Featured Anyone else concerned that tariffs might make cars more expensive?

I've been wanting a new refrigerator for a few years now. I think I'm going to pull the trigger by year end or first quarter of 2025, at the latest.

I just don't understand why there's NAFTA in place, but talk about tariffs on goods coming in from those countries. Sounds like having a hand-shake deal in place then reneging by saying there was no contract in place. Why would anyone want to do business with a person like that?

Just my 2-cents

 

They will use anything for an excuse, real or not.

Remember the dealer markups over the last few years?

 

What tariffs, I know nothing in a news free zone. Nothing I can change so why fret. Better not to know. It’s more how it was 60 years ago, just get on with life. Mom and Dad are watching Lawrence Welk on tv and no one is letting me go up to the tv and change the channel. A one and a two….
Wait, it was the only channel. I sort of liked Welk somehow, saw enough of it.

 

Holiday discounts on appliances now. Just goes to show how high the prices are at list. Just like most cars.

 

Last week, I was able to get a 2024 Prius Limited from another dealer’s lot because I was beginning to worry about the effect the tariffs would have on new car prices. When I went to pick up the car, the general sales manager told me that I was the second person that morning to pick up a new car as a result of these proposed tariffs. I think we will be hearing more about this.

 

I think it's a foregone conclusion. I'm trying to do my next decade's worth of big purchases in the next 6 months.

 

when we bought our cars in 2012 and 13, they were discounted about $4,000. from msrp.
when we traded last year, the new cars were were msrp, but the trades were much higher also.
the difference was pretty small, especially with average inflation taken into consideration

 

You can get a $4K-$5K off MSRP on Tundras now

Tariffs will mean that your used Toyota won't depreciate as quickly - once they're enacted.

 

At age 74, I have:

• 140,000 mi Tesla Model 3
• 75,000 mi BMW i3-REx

I suspect they'll outlast me.

Bob Wilson

 

The price increases can be offset with the coming transfer of wealth to the corporate ownership class.

The electorate has voted and decided.

 

That's not exactly a good thing.

The COVID-induced scarcity of cars caused a similar reduction of depreciation for used cars, which meant everyone could charge more money for cars that were worn out and needed rebuilds on day one with the 2nd owner.

I think a tariff-induced shortage of new cars would have the same effect.

 

I have heard 2 line of reasoning. First, I believe any country can pull out after giving 6 months notice. Second, NAFTA appears up for renewal in 2026. Either scenario could accommodate tariffs.

 

Already, Toyota, and likely others, are still manufacturing constrained due to electronics and other parts. Dealers, at least in my region, are stuck with whatever vehicles Toyota decides to allocate them. The used car inventory is still low, keeping used car prices elevated.

When I bought my 2017 Prius, I negotiated over $2000 off list. Now, with the 2025 Camry XLE I hope to get in a couple of weeks, they will not budge off list price. A few years ago, many dealers were charging above list price for new cars. When my son traded in his 2015 Prius V on a RAV4 Prime at list, he received $2000 over book value for the Prius and they expected it to be on the lot less than a week due to demand.

 

Tariffs are essentially a tax under a different name.
The difference is, you can make choices that don’t incur a tariff tax.
If they add a tariff to blue cars, buy a yellow one.

Obviously there are limits to this.
For example, if any car with foreign made parts or labor is taxed, you are out of luck as that is all of them.
If the tariff is enacted on cars from China (but not parts), that would be easy to avoid.

Odds are high that any tariffs will be somewhere in the middle.
Given historical tariffs, it is likely we will see some tariffs and they will be challenging to completely avoid.

 

The pendulum swings back and forth every four years, and there aren’t enough votes to change the Constitution. It will settle out. I heard people of African descent are now getting messages by text stating now you can go pick cotton. I told the person telling me it is just another form of bullying. Constitution stands through it.

 

The US illegally kept putting tariff on Canadian lumber up even after NAFTA went into effect.

That is a specific set of tariffs that came about in retaliation to tariffs put on US chickens. Trucks are the only thing still being taxed under it.Chicken tax - Wikipedia

While it did result in foreign companies setting up production in the US, it also deformed the US truck market. Without the competition of the more efficient and reasonably sized foreign models, US trucks became bloated FSPs that would fail on the global market without the protected domestic one.