Purplepeople - they do not pay you blue book. They pay you fair market replacement value. I just went through the car totaling thing and came out $7000 ahead because my car had retained more value than Nissan thought it would.
I owed $23000 on lease payments and a $21000 buy out.
Esurance offered me $25000.
I told them that was not the going price.
After meeting with my private appraiser, they paid me $30,000 ($23 to nissan and the rest to me) which is the price you'd have to pay to replace my exact car.
Most of the time, KBB is more than the actual going price, but if you have a rare or sought after car, the actual replacement value can be much higher than KBB.
On the other hand, if the actual replace value is less than KBB, that is what you get too
-Sean