After entering a car accident last month, Debbie Boyd was hoping that his Chevy Volt could be repaired.
But the car was declared a total loss on Monday, three days before 25% of President Trump's rate on imported cars and light trucks will enter into force.
“It's like the worst imaginable moment to buy a car, and uncertainty is killing me about what will happen and how prices will affect,” said Boyd, 74, a retired sea lawyer. “I anticipated driving my car for a long time, sailing through the rates, but now they face them.”
He hastened Culver City Toyota on Tuesday.
“I'm going to buy what is in the lot, the current inventory, just to avoid it,” Boyd said. “Today, tomorrow, what they have available is what I will choose. Obviously I need a car. I would only like it to be now.”
Boyd's anxiety was widely shared among many cars buyers in southern California who were struggling to make their vehicle purchases before tariffs began.
The World Trade War intensified more on Wednesday afternoon, when Trump said during a Rosas Garden event that would impose 10% additional tariffs to all commercial partners of the nation; Some countries will be affected with even higher rates.
Calling him “Liberation Day,” Trump said the day “would be remembered forever as the day when the American industry was reborn, the day when the destination of the United States was recovered and the day we began to make the United States return to Rico.”
Price increased estimates related to the rate vary according to the vehicle, but most industry experts predict that new cars will cost several more thousands.
Erin Keating, executive analyst at Cox Automotive, hopes that new vehicle prices will increase by 15% to 20%. On Wednesday, Anderson Economic Group predicted car prices to increase from $ 2,500 to $ 20,000. The vehicles that are expected to be more affected, the group said, include luxury and SUV silk manufactured by Audi, BMW, Jaguar-Lond Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Genesis and Lexus.
With the prices of the stickers that are expected to increase, many consumers in southern California are trying to make the agreements before the deadline on Thursday.
“It is a natural consumer behavior when people see an imminent pricing change to compete and respond accordingly,” said Dominick Miserandino, retail and consumer analyst and executive director of Retail Tech Media Nexus.
There is an element of panic that contributes to the increase in demand, he said.
“You are seeing it at a micro scale every time someone publishes online, he found a cheaper place to obtain eggs,” said Miserandino.
In Culver City Honda, more than a dozen future cars buyers were grinding on the concessionaire lot or waiting in the lobby for a sales representative available in the middle of Tuesday.
“People hurry here as crazy,” said sales consultant Carlos Rodríguez, a trend that began the day after Trump announced the car rate on March 26. “We are used to selling we go to 10 cars a day; 1743729055 We are getting into 20 years. I know that many dealers are reaching higher numbers. ”
Outside, a car buyer named Rochelle was checking a white CR-V.
“I should have done this a long time ago,” he said. “First I am in the United States, but many of us do not like US cars.”
Approximately half of the 16 million cars, SUVs and light trucks that the Americans bought last year were importedAccording to the White House. Vehicles in the United States are imported from Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Germany and other countries.
The Trump administration says it is imposing tariffs to strengthen national security and stimulate the growth of US jobs. Grave very serious imported cars, according to thought, would press car manufacturers to build manufacturing plants in the United States
“The United States cannot be a foreign manufacturing pieces assembler: we must become a manufacturing power that dominates each step in the supply chain of industries that are critical for our national security and economic interests,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai, in a statement.
Tesla cars outside the car manufacturers in Fremont.
(Justin Sullivan / Getty images)
But building more domestic plants have been, and some companies distrust their supply chains to the United States due to regulatory uncertainty, economists said.
The 25% rate will apply to imported passenger vehicles (Sedanes, SUV, crossovers, minivans and load trucks) and light trucks, as well as key car parts (engines, transmissions, motor train parts and electrical components), with the possibility of expanding the duty to include additional parts if necessary. The auto parts rate is established in force before May 3.
“President Trump is taking measures to protect the United States automotive industry, which is vital for national security and has been undermined by excessive imports that threaten the national industrial base and the United States supply chains,” said the White House.
The car dealers in southern California, home of car enthusiasts and one of the largest car markets in the country, are not sure of what is coming later. Some are preparing for peaks and falls in business as the World Trade War develops.
Rodríguez said that Culver City Honda will have to increase prices, but he hoped that sales stay strong as they did during the pandemic despite the important interruptions of the supply chain that led to the prices of fired cars.
It is not only the automotive industry that states with the tariff tumult. Companies of all kinds (farmers, housing builders, technology companies, winemakers, restaurants and clothing retailers) are staggering weeks of confusion again, since Trump has announced a series of taxes, many of them aimed at those of the country. The three main commercial partners. Some have been taxes, while others have been postponed, modified or invested.
The reinforcement of the economy was one of Trump's promises during the elections, and tariffs are a central part of their strategy. He threatened to slapped tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China on their first day back in office, explaining the decision as a way of taking energetic measures against illegal immigration and drugs.
In March, he wrote in a mail About the social truth that the United States “has no free trade. We have 'stupid trade'”.
“The whole world is cheating us!” said.
The prolonged round trip has unstable companies, both those that import from foreigners and those who sell their products to foreign clients. California's economy could be especially difficult Due to its great dependence on trade with China and Mexico, and due to its position as a global agricultural power.
