A truck runs on its way to enter the United States at a border crossing at the Canada border. … [+]
US producers were given a one-month return from a 25% fee for vehicles imported from Canada and Mexico, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.
Trump agreed with the pause at the request of General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. And Stellantis, White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt, told reporters during an afternoon conference.
“The president is giving them an exception for a month, so they are not at an economic disadvantage,” Leavitt told journalists. However, reciprocal tariffs will take effect on April 2, she said.
This action actually fire a starting weapon for customers on the market for a new car or truck to descend to the starting line of their search and make a decision.
This is because the effect on prices of vehicles caused by tariffs set on imports from Canada, Mexico and China will not be seen for months, according to some analysts and industry reports. With this new one -month delay, it buys consumers a little more time.
While tariffs can cause price increases from $ 9,000 to $ 12,000, those pricing rise will only be applied to vehicles that have not yet been built, or the limits have not crossed. That is, the inventory of new vehicles now in traders can be the best protection against the expected shock of the next adhesive.
“The good news, for now, is that the new car inventory is powerful, with 12% compared to a year ago, giving buyers the opportunity to capture models at pre-driving prices or choose other options,” wrote Kevin Roberts, director of economic intelligence and market in Cargurus.com report in February 2025 Wednesday.
Indeed, traders are now well equipped for the annual spring sale season. Inventories increased 5.7% last month since January in an 84 day supply, according to the Cargurus report. This is an increase of 9.5% over February, 2024.
The Cargurus graph showing the days of supply of new vehicles increased from January to February 2025.
Current vehicles are now used in many are also exempt from tariffs and provide another savings route, but choices are becoming thinner. While supply of 45.2 days in February was almost flat with the same month a year earlier, it is declining by 49.5 in January, a decrease of 8.7% from January, according to Cargurus.
But as a sales person can be grieved, customers must act now before it is late. Once tariffs begin, prices for vehicles from Canada, Mexico and China will start thousands of dollars.
The average list of the list last month was $ 48,900 according to the Cargurus report. But this will ball over $ 52,500 after the cost of tariffs be folded in price, affecting 30% of vehicles sold in the US
Stopping only fees for imported vehicles that would indicate chop. Trump aims to eventually impose them unless any kind of compromise or deal is hit before one-month repetition expires.
The increased cost would come just as consumers were enjoying a small break from the rapid rise in transaction prices as automobiles put incentives to move rising inventories. The result is likely to be a cooling of the overall market, according to Charlie Chesbrough, an older economist at Cox Automotive.
“Just as the industry seemed to find sustainable ground, new obstacles are thrown into the country. As long as the highest fees are held is the big question of the industry now,” Chesbrough wrote in a study report on Tuesday. “Higher prices and border interruptions can result in lower volume. Our 16.3 million new vehicle sales in 2025, at least at the moment, is now in question. “
The more than the import fees would affect sales and the industry depends on how long they remain in the country.
The production of some vehicles would slow down or completely rest if the tariffs are in place for zero to eight weeks, according to a report by S&P Global Mobility.
But if they remain in the long run, it can cause what the conditions of S&P “winter fee”.
“In a tariff winter, we would expect to see re-source, due to the sub-optimal source by increasing the cost of production, sales of North America’s light vehicles can drop by 10% for several years with a long-term decline in competition. The decline is likely to be 10% in the US, 8% in Mexico and 15% in Canada.
This is a very severe view, but the organization only expects a 10% chance of a winter tariff environment, which would throw a deep cooling for normal transition to traditional spring sales points.