We were at a small Chrysler dealership in Colorado on Saturday that sells mainly trucks and Jeeps. They had 4-5 of each on the showroom floor and the closer we looked the worse it got! $70,000 trucks and $50,000 Jeeps with horrible orange peel and even runs on one!

I know previous years of all makes have issues with things like tailgates looking bad but this was ALL OVER!

With robotics painting these, I fail to understand why the quality is so bad?

I know there are places out there that offer "paint correction" anymore, but how do you tell how much clearcoat has been laid down in order to cut and buff without burning through?

I agree with you. Since seeing the latest generation Rams, I've noticed body panels that look wavy under the paint, & excessive & very heavy orange peel. They all look like they have been poorly repainted with no block sanding! They do not look like OE quality finishes. On ALL of the new Rams! 2018-up - new body style only. My 2017 Ram looks great - no paint or finish problems.

Paint on my 06 Ram was terrible. Dark spots in the color coat on the roof/hood, dirt in the clear, uneven coverage, excessive orange peel, etc. Bought it new, checked with a mil gauge and confirmed no repaint, etc. Just garbage paint from the factory.

One of the first 08 Challengers I saw had lousy paint on the trunk lid. Looked like the clearcoat wasn't very thick and the shine just wasn't there like it should have been.

I would hesitate trying to correct the clearcoat on a newer vehicle. I doubt there is enough clear to do that and expect a long lasting finish.

maybe they try to reproduce the paint quality from back in the day?

Every aspect of quality has gone down under FCA. Especially electrical. This is my observation, usually getting a new Ram every 2 years.

As long as people keep spending $70,000 for a truck with deplorable paint quality and a high probability of electrical gremlins, they'll keep making them and selling them as good enough.

I know with the charger and challengers its because they are painted in a very old paint shop and they wont invest in a new one as its in the upper hundreds of millions or something. Not sure about the other cars/trucks as some of those factories have brand new paint shops.

I don’t think this issue is unique to FCA. I have a 2017 Shelby GT350 Mustang that has the same issues, orange peel in the paint and what appears to be some paint imperfections due to debris. I’m on the Mustang boards and everyone complains about the paint quality on these newer Ford cars.

I wound up taking the car to a detail shop and they did paint correction and ceramic coat and now the paint looks awesome but I think it is ridiculous that one needs to do this given what these cars cost new. Beside the obvious paint quality control issues I wonder how much of this is due to the type of paint they are using these days. I know Ford is using the water based paints, not sure about what FCA is using.

Unless it’s so obvious under a test drive , the excitement of buying a new car or truck

How many people when purchasing a new vehicle , are asking to take the vehicle home for an inch by inch inspection bottom to top

On my 11 Ram 1500 I didn’t notice some of the blotches in the hood until it was in perfect light in the garage

Then you take that chance of mismatched paint , fighting with FCA , or even worse paint through your local dealer under warranty


Honestly I know a lot of people could care less - When your jumping into someone else’s brand new vehicle and your feet never hit the floor because of all the garbage , enough said

Maybe an experienced Bodyman can correct me, but, a certain bit of orange peel is needed for paint durability.

For the environmental hoops they have to jump through, and the learning curve of being forced to use water-based paint, I think the manufactures are doing exceptionally well.

My '01 Ram is all original and there are spots under the lower body lines where the coverage is noticeably thin. My '07 Ram is also all original and has way better coverage. The '07 should be around the switch to water-based and it does have more orange peel than the '01.

Looking at new Chargers, Rams, Jeeps and Fords, I notice the paint quality is exceptionally smooth. Almost to the point where it looks like the quality is getting closer to wet sanded and polished show cars. The colors are richer and more vibrant too. Overall, I'm impressed with what is going on with today's colors and paint finish.

Maybe it was a Monday morning paint job.....those pesky robots must have been out partying all weekend. I am surprised they even showed up for work.

My 92 D150 had thin paint on the passenger side door and area behind it and the roof and hood had to be repainted when I first bought it they did it no charge, the door and panel I had touched up a few years ago. I have tried to baby my 08 H.Q.C. I siliconed the inner fender holes and washed and waxed it all the time and hardly ever drove on the salty roads two years ago I started getting the rust bubbles over the passenger side rear wheel and now the other day I noticed them on there drivers side I guess I can't complain as the truck is 12 years old even if it only has 56,000 miles. I really wish Ram still made a short bed regular cab! I am thinking of getting a new truck but mine still looks good , its paid for the rust isn't really noticeable I just got a compliment on the truck the other day.

Orange peel is unrelated to durability. It's a paint imperfection caused by a few different things. A certain amount of orange peel has been deemed acceptable for mass produced vehicle, but it's still an imperfection.

They must have come from different plants, then. ALL of them, despite the shade or color, looked very similar to the surface of an orange. It was some of the worst paint I have ever seen. Looking down the side of one Jeep almost looked like it was painted in one of those little shops in the bad part of town where they shoot it in the driveway! The closer we looked the worse it got.

Most people do not keep their car clean enough, often enough to notice the paint issues. The one thing that is always glaring to me is how the plastic bumper covers do not match the metal panels color wise. It's 2021 for Goodness sake. Can't they figure out a way to paint different materials and get them to be the same color?

Ha! I recall looking at a new red Corvette on a showroom floor back in the late 90's and the rear bumper was a full 3-4 shades off of the rest of the car!

Bumper covers often don't match. Some do, but many don't, and there's a pretty wide range of how bad the mismatches are when they exist. We take pictures of the mismatch before we have a car repaired, so that when the customer comes to pick up the repaired car and cries that the bumper doesn't match, we can show them that it didn't match before, either.

56,000 miles I'd do the body on it or find a southern box