Just about EVERY liability company is like that about property damage claims. I have a client with a totaled late 70s Datsun Z that ran as a daily driver while yet being in process of being restored, and Farmers faxed me either an ADP or CCC print out of three "similar" cars, for sale over a period of three months, and the print out gave its speech about how the company is out to be thorough and fair in finding comparable vehicles and aren't we wonderful,... and it offered $800. Thorough? Fair? What BS. Between a local Z club, a local Z car show, and the internet, we found 20 LOCAL, RECENT cars that were more "similar" than those found by the company for Farmers, and that company had not found ANY of the cars we found. Our findings indicated client's car had a value of $2,000. Farmers' response to all the cars we'd found was to stick to the prior $800 offer.
Liability insurers KNOW that your recourse stinks and they take advantage of that. Typically, if your car is destroyed, you NEED another one to replace it IMMEDIATELY to get to work, drive the kids, etc etc etc. and suing the liability company's insured will take MONTHS to get to resolution, during which time experience tells them you will turn desperate enough to take their prior crummy offer. Since that works for them 95% of the time and thus saves them bunches of money, why should they give a rip whether that's fair or not? They point at the 95% of times people give up and settle and take chump change as proof of how fair they are being: "If we are so unfair, then why do people accept our offers 95% of the time?"
Your own company will start out playing the same game with you. BUT your recourse with your own company is much different. If you and your own comprehensive/collision insurer do not agree on what your car is worth, your policy probably provides a dispute resolution process like you hire an appraiser, your company hires an appraiser, and if those two do not agree on an outcome, then those two agree on picking a third appraiser. Three local appraisers will VERY LIKELY generate an outcome WAY ABOVE what the silly ADP/CCC print outs show, and that process may take only two weeks instead of half of a year. Odds are very good that the extra expense to you of paying for 1.5 appraisers will be a lot less than the amount by which you beat the SPT offer and you come out better. And you make sure your appraiser has pix and contact info on what was involved with your custom brackets, amps, etc to fully appreciate/factor/value what those mods/additions involved, although you should NOT expect to get every dollar back. (If you paid $20,000 to have a rusty Yugo painted metal flake pink, would the Yugo then be worth $20,000+? No. So if you had special stuff put in your car that cost you $2,000 to purchase and install, but nobody else wants in their cars, the FMV of the car will not be raised $2,000 by your additions.)
