Auto Insurance Claims: total loss valuations from adp, party claimants, yelloe pages

Question
I was rear ended in sept 08 by a customer of progressive , they want to total my car a 73 lincoln  for barely anything not taking into account all the money we have put into it . they came up with their price by using auto source , auto source compared a supposed like car to mine I am in Pa this car is in Va the only owner info on this paper was a man's name and phone he was very uncooperative  I asked progressive for the vin of this car , they replied they don't keep that information. i finally tracked down the car in va I was told it didn't even run until a couple months ago and needed much repair , the man who told me all this said he would help me , now he won't respond to my emails or phone calls do I have a right to know what shape this va car was really in and it's vin?  also what info should be on the auto source report?thankyou pat

Answer
The liability carrier of the at-fault party has to make you whole. That is, pay the cost to repair your car or replace it with one of like kind and quality, whichever is less. Progressive has a bad reputation in PA as well as other states for short changing third party claimants such as youself. They have no legal duty to you, but their policyholder does once he has assumed liability for the loss. I would deal with Progressive like this: send them written rejection of their offer of settlement of the claim, tell them you will be seeking an appraisal of your vehicle and will hold their policyholder liable legally for the loss. Send a copy to their policyholder.

You can hire a local appraiser to give you an idea of how much your 73 Lincoln was (is) worth. Then send a letter to the at-fault party indicating what you want to do (repair/replace) and inform them you will be holding them legally liable for the loss. For local appraisers consult your yelloe pages or go online to search for one.

You can file suit in a small claims court in the jurisdiction where the accident happened, if it comes to that.