Recently was involved in a car accident, other car cut me off and his rear bumper hooked into the front of my car and ripped off my front bumper. Went to pick up my car this weekend only to find out they installed the bumper off a rwd sedan onto my 06 x sedan. Difference being the x-sedans have the 3rd center vent whereas the rwd sedan does not. Is this just a cosmetic difference or does that center vent actually service a functional purpose? I tried searching and read somewhere that vent actually cools the front diff? Any truth to this?

 

^yes that's the reason for it.
How much actual difference it makes is hard to say.

 

Have them install the correct bumper, having the wrong bumper will be a clear sign that the car was in an accident and probably poorly repaired, and hurt the cars value.

My brother in law had the same exact problem with his 03 Audi RS6, the body shop installed a front bumper from a typical A6 and really made his car look bad, to the point that he had the shop install the correct bumper.

Good luck!

 

Have them fix it, that vent is there for a reason

 

^+1, that vent is functional. Have them get you the correct bumper for sure.

 

+1

I personall would want the correct bumper on the car. I'd have them fix it.

Of course that won't make the shop happy as they will be eating a perfectly good bumper

 

If they don't wanna get a whole new bumper I believe they can just get that vent and mount it in and then repaint, is their fault. I believe deeznuts got that vent fitted onto his rwd bumper just for the look

 

hmm, i'd think that the grills on the rwd bumper are bigger b/c there is no center vent. is the rwd and awd bumper identical w/ only exception being the presence of a center vent?

 

^ yea I'm pretty sure the vents are the same, the only difference is the small opening the X have

 

eff that, tell them to get you the CORRECT bumper from the CORRECT year. I'd be pissed if they gave me a wrong one too.

 

functional or not...I'd be so pissed that the ONLY way I would accept the bumper is if the entire job was done for free!

 

It cools the transfer case for the AWD right?

Get the right bumper on. Dont let the bodyshop get away.

 

The RWD bumper could be easily modified to have the cutout. Regardless, I'd demand the correct bumper be put on. Don't let them get away with that unprofessional BS. They either weren't paying attention or just assumed you were like 99% of car owners and wouldn't notice.

 

Its probably a simple mistake or the shop was being shady cuz the other bumper was more expensive. Now a days the estimating software requires you to add in the vin which pulls up most of the correct part #s but not all.
There will be mistakes

 

They probably charged you for the 06x bumper.. Looked into the older years to find a cheaper alternative to make more money and bought that instead.