When I got that car I had no idea of it's back ground. All I knew was it had 33,000 miles on it and I assumed it was on it's origonal filter so I bought it another one. Well I saw that bar not there and still decided to go on, which I'm glad I did because it smelled like a smoker had been in the car, just not smoked in there and the residual smell had somewhat collected on the filter (those things trap a lot). Between replacing that and spraying the fabric with odor eliminator three days later the smell was gone permanently. That car I have since sold, but after seeing how black that filter was I decided I was going to replace the one in my car, even at only 13,000 miles (it might be a few thousand till I get to it, but all well). Actually now that you mention it my car has dealer installed air, and looking at pictures I took of my stereo install no bar to cut. All well.