SAEalumnus is right on, with one minor exception: Some states do not require that you have the repairs actually done to your vehicle in order to collect your insurance payout. I was rear-ended about a year ago, and by NY state law, I could collect the dollar amount of the repair and choose whether to have the repair done or not. Since my car is old but otherwise in good shape, and the blue book value of my car was somewhere around a few cents anyway because of its age
, I just set the $ aside toward a down payment for my eventual new wheels. I'm not sure what TX law says, though.
Once again, good luck.
