How to Read a Mitchell Total Loss Valuation Report

If your total-loss offer came with a Mitchell report, the number on it was built in a fixed sequence, and each step is printed in the document. Once you know the sequence you can redo the arithmetic yourself and see which lines moved your value. This guide walks through the report in the order it works, using the way federal appeals courts have described it and the line items the report prints.

What a Mitchell valuation report is

Mitchell International licenses a system called WorkCenter Total Loss to insurers. When a car is totaled, the insurer runs it through that system and gets back a document, usually titled "Vehicle Valuation Report," that becomes the basis for the offer. If the first page carries the Mitchell name or says WorkCenter Total Loss, you're in the right place. A report that says CCC ONE needs the CCC guide, and one that says Autosource needs the Audatex Autosource guide.

Published court opinions show Progressive companies using Mitchell reports in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Indiana, and Arizona, and Southern Farm Bureau using one in Arkansas. Insurers change vendors and use different ones from state to state, so go by the name on your own report.

How the report builds your number

The Fourth Circuit laid out the method in a 2025 Progressive case. The software finds comparable vehicles recently sold or listed for sale in your area and adjusts their prices for differences in mileage and equipment. Then, in the court's words:

"If the software identifies a 'sold' price for a comparable vehicle, or if the vehicle is listed at a 'no haggle' dealership, no further adjustments are made."

Freeman v. Progressive Direct Insurance Co., 149 F.4th 461 (4th Cir. 2025)

A comparable with no sold price, listed at a dealership that negotiates, gets a Projected Sold Adjustment. After that:

"The adjusted values of comparable vehicles are then averaged to yield a base value for the insured's totaled vehicle, which may then be adjusted further to account for unique aspects of the insured's totaled vehicle, such as its pre-loss condition and any aftermarket parts."

Freeman v. Progressive Direct Insurance Co., 149 F.4th 461 (4th Cir. 2025)

So the report has four moving parts:

1. Comparable vehicles. Cars like yours, sold recently or listed for sale near you.
2. Mileage and equipment adjustments. Each comparable's price moves up or down to match your car.
3. The Projected Sold Adjustment. Listed prices are cut to an assumed selling price.
4. The base value and your car's own adjustments. The adjusted comparables are averaged, then lines for your vehicle's condition and other items are applied to reach the offer.

Each part is a place where the value can move. Take them one at a time with your report open.

The comparable vehicles

For each comparable the report lists the year, trim, mileage, the price, and the dealer or source, followed by the adjustments applied to it. In an Arkansas case the Eighth Circuit described a Mitchell report built on three trucks for sale within 150 miles of the owner's home, with prices pulled from dealers' websites.

Three things to check on every one:

• Is it really comparable? Same model year, trim, engine, and drivetrain. A lower trim or a smaller engine drags the average down unless the report adjusts for it.
• Is it current and nearby? A listing from months ago or several hours away doesn't show what it costs to replace your car today, where you live.
• Is the price a sold price or a list price? That decides whether the next adjustment should apply at all.

There's more on judging them in our comparable vehicles guide.

The Projected Sold Adjustment

This is the line that gets disputed most. The report's own explanation, quoted in several court opinions, is that the adjustment is there to "reflect consumer purchasing behavior (negotiating a different price than the listed price)." Put plainly, the software assumes a buyer would have paid less than the sticker, so it marks each listed comparable down before using it to value your car.

How much it takes varies by report:

• In the Arkansas case it lowered each comparable by 9 percent of its listed price, which came to $747, $429, and $795 on the three trucks.
• In a Pennsylvania case against Progressive, the Third Circuit recorded an average reduction of 6.7 percent.

The Third Circuit also described where the adjustment is not supposed to appear:

"Mitchell does not apply a PSA to vehicles listed for sale at 'no-haggle' or 'one-price' dealerships that disallow price negotiation. Mitchell only applies a PSA to comparable vehicles that are not yet sold."

Drummond v. Progressive Specialty Insurance Co., 142 F.4th 149 (3d Cir. 2025)

That gives you two concrete checks. Find the Projected Sold Adjustment on each comparable and write down the dollar amount. Then look at who is selling each one. If a comparable carries the adjustment and it has a recorded sold price, or the seller is a one-price dealer that doesn't negotiate, that line doesn't match how the method is described, and it's worth raising in writing.

Our guide to the negotiation adjustment covers the reasoning behind this line and the disputes over it.

Mileage and equipment adjustments

Each comparable is also adjusted for the ways it differs from your car. Two checks cover most problems:

• Direction. A comparable with more miles than your car is worth less than yours, so its price should adjust up. One with fewer miles should adjust down. Confirm the sign on every line.
• Explanation. An adjustment for a package, a trim difference, or an option should be named. A lump adjustment with no label can't be checked, and you can ask what it's for.

The base value: redo the average

The adjusted comparables are averaged into a base value. In the Fourth Circuit case, three adjusted prices averaged $20,531.63, and that became the base value for the owner's car. Your report prints the same kind of figure for yours.

Redo it. Add up the adjusted values of the comparables, divide by how many there are, and compare the result with the printed base value. Then run it again leaving out any comparable that failed the checks above. The difference between those two averages is what that comparable cost you in dollars, and a specific dollar figure is something an adjuster can respond to.

Adjustments to your own car

After the base value, the report applies lines to your vehicle. Courts describe them as adjustments for condition, prior damage, refurbishment, and aftermarket parts. On the page they show up as separate line items between the base value and the final figure.

Each one should rest on something documented about your car before the loss. A condition deduction should match how your car was inspected and rated. A prior-damage deduction should point to real earlier damage, not damage from the crash that totaled it. If a line has nothing behind it, ask for the basis in writing. The condition adjustment guide goes deeper on that line.

If you're keeping the car, expect one more subtraction for its salvage value. Our guide to keeping a totaled car covers how that works.

If your report shows two values

Some Mitchell reports show a second figure next to the one built from comparables. In the Pennsylvania case, the Third Circuit described a "dual source report" that averaged a Mitchell value built from comparables with a NADA value (NADA was renamed J.D. Power Values in 2023), and noted that both components are displayed in the report. If yours has both, check the comparable half exactly as above. The Projected Sold Adjustment only touches that half, so the averaging halves its effect on your final number.

What courts have said about the Projected Sold Adjustment

The adjustment has been litigated heavily, and the results cut both ways.

• In 2021 the Eighth Circuit revived an owner's breach-of-contract claim. He argued the adjustment was made-up and unrealistic, and the court ruled that his claim that the insurer broke its promise to pay actual cash value could go forward.
• In 2025 four federal appeals courts (the Third, Fourth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits) refused to let Projected Sold Adjustment cases against Progressive proceed as class actions. Their shared reasoning was that the insurer owes each owner the actual cash value of that owner's car, so each owner would have to show that their own car was undervalued.
• The Ninth Circuit wrote that there was "nothing facially unlawful" about Progressive's use of the adjustment in the Arizona case in front of it.
• In April 2024 the Alameda County, California District Attorney filed a complaint over arbitrary condition adjustments and non-available comparables in CCC and Mitchell valuation software.

A 15-minute check of your own report

1. List the comparables. Year, trim, mileage, price, seller, and whether each price is sold or listed.
2. Test each one. Same trim and equipment as your car, close to home, and current.
3. Write down every Projected Sold Adjustment in dollars. Flag any that sits on a sold price or a one-price dealer.
4. Check the mileage sign on each comparable, and make sure every equipment adjustment is named.
5. Redo the average. Does it match the printed base value? What is it without the weak comparables?
6. Read every line between the base value and the offer. Condition, prior damage, refurbishment, aftermarket parts. Ask for the basis of each.

You'll end up with a short list of specific lines and dollar amounts. Put them in a written counter-offer that walks the adjuster through each one using the report's own numbers. Our dispute letter guide shows how to lay that out.

If you'd rather not do the arithmetic by hand, upload the PDF to TrueTotal's free gap-check. It reads a Mitchell report, reruns this math, and shows you the insurer's offer next to the figure the report's own numbers support, before you pay anything.