A new 25% tariff just went into effect for all foreign-made cars. President Trump made the announcement on Wednesday.
According to Motor Intelligence, major car companies saw sales spikes in March. General motors saw a 17% sales increase. Kia and Hyundai saw 11% and 10% increases on their first quarter sales according to recent data.
Local dealerships, like Sunset Honda in San Luis Obispo saw an increase in foot traffic in the month of March. Half of their cars sold last month happened in just the past 10 days. Managers say it’s a result of the uncertainty surrounding tariff impacts.
We normally see anywhere from like 9,000 to 10,000 sessions on our website [a month],” David Idell General Manager of Sunset Honda said. “We got up to like 14,500 sessions [in March].”
The dealership typically has 200 vehicles on hand, 100 new and 100 used. Everything in stock will remain at the same price for now but Idell says future stock prices are out of local hands.
We’re lucky that Honda does produce quite a few vehicles in the United States of America,” Idell added. “That said, they do have vehicles that come from out of the United States and parts that come from out of the states. There is a little bit of that nervous energy that is happening with our clients.
Cal Poly Economics professor Daniel Seiver says these tariff hikes will hurt working class people.
Ordinary Americans are going to notice it because the prices that they wanted to come down are going to go up and for things like automobiles, which are a big part of the budget,” Seiver said.
According to authored professor, once U.S. companies face less competition from foreign companies, prices on goods will increase. He states the country saw just that during the Great Depression when tariffs were increased on trades with foreign countries.
Our ability to sell to other countries will go down,” Seiver explained. “The amount we buy from other countries will go down. What we do buy will be much more expensive. Overall, the country loses a lot.”