need help guys.......unsafe car

Ok...Back in Sept I got a ZX2 about a month later had a minor fender bender. Took it to body shop and they said its missing reinforcement bar causing thousands of dollars of damage to my car. I tried talking to dealer but they werent trying to hear me. What I need to find out is "when" that reinforcement bar came off. Do you have any suggestion of where I might take the car to determine that. Body shops/mechanics have no idea....Help me out....please

ZX2girl

You may be getting cheated.
Is the body shop doing the repairs?
If yes, they have an interest in inflating the repair cost and blaming it on a missing component, whether their claim is true or not.
If you are making an insurance claim, the insurance adjuster can argue the damage and repair cost so you don't have to.
If you have to pay for this yourself get your car away from that shop and take it elsewhere.

Call your insurance agent. The company will have a actual expert who can get this ironed out quick and easy. Most body shops are honest, some are total crooks.

I've taken it to 4 different places and they all say same thing missing reinforcement bar. The estimates I have are pretty close anywhere from $3800-4500. So I don't think I'm being cheated from the estimates. Cheated yea when I bought the car for not having this important part on the car.

With the reinforcement bar missing there was severe damage to the frame frails, hood, fenders, radiator, a/c condenser, and core support. Making the costs of these repairs really high. Also with that bar missing the air bags would of never timed right. The bar acts as a sensor for the airbags.

I did have a expert look at the car and he said pretty much what I said in paragraph above..Without that bar the damages are far more severe. He said if it had been on the car there would be little or no damage being it was a low speed collision. (5-10mph) He also said there was repairs from an unrelated accident (and I asked the dealer if the car had been in any accidents he said "no" and I ran my own carfax and it came back clean) In his report he said the car was modifed to be unsafe now and the day I purchased the car.

I have no collision insurance. So these expenses are out of pocket for me.

Yikes, out of pocket. Man that bites.
Being that the vehicle is not that old (basically new), can't you go back to the original seller/dealership and find out why the part was not included. Wouldn't that be a safety violation. Maybe you can notify your local newspaper/tv station that has a consumer watch segment and see if they can help you with the problem.

TS out

Bites isnt the word....

Yea its big safety violations..I have a forensics report saying that the part missing messes with the car overall safety. DOL cited the dealer and then took away the violations because the dealer argued "how would he know the part is missing or I took it off" I have no reason or knowledge of how to do so. This state is so a$$ backwards on stuff...I bought the car 10day after moving to this seatlle. 6 weeks later minor accident...then 4 months of trying to go after these %$*%$*%

Then to top it off my lawyer dropped me.....