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As far as the value of the car I have some advise that may be of assistance. I couple years ago I had a battle with the insurance over the value of my s14. The insurance, like you stated already, contracts a third party to evaluate the worth of the car. Usually this third party is really lazy and just uses the blue book value of the car. In my case, they wanted to only give me ~$3000 for my mint 97 s14. Of course I argued their "estimated value" of my car.
This is where I learned that you do have the power to influence this "estimated value." What you should do, as I did, is search the internet for cars that are for sale and are as similar to yours as possible ie. model, year, trim, upgrades, condition, etc. You will need at least 3 examples to show the company that is evaluating your car. These examples also need to be within 75 miles of where you live, be for sale within 90 days of the time of the accident, and you need to provide a phone number and vin number of the cars for sale.
In my case I just looked in the auto trader and printed up 3 different cars meeting the criteria. I faxed them over to the company and estimated value went from $3000 to $11000!!! I ended up getting a check for the damage done to my car instead of it being totaled.
good luck
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