As this piece is being written, Canadians still have no idea how Trump tariffs will affect the price of new cars.
Currently, Canadian-made cars are still under the revised NAFTA trade agreement — now called the Canada-United States-Mexico agreement.
This is the agreement Trump signed in his first term, but now calls it the worst ever deal for the United States.
When a trade deal is reached, one still can’t be certain, as Trump changes his mind as often as a baby’s diaper.
The United States has some indication of how tariffs will impact the price of new cars.
The Visual Capitalist has determined the price difference from tariffs in the United States on certain car prices.
Tariff-related price differences on the models and brands vary from a mere three per cent increase to 22 per cent.
Leading the pack at 22 per cent are Buick and Hyundai.
The American Buick models have such a high increase, as many of the cars are built in China and South Korea. That shows how intertwined the global automotive industry has become.
Buick is the oldest active model in the United States and one of the oldest car brands in the world.
If the tariff impact hurts enough, Buick will have to consider options: reducing production and scaling back the number of models and/or building more of the cars in the United States.
That $45,100 Buick in a Minot, N.D. lot will cost $53,669 — enough to push the brand into a big slump.
Trump’s goal is to steal the industry back to high-priced America to create jobs.
Hyundai at 22 per cent and Kia at 21 per cent both have U.S. production but much of their products are made outside the United States.
Hyundai just opened an electric vehicle plant in the state of Georgia that can produce 500,000 EVs a year.
Luxury car BMW’s price will be 19 per cent higher as will Mazda.
Subaru will see a 16 per cent impact with 15 per cent for Chevrolet and Nissan.
Fourteen per cent impact hits Germany’s Volkswagen and Japan’s Toyota.
Among American makers, Ford sees 13 per cent and 12 per cent for GM.
Honda price increase is eight per cent, with six per cent for Jeep.
Least impacted is Tesla at three per cent, as virtually all of the car is made in the United States.
Oddly, Tesla owner Elon Musk was a close friend and huge financial supporter of Trump until they broke up over the size of the national deficit and debt.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
