in what was told to me. How much am I willing to risk and believe that the issue will go away. What if it doesn’t? What if it was a case of clear coat failure? There was no contract stating that if it was clearcoat failure then Toyota will fix the damages. So maybe 5 years down the line and the clearcoat just completely flakes off, what then? I may have to pay for an entire new paint job. Am I willing to risk that? Absolutely not.
And that’s that. I just wanted to make this video and inform all potential GR Supra owners of this situation. A piece of advice, if you are buying a new Supra, examine the paint thoroughly. If you see these spots under the clearcoat, make sure that the dealership knows of them. Make sure that they are absolutely going to take care of the issue if the spots don’t go away or if there really is some form of paint defect. Get it in writing. Look out for yourself because there is a HUGE potential for a very costly repaint of the entire car.
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