It was actually
@Mr. Natural that brought it up first. :wink: I think you're right with your assessment because I have to be standing at a certain angle while light is shining on it to see the difference.
I was looking at the front trim part on one of the Honda parts websites and noticed it comes in all the colors already painted. I’ll be tempted to look for a replacement that matches better once they start hitting the salvage yards.
Since my curiosity was peaked regarding the color mis-match, along my daily drive this morning I looked at hundreds if not thousands of passing and parked cars - and you know what.... they all had the same mis-match! Some were more noticeable than others where the most noticeable were the metallic colors. I found the color mis-match to be the same on both the Front/Rear bumper covers across all makes of cars. It didn't matter what brand whether Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, Toyota, Acura, Honda, Audi, Range Rover, Subaru, Chev, Ford etc... they were all the same. I did notice however that the shade difference were not as noticeable on SOLID colors such as BLACK, WHITE & the BLUE in the attached photo.
Also, another reason why there could be a difference are the paint additives. Bumper cover paint has a rubberized additive mixed in it for flexibility. That's the reason why the paint just doesn't crack or peel right off when the covers are bumped and dented. The rubberized additive also allows the covers paint to be heated via a hair dryer or hot water to pop out dents in the covers.
So Mr. Natural, don't waste your time or $$$ trying to get a 100% color match because you won't be able to unless you have the entire car re-painted with the front/rear bumper covers attached, but then you'd stand the chance of the paint cracking and peeling off if the covers get bumped.
To validate my point attached are two photos of a Metallic White Accord showing the color mis-match compared to the rest of the body.
The other two photos are of Solid Blue colored Toyota and as you can see there's hardly a noticeable difference.