Your Totaled-Car Check May Have a Line Called 'Projected Sold Adjustment.' In Colorado, Progressive Is Paying Some of It Back.

If Progressive totaled your car in Colorado any time since 2019, part of your check may have been shaved off by one line on the valuation report. A $15.24 million settlement pays some of it back. You have to file by February 5, 2027.

If you live anywhere else, read on anyway. That line can show up on your report too.

The haggling discount you never got to do

When an insurer totals your car, it owes you the car’s actual cash value. Progressive used valuation reports from a vendor called Mitchell, which find comparable cars for sale nearby and adjust for mileage and options.

Then came one more adjustment, the “Projected Sold Adjustment.” It knocks money off each comparable car’s advertised price, on the theory that you’d have haggled the dealer down.

The lead plaintiff’s report, quoted in the amended complaint, took $1,302, $1,294 and $1,485 off his three comparables, about 8.3% each. Its whole explanation sat on the last page: “an adjustment to reflect consumer purchasing behavior (negotiating a different price than the listed price).”

The complaint alleged the math behind it left out every sale where the car sold at or above list price, plus sales from no-haggle dealers. Leave out the full-price buyers and everyone looks like a great negotiator.

It also alleged that CCC, Mitchell’s main competitor, values cars off list prices instead. Without the adjustment, the lead plaintiff said his payout would have been $1,360.33 higher, before sales tax.

Those are allegations. Nobody has ruled on them. Progressive chose to settle.

What the settlement actually pays

Not the full adjustment. According to the settlement summaries, claimants get 68% of a set “impact amount”: 2.75% of the car’s value for Progressive Direct policies and 2.25% for Progressive Preferred.

Do the math. That’s about 1.87% of your car’s value in the larger class, roughly $374 on a $20,000 car, and $306 in the Preferred class.

Set that against the lead plaintiff’s 8.3%. The settlement returns less than a quarter of the discount he alleged. It’s still real money, and it costs you one form.

Do this

If you’re in Colorado, file at CoTotalLossClaim.com by February 5, 2027. It isn’t automatic. Use the Claimant ID and PIN from your notice. No notice? Request a form through the settlement site. Want to sue on your own instead? The opt-out deadline is November 5, 2026.

If you’re anywhere else and your car gets totaled, demand the full valuation report before you take the check. Look for “projected sold” or any negotiation adjustment on the comparables. Ask the adjuster to justify it in writing with local sales data. If they won’t, check whether your policy has an appraisal clause, which lets you bring in your own appraiser. And check the payout for sales tax and title fees, which insurers also get wrong.

Then price the car you actually have to buy. You’ll pay the sticker, not a projection.

Verdict: file if you’re in the class. Everyone else, read the last page of the report.

How Candid Yak makes money. Some of the products we write about pay us if you apply or sign up through our links. That never changes our verdict, our rankings, or the numbers in this article. We call a bad deal a bad deal whether it pays us or not. Some brands shown in our comparison tools are placeholder examples while we finalize partner agreements, and we label them as such.