MOST durable paint color for 5th gen?

Hi Guys,


I'm in the market for a new 5th gen 4Runner, potentially.

All of the talk and threads about fading paint, chipping paint, and damage to paint has me concerned!


I have a few questions, for you veterans here:
1) If you had to pick a color with the LEAST problems, what would you pick? (most durable, least chipping, scratching, etc)

2) What paint is the WORST choice for long-term durability and looks?

3) Does the paint problem only apply to certain years? or only the newer ones? (i.e. 23-24)

 

I can't give you hard data but I'd say white is the worst and if paint was top priority I'd go silver. Not that it's necessarily superior to the others (like blue, red, black) but it'll probably look better scratched than the darker colors.

 

The paint is all the same, a different color is just going to showcase damage differently.

all of the colors are soft and easy to f up. No black. White is iffy.

 

Silver

 

White

 

Historically, I like white cars.

I'm concerned because people say the paint is flaking off, and they having problems on brand new 4Runners.

Has this been a problem for many years on 4Runners? Or only recent production years?

 

Magnetic Gray Metallic

 

Silver is by far the easiest of the metallics. Can't see swirls, scratches, dirt...still cleans up great.

I've never had any of the non-metallics but I'd imagine Underground would still only look clean for a few minutes at a time

 

Don't get closer than that to my 4Runner, PNW forests have turned it into a mess. The dealer had just two 4Runners, the nautical blue and black so I chose black.

 

Ive had my white 21 for almost 4 years. No issues. Not any better or worse than any other color ive had on cars. Does show the orange brake dust spots more. Once a year i take iron remover spray to it.

Cant stop rock chips. I got a white touch up pen from dealer. I just slap some on any spot so it doesn’t get worse.

 

Any thoughts on the "Premium" colors from Toyota? Are they applied any better, or made with different materials?

I'm specifically curious on Solar Octane.

 

Where is it in Washington?

 

I don’t think Toyota paint is better or worse than other manufacturers. My 2019 still looks like new when I wax it. Get the vehicle and color you like and take things as they come.

 

White would be an easy bet as it already reported for problems.

 

BDR

 

Any of the 3 stage paints have an additional coat of clear.

All of the other base/clear coat colors will have similar durability.

Super white or ice cap was the only color that was a single stage paint, unless Toyota changed it at some point.

 

Thanks. What are those 3-stage paint colors?

 

Last 5 vehicles I had were white, thought the Underground looked bad ass, hence, Underground in the garage.

 

Blizzard Pearl and Solar Octane are the two that I know of.

 

The Underground I saw on the lot showed a lot of swirl marks in the sun. I thought it looked great from a bit of a distance but up close I was disappointed

 

I had my 4Runner ceramic coated by a professional shop, in my experience this temporarily (few years) makes it water and dirt repellent but also makes clear coat more durable.

 

I think I ran across a post earlier here that explained the issue overall has to do with mandatory, industry-wide changes affecting the vehicle painting process ...including the switchover to water based paints as a means to help minimize environmental damage, but results in a much thinner, softer paint layer.

So if that's accurate, my sense it's more about choosing a color that is less likely to show the chips/scratches than trying to find a color that's more durable than the rest.

TimG

 

Lovely. Why don’t they just restrict how many kids you can have or hell slowly take us all out. If there are no humans on earth we can’t hurt the environment. No humans on earth means no pollution.

 

I hear you. Listen... I'm all about change that will help slow or undo the damage our species is doing to the planet, but let's be clear that not everyone is pulling in the same direction. Not when your have Fortune 100 and 500 Companies that can use credits to offset their pollution output or dodge switching over to environmentally friendly packaging,etc.

TimG.

 

Silver

 

White was a serious problem on the third gen Tacoma, but haven't heard of such issues (or a least anywhere near the magnitude of the Tacoma) on the Japan-built 4Runner. Believe it was a Texas/Mexico issue.

As far as paints go though, as everyone else said, silver is the magic color. It can still look clean with two weeks of pollen on it. Meanwhile, my MGM shows dust before I can get back in the driver seat after a hand wash. The paint is holding up very well after a year and 11,000 miles though. Zero chips on front bumper or hood. A few on the rocker panel, just past what the mudflaps protect. I recommend checking some of the videos from David of AutomotivePress on YouTube. He does full paint thickness checks and panel gap alignment checks on several Toyota models and always raves about the 4Runner. It has thickness rivaling many Lexus models.

 

Lunar Rock.
Wife liked AG, I got to pick the vehicle, she had final word on color. The AG 4R is a garage queen right now.
The Sandalwood Metallic on the 2nd gen is the best color for not showing scratches/dirt especially in the high desert environment IMO.

 

Regardless of color consider if you can afford it putting xpel film on the front end. You can’t tell it’s on the paint and I feel helps with those tiny pebbles. If you drive in an area with bugs it’s great too. They was off super easy from the film.

 

Probably silver as the best, especially to hide scratches. White is the worst. White flakes off after a few years.

 

My friend has a white pro, has that garnish issue like many of us (posted as a sticky).

He had the hatch repainted at the time of trying to rectify garnish issue, and after one winter the garnish issue back and a bubble in the paint.