(FORTUNE Magazine) – Americans spent about $22 billion last year insuring their cars against damage and theft, and insurance companies paid out some $16 billion in claims. Certified Collateral, formed in 1980, expects to earn its first profit this year -- $1.4 million on sales of $5.4 million -- by mediating between the two. Instead of sending claims adjusters to determine the damage to a policyholder's car (or to guess the value of a stolen one), insurers like State Farm, Allstate, and Aetna tap into CCC's computerized database of used- car market prices. They pay about $30 each time they use the Chicago company's database, which is updated daily and is thus more current than the ''bluebooks'' the National Automobile Dealers Association publishes every month. Consumers benefit because CCC is impartial and because it can help them find replacement cars by drawing on the 1,100 dealers who provide the used-car information. Certified Collateral's stock -- recently selling at $11.75 a share -- has appreciated 50% since first offered in December 1983.