For those of us who have had "totaled" cars (under)valued by
insurance companies, there is an interesting article in today's (July
25, 2000) Wall Street Journal "Drivers Seethe, Sue Over Value of
Totaled Cars".

The article says in part...

"ADP Autosource, a unit of payroll-processing giant Automatic Data
Processing Inc. of Roseland, N.J., is the nation's second-largest
provider of total-loss car estimates, behind Chicago's CCC
Information Services Group Inc. Both ADP and CCC, as well as other,
smaller players, claim to save insurers from paying many millions of
dollars in "excessive claims." In ADP's fiscal 1999 annual report,
the company says its Integrated Medical Solutions
medical-claims-reviewing service studied $6 billion in submitted
provider charges during the past six years, detecting more than $1.5
billion "that were in excess of reasonable and appropriate fees."

But critics have another view. Lawsuits filed in various courts
against ADP, CCC and several insurers allege that much of the money
saved by insurers has come out of the pockets of claimants unfairly
denied the full value of their cars or treatment for their injuries.

In the case of ADP, critics allege that its data are tweaked in
undisclosed ways that favor the insurance companies. In CCC's case,
critics allege that the company cherry-picks the lowest prices from
the data it collects from used-car dealers by, for instance, asking
dealers the lowest price they would accept from a cash-paying
customer, rather than one financing the purchase."

For what it's worth.

Chris