After participating in a car accident last month, Debbie Boyd kept the hope that his chevy volt could be repaired.
But the car was declared a total loss on Monday, three days before the 25% price of President Trump on imported cars and light trucks should come into force.
“It's like the worst timing imaginable to buy a car, and uncertainty kills me on what will happen and how it will affect prices,” said Boyd, 74, retired lawyer for Mar Vista. “I planned to drive my car for a while, sailing through the prices, but now I'm facing them.”
She rushed to ass City Toyota on Tuesday.
“I'm going to buy what's on the lot, the current inventory, just to avoid it,” said Boyd. “Today, tomorrow, all they have available is what I will choose. Obviously, I need a car. I just want it to be now. ”
Boyd's anxiety was widely shared between many car buyers in southern California who rushed to make their vehicle purchases before the prices start.
The World Trade War intensified on Wednesday afternoon, when Trump declared during a Rose Garden event that it would impose 10% additional rates on all the business partners in the country; Some countries will be struck by even higher rates.
The appellant “Liberation Day”, Trump said that the day “would be memories forever as the day when American industry is reborn, the day of American fate has been recovered and the day we started to make America rich.”
Estimates the rise in prices related to prices vary depending on the vehicle, but most industry experts predict that new cars will cost several thousand more.
Erin Keating, Executive Analyst of COX Automotive, expects new vehicles to increase by 15% to 20%. Wednesday, Anderson economic group The prices of cars plan to increase from $ 2,500 to $ 20,000. Vehicles that should be the hardest affected, said the group, include luxury sedans and SUVs made by Audi, BMW, Jaguar-Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Genesis and Lexus.
The prices of stickers should increase, many consumers across southern California are trying to conclude agreements before the deadline on Thursday.
“It is a natural behavior of consumers when people see an imminent change in price for the race and react accordingly,” said Dominick Miserrandino, retail and consumer sales analyst and director general of Retail Tech Media Nexus.
There is an element of panic contributing to the increase in demand, he said.
“You see it at a micro-scaling whenever someone publishes online that he has found a cheaper place to get eggs,” said Placerandino.
At Culver City Honda, more than a dozen buyers of potential cars relaxed about the dealer field or awaited in the hall a sales representative available Tuesday afternoon.
“People rush here as crazy,” said Consultant on sale Carlos Rodriguez, a trend that started the day after the automotive rate announcement on March 26. “We are used to selling, let's say that 10 cars per day; (now) we enter 20 years. I know that many dealers are hitting 10 cars.”
Outside, a car buyer named Rochelle checked a white CR-V.
“I should have done this a long time ago,” she said. “I am first of all for America, but many of us do not like American cars.”
About 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, the United States is imported from Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Germany and other countries.
The Trump administration says it imposes prices to strengthen national security and stimulate the growth of American jobs. Heavily imported cars, thought will express pressure on car manufacturers to build manufacturing factories in the United States
“America cannot simply be an assembler of parts made abroad – we must become a manufacturing power which dominates each stage of the industry supply chain which is essential for our national and economic security interests,” said the White House spokesman Kush Desai, in a press release.
Tesla cars outside the manufacturer's factory in Fremont.
(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
But building more interior factories takes years, and some companies are wary to move their supply chains to the United States due to regulatory uncertainty, economists said.
The 25% price will be applied to imported passenger vehicles (sedans, SUVs, crossings, mini-dinners and cargo van) and light trucks, as well as key automotive parts (motors, transmissions, motorcycle group parts and electric components), with the possibility of expanding the right to include additional parts if necessary. The price on automotive parts should take effect by May 3.
“President Trump is taking action to protect the American automotive industry, which is vital for national security and was undermined by excessive imports threatening the industrial industrial base and the American supply chains,” said the White House.
Automobile dealers across southern California – who are home to cars and one of the country's largest automotive markets – are not sure what comes next. Some are preparing for tips and falls in business while the World Trade War takes place.
Rodriguez said Culver City Honda will have to increase prices, but he hoped that sales would remain strong as they did during the pandemic despite the major disturbances in the supply chain that led to a characteristic of the car prices.
It is not only the automotive industry facing Tariff Tumult. Companies of all kinds – farmers, house manufacturers, technology companies, winegrowers, restaurants And clothing retailers – are in shock from the weeks of confusion anyway deceased while Trump announced a leakage of samples, many of them aimed at the country Three main business partners. Some have been imposed, while others have been postponed, modified or reversed.
Strengthening the economy was one of Trump's promises during the elections, and prices are mainly part of its strategy. He threatened to slap prices on Mexico, Canada and China on his first day of power, explaining the decision as a means of repressing illegal immigration and drugs.
In March, he wrote in a job On the social truth that the United States “does not have free trade. We have a “stupid trade”. “
“The whole world snatches us !!!” He said.
The extended back and forth has unstable companies, both those importing goods from abroad and those who sell their products to foreign customers. California's economy could be particularly affected Due to its high dependence on trade with China and Mexico, and due to its position of world agricultural power.
