  One may consider cross-correlation routines applied to stellar spectra as a
way to determine not only the radial velocities but also to assess the
properties of stellar atmospheres. We show that this is not the case. High
value of the cross-correlation coefficient between the observed and a template
spectrum does not mean that the template corresponds to correct values of
stellar temperature, gravity or metallicity. Cross-correlation operates in
normalized space, so it is not sensitive to scaling or shifting of stellar
flux. It is argued that cross-correlation is useful to efficiently determine
the velocity shift between the observed and the template spectrum. But minimal
distance methods need to be used to determine which template gives the best
match to the observed spectrum, and so derive values of physical parameters. To
illustrate the point we use data from the RAVE project which are being obtained
at very similar spectral resolution and wavelength domain as will be the case
for GAIA's RVS.
