Hi All.
Picked up my new wheels a month ago and whilst I love it, my bumper really doesn’t match the front wings. A quick scout around the forecourt seems to tell me that the MX5 front bumpers (the rears seem to be ok) seem to be either a bit of a different shade or a different shade altogether!
Mazda, as of last week, are following the line that there are variations in shade due to the way the light falls. but moreover due to the difference in materials.
Just wondered if people had had experience of this/dealings with Mazda Customer Services on it…? I’ve put a couple of pics below which don’t quite do the real thing justice I dont think! I’m not too impressed that from near or far, rain or shine, the bumper looks like a photoshop effort! Ha ha…
Any advice gratefully received. Cheers.
And just to illustrate the point, another 13 reg waiting to be prep’d at the dealers… Glad this one wasn’t mine…
galaxy grey shows up the discrepancy as well… something to do with the difference in materials from metal to plastic. apparently!
steve
mine is like it and its a galaxy grey too, but i always thought it was down to my bumper being different, i want to try to get it sprayed and matching at some point, does anyone have any thoughts as to if that would work?
This can only be occuring on the very latest facelift as my Mk3.5 suffers with none of this, however, recently I have seen an generally ever increasing amount of cars as a whole with front bumpers specifically not matching the rest of the vehicle 100%.
There are a number of potential options one way I would start though it definitely definitely find someone with a paint thickness gauge (PTG) maybe a professional detailer and measure the bumpers paint thickness if possible against some of the other parts other car in case it has been sprayed or seen any attention (it is well known that cars do receive some after factory treatment sometimes without the owners ever being told).
From there depending on the results might make it easier to say respray or even at worst rejection should it come to that. In my view NO new car should be needing a bumper respraying if it has had no accident damage or reason to, but as I say before this is not the only car I have heard this about (main offender I have seen next time you are out look at the new Jaguar XJ front bumpers closely early 100% of them are of an incorrect shade).
My 3.5 for comparison:
This was a bone of contention on some models when I worked at a Mazda dealership a few years ago. It was only noticeable on metallics, some colours more so than others. To some extent it’s due to the paint laying differently on plastic to metal, but the official explanation I was given at that time was that the bumpers were supplied to the factory by an outside supplier ready painted, so obviously room for discrepancy. It was particularly noticeable on US built 626s, where they stood out like a sore thumb!
Bernard
i could be down to the primer used .
different colour primer gave a blackening effect to my Mk2 , changed the primer after a rub down and the colour matched.
Nothing new I’m afraid, even with some flat paint. My BRG Mk1’s nose looks awful in certain light but when polished & sealed it’s far better.
Mk2 Racing Bronze was very evident in it’s day too from new. I recall seeing a few Mk3’s upon launch in showrooms where the paint applied to the door mirrors looked like an after thought. Pretty grim.
Conversely, our 02 Crystal Blue’s original paint looks spot on. Odd, but there we go!
I’ve seen the same thing on newish Citroens & Pugs though.
Usually metallic so it is not the sole preserve of Mazda.
Thanks for the replies/comments guys. Think I will investigate the PTG suggestion further. I know other manufacturers suffer too (trust me I have looked over the past few weeks!), but Nissan, Ford, Toyota seem to have mastered it with the current popular cherry red style colours. I think I may be on a hiding to nothing, but when the back matches perfectly, it annoys me that Mazda haven’t sorted out the fronts better on a £19k car. Poor form. Ah well…! 
I did wonder if the front bumper was a different type of plastic to the rear (I know nothing about manufacturing etc!)?
My 2009 face lift mk3.5 is copper red and the bumper paint match to the car is smack on so I would not be happy with that…
Johnnie, the service department at your dealership should have a paint thickness gauge, it’s part of the franchise requirement so they can provide figures to Mazda Cars in the case of warranty claims. So they should be able to test it in your presence. Mind you, as the painting process is different between plastic and metal, I think there’ll be a difference anyway, so they’d need to check the rear bumper for comparison.
Bernard
Mine’s velocity red so quite a sparkly metallic (borderline dodgem car if I’m honest) and there’s a slight difference too. Clearly due to the way it lies on the metal of the wing versus the plastic bumper. Not as noticeable as the grey one above. The thickness test will determine if an extra coat would help. Though like suggested above the thicknesses may be different always due to different primers/treatments needed.
Its not just the different materials that is the issue, the reason the colour match is most obviously wrong on metallic colours, is that plastic bumpers are painted whilst on a metal jig with the front of the bumper pointing at the sky (i now this from breifly working at the toyota factory paint department) this means that the metal flakes in the metalics are sitting at 90 degrees to the rest of the car, giving the apearence of a different shade as the sun hits the flake differently,
Taken from my vast stash of pointless automotive knowledge
sam
At last, an answer to a decades long puzzle! Who’d have thunk it? !
