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I'm surprised there's been no discussion on the impact of tariffs on our favorite subject: cars. While the details have continued to be murky, every vehicle will be affected in some way by the imposed/implemented tariffs. Will you change what you'll buy next? I know personally, my family bought a car before April 2nd as it would become significantly more expensive afterwards. Will the used market spike again like it did during COVID? Curious what people's take is on this? Will this just be another ruse and the tariffs will be dropped as quickly as they were implemented?
I know for BMW and Mercedes, they're eating the increased costs until May 1st. Land Rover has stopped all imports of vehicles for the month, as well as Audi.
There are threads about it in the political section on here. As long as we can keep it civil and not political no reason to not discuss it in here.
I bought 2 cars last year so I'm not in the market for anything, which I'm really pleased about. Tariffs are going sting if they stay around, pretty much every car will end up increasing in price.
We received some communication from our industry lobbying group (I know, I know) about their intent to "work with the current administration" to ensure the industry is able to provide vehicles that consumers can afford.
Originally Posted by From BofA Securities
Trump announces tariffs for light vehicles and some parts
On 3/26, President Trump said the US will impose a 25% tariff on imported cars and light trucks, effective April 3. Around 7.6mm light vehicles are imported annually. That said, the tariffs won’t apply in full to all imports as those compliant with the USMCA agreement will be given the opportunity to certify their US content and the 25% tariff will only apply to the value of non-US content. This will materially lower the tariff on the ~4mm vehicles imported from Canada and Mexico. The fact sheet published by the White House also notes that a 25% tariff will apply to key auto parts including engines, transmissions, powertrain parts, and electrical components. There is potential for tariffs to be expanded to other auto parts as well. USMCA-compliant parts will be allowed to enter tariff-free until a process is established to apply tariffs to non-US content.
Ford relatively benefits, GM may need to re-balance Ford is relatively less affected and may even benefit as it only imports a few models, which account for a modest 20% of its total volumes. GM appears relatively exposed to the tariffs as it imports 49% of its vehicles. Meanwhile, other OEMs with sizable import exposure to the US include Tata (Jaguar/Land Rover), Geely, Mazda, VW, Hyundai/Kia, Daimler, Nissan, BMW, Toyota, Stellantis, Subaru, and Honda (Exhibit 1).
Impacted vehicle prices could climb as much as $10k Based on our analysis, vehicle prices could increase as much as $10k, if OEMs pass on the tariffs in full to consumers on impacted vehicles. This assumes an EBIT margin of ~10% is maintained, vehicles sell at an ATP of $48k, and we then apply the 25% tariff. However, we don’t expect consumers would absorb the price increase in full. Importing OEMs are more likely to sell vehicles at breakeven until they rebalance the production footprint, and we estimate the resultant price increase would still be meaningful at $4.5k. The higher pricing umbrella could be positive for lesser impacted OEMs such as Ford, as it could enable them to raise price and/or gain share.
Risk to auto sales & production could be in millions We estimate that if OEMs were to pass through the entire 25% tariff cost, then the amount of vehicles that would be lost at a base trend level of sales of ~16mm units would equate to about 3.2mm units (~20%). In a less severe scenario where OEMs target breakeven profit, 15% of the tariff costs would be passed through, and lost volume would equate to about 2.5mm (~15%). There is the more extreme scenario that there is no ability to pass through the tariff and the 7-8mm imported vehicle sales drop to zero, but we believe this is unlikely. Please see Exhibit 2 for more detail
Aftermarket is parts market is going to get crushed too. They already got crushed following Covid, with many shops/distributors closing shop.
Centric/Stoptech are going to get absolutely demolished along with others tracing significant supply-chain abroad.
As far as cars, i'm glad I don't need one. Went for a Sunday morning drive this past weekend, friend of mine made an absolute killing on a recent purchase.
Got a Cayman GTS 4.0 brand new, no ADM. Ordered in July, took delivery in Feb with 5 miles on ODO. Essentially, immediately has positive equity in the car. Worth more than he bought it for.
Aftermarket is parts market is going to get crushed too. They already got crushed following Covid, with many shops/distributors closing shop.
Centric/Stoptech are going to get absolutely demolished along with others tracing significant supply-chain abroad.
As far as cars, i'm glad I don't need one. Went for a Sunday morning drive this past weekend, friend of mine made an absolute killing on a recent purchase.
Got a Cayman GTS 4.0 brand new, no ADM. Ordered in July, took delivery in Feb with 5 miles on ODO. Essentially, immediately has positive equity in the car. Worth more than he bought it for.
How much over sticker are used GTS 4.0 Cayman's going for? Did your friend have to pay taxes? Curious as to how much of an 'absolute killing' your friend got on a new purchase?
Car market is weird. I think pricing is at or above reality for most cars on the market except the highly desirable rarer ones. I see barely used 4RS's at sticker or below now. New 992.2 GT3's went up so high in price, I'd be surprised if Porsche sells all of them at sticker especially since they didn't really improve them to speak of to any manageable degree from the .1's.
Lucky for me, I'm mostly burned out on car purchases for now. C8 ZR1 down the road probably, wife will probably get a new Model Y Performance eventually when they come out to replace her '23 LR. Other than that, I'm good.
Shopping a 2025 MX5 RF to replace my wife's 2018 and the prices haven't moved...yet. I got a soft quote of $42k (roughly MSRP) on a club RF a few weeks ago. Touched base with the sales manager yesterday and he swears he's not heard any murmurings of price increases but I have a feeling they're coming.
It will effectively kill my next car purchase. I’m ready after 11 years of daily driving it, to replace my DD. And since I’m going to move in the next several years, I don’t or won’t need a traditional DD. So I’ve been waiting for the all new Celica details to come out. The tariffs will likely kill it from coming stateside altogether. And I’m a JDM customer as that’s all I want to buy, now, the past, and the future. I have a few Japanese vehicles built or assembled here, but the bulk of my fleet was made in the land of the rising sun and that is my preference, to have them manufactured there. It was either the GR86 or the upcoming GR Celica for me to decide on. But with the tariffs in place, well all I can do is wait and see what happens. I’m not going to panic buy anything. I didn’t panic buy anything during the pandemic. When there were firearm, or ammo scares (or both at the same time) I didn’t buy anything. I’m not spending my hard earned money in some panic bullshit, tariffs or no tariffs. I don’t like spending money that way, at all. All my spending is planned out well in advance.
And since I have a garage full of JDM vehicles I’m none too pleased right now. If I need any parts, they’ll be more expensive. And like said above, the aftermarket, where I spend a lot of money, is going to get killed. This whole situation just sucks for anyone into Motorsports. All this bullshit is going to do is hurt the consumer and hurt independent shops. I can or could definitely wait out this administration and start buying again or spending money again in 3 years 9 months. And I may just do that. I’ve got 3 different vehicles I want to mod in the garage. And as I said, I want a new DD. Looks like I’ll be hurrying up and waiting. This blows. This could kill Gazoo Racing vehicles coming stateside and I already have one of them and wanted a 2nd. I loathe politics.
I haven't seen or really looked into the exact terms regarding car tariffs but obviously it will likely vary quite a bit based on the specific car and make/model. I was poking around and there are a good number of cars made here in the US (not sure what % exactly). A lot of Acuras (ya they don't sell a ton of them anyway) and Hondas. I think Canada makes a lot of Hondas but maybe it won't be too difficult to move some production here..? Who knows. I honestly don't know where domestic cars are made, I think a lot are made in Mexico? The cars that will be hardest hit are obviously the foreign brands that don't have any factories here.. I think Porsches are all made in Germany, Range Rover, some BMWs and Mercedes. If Porsches cost another 25%, I guess I'll opt for a domestic sports car at some point. I guess either Coyote or LS powered. As long as you don't need a car soon, I'm sure the supply chains will work themself out over the next year or two.
The big three are definitely getting hammered by this hard - GM, Ford, and Stellantis. Lots of production in Mexico for GM and Ford. Stellantis brands in Mexico, Canada, and even Italy, not much in the US other than Ram 1500 and a few Jeep models.
Acura, Honda, Toyota, and Lexus have significant US presence for a good chunk of their models.
Audi and VW have already paused all shipments to the US. Any cars that have arrived are being held in ports and not released to dealerships.
I'll leave it to you all to search your own news source where you'd like to receive the details.
Manufacturers are going to delay deliveries where they can, hoping people come to their senses and make changes in coming weeks. I am pretty sure they are lobbying the US government already. Vehicle prices are going to skyrocket if things don't change, no question about it.
Subaru of Canada is now brining all vehicles in from Japan, no more US produced Subarus. SOC always brought in a large number of models and vehicles from the Indiana plant , that has ended and all models now coming from Japan. That will hurt the Indiana plant, one side effect people did not calculate, I bet that is worth enough production to lay off an entire shift at that plant.
You will now have a Subaru BRZ selling in the US for $39,000 U|S while the same car sells in Canada for $33,000 Canadian, that will is a huge difference.
Last edited by zeroptzero; Apr 8, 2025 at 05:33 PM.
Making New Cars Expensive Again
