A projected sold adjustment is a deduction your insurer’s valuation software applies to the advertised price of each comparable vehicle used to value your car. The reasoning is that used vehicles usually sell for slightly less than their listed price, so the listings are marked down before being averaged.
It is one of the least understood lines on a total loss valuation report, and one of the most consequential, because it does not reduce your vehicle’s value once. It reduces every comparable the calculation is built from.
Here is what it does, where it currently stands legally, and what to ask about it.
What a Projected Sold Adjustment Actually Does
Your settlement figure is built by averaging several comparable vehicles after each has been adjusted for differences in mileage, options, and condition. A projected sold adjustment is applied on top of that, lowering each comparable before the average is taken.
The arithmetic matters here. Because the deduction lands on every comparable rather than on the final figure, the average falls by the full amount of the deduction. If each of four comparables is marked down, the resulting value is not reduced by a quarter of that markdown. It is reduced by all of it.
The adjustment is usually shown as a separate line beside each comparable, sometimes labelled projected sold adjustment and sometimes worded differently. If you cannot find it, that is itself worth asking about, because it may be folded into a figure rather than displayed.
Where the Projected Sold Adjustment Stands Legally
This adjustment has been challenged repeatedly, and it is worth being accurate about the state of play rather than overstating it.
In April 2026, a federal judge in Illinois denied class certification in a case challenging Progressive’s use of the adjustment. That decision turned on whether the claims could proceed as a group, not on whether the practice itself is permissible, and comparable litigation continues in other jurisdictions.
So no court has declared the adjustment unlawful, and none has declared it sound either. What that leaves you with is narrower but more practical: it is an adjustment like any other on your report, and the ordinary rules about how adjustments must be documented still apply to it.
The Other Line Worth Checking: Condition
Condition is the most subjective input in the whole calculation, and it moves the number more than most people expect.
A 2019 patent application from Mitchell International describes how one of these systems assesses a total loss vehicle. It scores four groups of components: interior items such as carpet, glass, dash, trim and seats; eight separate exterior sections; mechanical elements including the engine compartment, braking and steering; and the tires. Each part carries a weighting derived from its rank, how often that kind of wear occurs, and its value relative to the vehicle as a whole. The resulting score then reduces the market value.
One detail in that filing deserves attention. The document describes the assessment as drawing on proprietary rating data, meaning the precise arithmetic converting a condition score into dollars is not published. You are asked to accept a deduction whose method is not disclosed.
That is exactly the tension with the rules below.
What the Rules Require of Any Adjustment
There is no single national standard for total loss valuation. Requirements are set state by state, and some are considerably more specific than others. Two examples show the sort of language that matters.
California. Under 10 CCR 2695.8(b), adjustments from the cost of a comparable automobile must be “discernible, measurable, itemized, and specified as well as appropriate in dollar amount” and documented in the claim file. The same section requires a comparable to have been available for retail purchase by the general public in the local market area within 90 calendar days of the final settlement offer.
Washington. Under WAC 284-30-391, insurers must base offers on “itemized and verifiable dollar amounts,” and any additions or deductions “must be explained to the claimant and must be itemized showing specific dollar amounts.”
Read those against a deduction whose derivation is proprietary and the question almost asks itself. Neither rule applies outside its own state, and yours may set a different or lower standard, so check what your state’s department of insurance actually requires before relying on either.
How to Question Either Adjustment
Get the full valuation report. Not the offer letter. Ask in writing for the complete report including every comparable vehicle and every itemized adjustment applied to each one.
Ask what supports the deduction. For a projected sold adjustment, ask what evidence shows those particular vehicles sold below their advertised prices. For a condition adjustment, ask which components were marked down, on what observation, and what dollar figure was attached to each.
Check the condition grade against your actual vehicle. Vehicles are frequently graded at a default average. Service records, recent tires, a major repair, and photographs taken before the loss are all evidence the grade should be higher.
Put it in writing and keep it. If the matter later goes to appraisal, a documented request that went unanswered is more useful than a phone call nobody recorded.
If the insurer will not revisit the figure, check your policy for an appraisal clause. Most auto policies contain one, allowing each side to appoint an independent appraiser with a neutral umpire deciding if the two cannot agree. We covered that route in what to do if you disagree with your total loss settlement.
This is general information about how these valuations are constructed, not legal advice about your particular claim.
If you would rather have someone read the report line by line, My Write Off’s total loss appraisers review valuation reports, identify comparables and adjustments that do not hold up, and assemble the evidence needed to support a higher figure. You can request a free valuation review to begin.
