It’s time to get a lawyer. Friend of mine had a lease get in a bad wreck and the body shop in NJ wouldn’t release his car. Also had geico for insurance and geico couldn’t get the shop to respond to any of their requests. Online reviews of the body shop were consistently negative. It’s a common body shop scam in the NJ/NYC area to try to hold cars for as long as possible to run up fees.
Body shops in the area have just about given up working honestly.
The laws must be different in NJ than TX. As far as I know, a shop cannot charge storage on a vehicle once repairs have started. Insurance will not pay it. We never were able to charge storage after repairs began.
There’s a lot different in nj then Texas! Body shops are less likely to jerk you around when you have a gun on your hip.
You are correct 
Should I round up a few “good ol’ boys” to go to Jersey???
Who said the OP’s repairs had officially begun? No parts - no work.
OP…have repairs started?
try DMing their service contact on twitter, maybe you’ll get on a different chain
Body shops can’t charge storage fees if you had given them the vehicle and authorized to repair, whether they started the repair or not.
I too took my car back from a body shop after 1.5 weeks because they didn’t have people to work on the car and so they didn’t even touch it. Moved it another shop who started the work immediately
PM me, I may have a shop for you.
Spoke to the initial adjuster I worked with and he obviously wouldn’t comment on anything lawyer related.
But, he did mention that I can put pressure on Geico claims to force the car into being totaled.
He also mentioned that I should reach out to Hyundai and ask them to either provide a rental car or have them absorb/refund lease and insurance cost starting when the car entered the body shop. I get what he’s saying, both Geico and the body shop are in a jam.
Will keep you guys updated!
Hyundai would only provide a loaner or rental for warranty related issues. I also don’t see them waiving lease payments. You need to stay on the insurance company and body shop.
This is pure deflection from the insurance company to someone else. There is no reason Hyundai will step in and pay a cent. They have no skin in the game, having a part readily available is not a contract they signed with anyone.
To be honest, Geico is primarily responsible here for dropping the ball. Either they need to get you a new OEM part for whatever $ amount, cover the rental coverage for as long as they can’t find a cheaper part, or declare the car total. Geico is losing nothing by keeping your car in the shop, so they have no reason to expedite the process.
UPDATE:
For anyone who has this problem in NJ, I highly suggest you contact the Attorney General and make a complaint. I made a complaint stating that the car has sat in the body shop waiting on parts for months with no clear resolution. They reached out to Geico who in turn reached out to me. Geico did let me know that they had try to source parts from everyone and their mother including KIA - all advised that the particular part is unavailable for the foreseeable future. That left them no choice but to total the car as of an hour ago and I am free of this burden!
Now buy back the car and keep driving it
The car is missing bunch of parts, so not drivable.
However, I did purchase the car for 17k and told the insurance to send me the agreed payout of the car which was 25k! Just have to mail them the title.
Made something out of nothing!