Just bought a 2013 Odyssey with cash. Won't be paying much more for insurance than we've been paying on the 2002. With any luck, it will be our last van.
Wouldn't be buying umbrella insurance if we had spent the last 45 years buying cars on credit.
Great post by @catch22 immediately above this post. I wasn't driving in the 60's. but we ended up driving several cars from that era.

@Crash You noted:

Remember when dents could be hammered out and sanded smooth again? Check out the solidity of a 1958 DeSoto vs. a compact 2023 Suzuki sedan.

Note: dents can still be 'worked' out, just adjust for inflation.
Generally, we're talking more than fender dents, eh?
I was auto driving in 1963, in no seat belt cars. No 'new' safety glass in windshields, etc.
When I bought my first new car in 1966, some advertising mentioned the 'new' safety glass windshields, being: 'Beginning in 1966 cars came equipped with improved laminated windshields that could withstand nearly three times the impact of earlier versions. In the 60s and 70s Federal Motor Vehicle Safety standards were set for the strength and clarity of laminated windshields (FMVSS 205); windshield retention strength during accidents (FMVSS 212); roof rigidity in rollover accidents (FMVSS 216); and limits on windshield penetration (FMVSS 219). 'The car also had 'lap' seat belts.
My graduating class lost several classmates from auto accidents. They likely would have survived had they been driving a vehicle built in the last 10 years.
Three weeks ago, 5 local high school kids were returning from a morning STEM class and the driver lost control of an Equinox. The SUV crossed the two lane road center line, dove into the ditch and then rolled about 6 times. Only one passenger had a broken leg, with the others having bangs and bruises. The photo of the SUV looked really nasty.
An add:
Auto Crumple Zones, a brief article. These zones are intended to protect the passenger compartment and the folks within.
Anyway, things aren't always simple, eh?; without knowing more. You've watched the 'crash tests?

The CPI index this morning (May 15) was down a bit, which is good; but Bloomberg cited that the very large increases in auto insurance (which is a portion of the index) had an affect on the CPI not being lower. So, as has been discussed here; auto insurance rates are being noticed by others, too.

From NYTimes:

two years ago ... [t]he Covid pandemic disrupted supply chains... making spare parts hard to get; out-of-practice drivers emerging from lockdowns caused more severe wrecks; and technological advancements like motion sensors made even the simplest parts, like a fender or a rim, expensive to replace.
... Car insurers are still raising prices steeply: The price of motor vehicle insurance rose more than 22 percent in the year through April. ...
That has made car insurance a prominent factor preventing overall inflation from cooling more quickly, ...
A key reason car insurance costs are rising so fast right now has to do with how the industry is regulated. ... [A combination of insurers not having been able to set rates intelligently because of skewed historical driving patterns during the pandemic and because of regulatory backlogs when all the insurers finally filed for increases all at once.]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/15/business/car-insurance-cost-inflation.html
FWIW, I just got my quote and it's about 25% above a year ago (I'm on a 6 month cycle but I'm looking back to the mid 2023 bill). It's in line with the industry but it still stings.

I’ll have to confess … in several hundred flights over 50+ years I’ve never found myself ordering pizza delivery at 2:30 AM from some outfit in a Chicago suburb. Flight was more than 7 hours behind schedule. Missed a connection home. Booked a room near O’Hare. All 4 of my cards were declined the first try. One local bank debit card went through the second time. I had called the bank before leaving and left travel notes. The pizza was great. I never eat it except under the most stressful travel situations. Last one was 4 or 5 years earlier when got stranded in NYC an extra night. Which was better? I’d give a slight edge to NYC pizza.
Sorry to deflate your balloon @msf. Go ahead and use your “special offer.” I don’t think I want any part of this. :)

Two of my remaining active accounts (and a few dormant ones) migrated over the weekend and so far smooth as silk. Began placing trades first thing Monday morning. I received my checks for my taxable account as promised a few days before the transfer. I do not embrace change much but so far no trauma attached with this changeover. I had a dormant account move over last year and I transferred monies from TD to that account to familiarize myself with their platform. Also Schwab had access to more funds than what was available to me at TD. My only remaining concern is receiving my accumulated dividends from the funds held before the transfer.
I thoroughly enjoyed my years at TD Ameritrade (after they absorbed Scottrade) Can’t say there was ever a problem. A few observations. The private client service department at TD was heads above that of Schwab. The reps far more friendly and down home at TD. Fortunately most of the TD reps have migrated to Schwab too. Most annoying is at TD I could get a rep after one or two rings. At Schwab have to dance through more hoops. But what are my options. I had a couple problems when I was at Fidelity in years past and would never return there. E*trade doesn’t have the fund selections needed. And at least from what I read - like everywhere - Vanguard has had deteriorating customer service over the years.

And they don't tell you much about how much they get paid. Most "directors" are listed as directors for dozens of funds
You may be confusing executive management (full time job) pay with the compensation given to The Vanguard Group's board of directors and/or the compensation given to each Vanguard Fund's board of trustees.
It's not unusual for companies to keep secret their executive (management) compensation. According to Bloomberg (via Investment News) "Vanguard hasn’t reported figures on pay to senior officers since the 1990s."
https://www.investmentnews.com/industry-news/archive/vanguard-keeps-its-own-management-pay-under-wraps-70402
But that doesn't seem to be what you have in mind. You describe what some people get as "Not bad for what, a few hours work a month or so!". Those are not full time senior officers, those are directors or trustees.
AFAIK, The Vanguard Group's directors receive no compensation for their work on that board. (I'm interested if anyone has concrete information on this.) Rather, they receive compensation for working on trustee boards of individual Vanguard funds. Each board pays a rather modest amount, but when you add up 200 funds, that does come to a pretty penny.
This compensation is public record, easily accessible.
Jeff DeMAso of Independent Vanguard Advisor says that Deana Mulligan got $1.5 million as a director in the six years she was on the Board
Actually, it was about 20% more than that. It's all in SEC filings:
Total compensation from all Vanguard funds (not The Vanguard Group) for Deana Mulligan was:
2023: $330 K
2022: $330 K
2021: $330 K
2020: $287.5K
2019: $287.5K
2018: $287.5K
Total:$1852.5K
Perhaps Jeff DeMaso disregarded the 2023 compensation because Ms. Mulligan chose to defer that compensation. I would still consider her compensated for that year.
FWIW, I used Wellington's SAIs. This data is available in all Vanguard funds' SAIs.

Following are excerpts from a current NPR report:

About 8.9% of credit card balances fell into delinquency over the last year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — a sign that a growing number of borrowers are feeling the strain of rising prices and high interest rates.
"Everything is more expensive. Debt is more expensive. Rent is more expensive. Food, gas, everything," says Charlie Wise, senior vice president at TransUnion, the credit reporting firm. "Even with relatively healthy wage gains we've seen over last several years, many consumers just aren't keeping up with the price pressures."

Maxed-out borrowers are a big concern-
The New York Fed's report shows the pain is not evenly spread. While many households are on solid financial footing, almost 1 in 5 cardholders is "maxed out," using at least 90% of their credit card limit. That's worrisome, the report says, because maxed-out borrowers are much more likely to fall behind on their bills.
People under 30 and those who live in low-income neighborhoods were particularly likely to be maxed out, according to the report. Among Generation Z borrowers, about 1 in 6 was close to exhausting their credit, compared with 4.8% of baby boomers.

And they don't tell you much about how much they get paid. Most "directors" are listed as directors for dozens of funds
Jeff DeMAso of Independent Vanguard Advisor says that Deana Mulligan got $1.5 million as a director in the six years she was on the Board
Not bad for what, a few hours work a month or so!

IOW, the usual once a decade (or more) unexpected shocks.
https://www.ft.com/content/5148cd1e-cf01-11e4-893d-00144feab7de
At least we made it to 36,000, also predicted in 1999.
https://www.amazon.com/Dow-36-000-Strategy-Profiting/dp/0812931459

The Glassman [Dow 36,000] thesis was that investors had somehow, for all of history, misunderstood how truly risk-free investing in stocks was, and that they would within a few years come to this realization.
...
No one could have, in 1999, perfectly anticipated that there would be a crash in tech stocks, the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, two major wars and a global financial crisis over the subsequent decade.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/03/08/the-author-of-the-spectacularly-wrong-dow-36000-has-some-new-thoughts-on-the-stock-market/

No net inflation for me other that insurance since I am getting 5% on my MM account.
Insurance industry is working together as monopoly even though they are regulated.
I am sure people who are employed are getting more money in salary.
Reason - cars are costing more so more cost to fix in the event of an accident.
Home - climate events are more frequent and fixing home is costly (I didn't make any claim in the last 20 years doesn't make it). My ins. is increasing by 70%. A minor weather event (Hail) in my neighborhood & I see few houses getting roof replacements - I am indirectly paying for them in increased ins.

We’ve had the Fidelity rewards VISA through Elan for several years with few problems. We use our credit card for almost all purchases, so the rewards add up — $1,245 over the past year. Our account has had false charges several times, which were immediately caught by Elan and refunded if applicable. In those cases, they’ve sent us new card right away.

Some great insights. The project’s funding (hopefully late summer) was already incorporated into my IRA withdrawal planning. I actually shifted some $$ Friday into cash as I noted on the “buy / sell” thread. If the Fido offer received yesterday by mail was indeed “free money” it would make more sense to leave the funds growing for another 12-15 months inside the 2 IRAs (Roth / Traditional)
But little is free in life. And there are the risks mentioned (mainly a possible hit to my insurance premiums) plus the unknown risk of assuming next year would be a better year to pull the IRA funds than this year. At 5% compounded, 15K would net something north of $750 over a year. Not a big deal in the whole scheme of things. Possibly, I might max the card out and pull the funds monthly to repay. When you’re mostly fully invested all the time as I tend to be, pulling money in stages is a bit easierl
Fortunately the project is 1-3 months away. No start date yet. Labor shortage here as has been for many years now.
Yuppers - As someone noted, some merchants (including one of my physicians) charge a fee for using credit cards. I’d be willing to bet that’s the case with this company. Just displaying credit card symbols on its webpage doesn’t mean they won’t charge a fee.
This “deal” is fast losing its luster. :)

Thanks, Yogi. Good idea.
@rforno, I called the transition team to get an ETA on the lot history so I do not check before that date and was told there is no pending work on it (i.e., no ETA) as they are not aware of any issues. (I had to disclose to the Rep what I did for a living so he takes me seriously and who he needs to go talk to.)

Good luck! (avoiding this kind of drama was exactly why I fled TD the week after they announced the merger -- I've gone thru enough retail brokerage mergers over the years and knew what I was in for. Though I held off moving everything for a while until my TD guy's pre-merger review took place, since I liked him and didn't want to ding him with noticeable AUM leaving his book as merger-mania was sweeping the company)

A problem with relying on a one year impact rule is that the institutions saying this almost always equivocate - "may" affect your score, "usually", etc.
Experian recently (2023) wrote: "While a hard inquiry will stay on your credit report for two years, it will usually only impact your credit for up to a year, and usually by less than five points."
Likewise, FICO writes: "In general, credit inquiries have a small impact on your FICO Scores. For most people, one additional credit inquiry will take less than five points off their FICO Scores."
That doesn't seem to match the experience you had. If Experian got the size of the impact wrong (or at least wrong for you), can one expect Experian's estimate of the duration of the impact to be any more reliable? All these "usually" statements from the industry seem designed more to calm critics than to provide actionable information.
There's a thread on MFO now about how fast insurance rates are going up. I'm disinclined to throw another variable (credit score) into the mix. As you wrote, it's a personal choice.
https://www.bankrate.com/insurance/car/rates-by-credit-score/

As Yogi alluded to, this is the first outsider to hold the Vanguard CEO position.
I'm somewhat surprised that Greg Davis, President and Chief Investment Officer,
will not assume the CEO position.
Mr. Ramji was most recently BlackRock's Global Head of iShares and Index Investments
where he was responsible for two-thirds of the firm's assets.
Prior to this, Mr. Ramji was Head of BlackRock's U.S. Wealth Advisory business.
In this role he implemented new portfolio technologies to reach thousands of advisors
and increased cohesion between the iShares / active teams around the mission of building better portfolios.
Will he ameliorate the many customer service issues which have plagued Vanguard for years?

Sure, it's a personal choice. Just to add my 2c: a CC application itself normally causes a hard pull on the credit report which can, indeed, 'stay' on your report for 2 years but 'affects' your score for 1 year. I did this offer last year - it cost me 12 points w one of the agencies (I did not track It did not go on the other two).

My experience is that the credit hits are at least that bad. When my current balance across all cards approaches 10% of my total credit limit across all cards (and not more than 25% on any given card), my credit scores take 20 point hits. I have a good enough credit rating that this doesn't worry me, but this is still crazy.
A hard pull can stay on your record for two years. Even if you abort an application before completing it. (I suppose one could contest that part of one's credit file, but what seems to matter is the fact that a credit inquiry was made, not so much whether it was justified.)
So I'm not too inclined to play the credit card application bonus game. If there's an offer on a card I wouldn't consider holding long term, I'll usually pass.

It was actually Elan (which I declined to name earlier) that has caused my angst. But honestly, I’ve been treated like royality by them for 15-20 years except for the recent change not allowing domestic travel notes. Sorry to hear people have said unkind things about them.
Everyone is moving more and more to automation. Humans are too expensive. I suspect that’s where this travel-notes change stems from. Carrying extra cash in your sock or wherever doesn’t work very well at 2:30 AM and you’re stranded somewhere ordering food online.
I carry 3 debit cards counting the Fidelity C/M card. Just one real CC.
My plan: Keep the current Elan for what I use it for. Call Fido to get a specific dollar offer before applying for their card. If it’s close to the 15K the planned infrastructure project will require, I’ll be glad to put that on their card, invest the money elsewhere, and pay them back a year later. (And maybe pocket the extra 2% as well).
And - Oh. Thanks for the help everyone.

Naw @Mike … I prefer generally to pay cash for most things. (Just sent the propane company a $420 check for a tank top-off.) But for airfare, hotels, rental cars etc. I rely on credit. I could make an exception and charge the home project if Fido really wants to lend me 10 or 15K interest free for a year. Doesnt’t take rocket science to know you can invest that amount for 5%.
I’d rather not name my current Visa provider. Been with the firm 20 years. Large well known financial services company. But they will no longer accept “travel notes” ahead of domestic travel. So … after ending up stranded out of state in the early AM hours in January due to a flight delay, they declined a purchase for food (as “suspicious”). And the food / delivery provider would only accept credit at that time of night.
I do have a debit card tied to my Fido cash management account. And, thankfully, they allow you to leave travel notes, as I would expect their signature credit card would.
Thanks for the thoughts folks. I was thinking maybe there’s a hidden fee with the Fido card? Or maybe they’ll low ball me by offering only a small initial credit limit? Won’t know until I apply. Offer’s good until some time in July.

@hank
I've had the Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature Card for several years.
It has no annual fee and it offers 2% cash back on all purchases.
Foreign transaction fees for international purchases were removed last year.
My current APR for purchases and balance transfers is 19.24%.
I pay off the monthly balance in full.