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Some consumers rush to avoid sticker-shock from tariffs

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US car dealers right now have 3-month vehicle supply

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Tariff-wary Canadians are also rushing to buy cars

By Nora Eckert

DETROIT, March 11 (Reuters) - After Matthew Mitchell

heard U.S. President Donald Trump was serious about implementing

25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, he told his wife it was time

to snatch up a car, and fast.

"I was like 'Ok, we're going this weekend,'" Mitchell said.

He raced to a dealership in Walnut Creek, California to land a

deal on a 2019 Toyota Camry in early March to avoid any

tariff-related price hikes.

Mitchell is part of a group of buyers who say they expedited

their car shopping out of concern that Trump's tariff threats

would result in showroom sticker shock.

Right now, the levies are not affecting dealer lots, which

on average have a three-month supply of vehicles. Many U.S.

automakers have already gotten two reprieves on tariffs since

Trump said they would take effect in early February.

But the uncertainty spurred people to react.

Between February 16 and 22, searches on car-shopping

website Cars.com jumped 9% from the previous week, said David

Greene, a Cars.com analyst.

"When the announcement of the tariffs first occurred in

early February, it didn't register with car shoppers right away.

But when the conversation turned to tariffs on all imports and

the new auto tariffs were pushed to April, searches on Cars.com

really started to climb," Greene said.

Last week, a Reuters poll of 74 economists showed risks to

the Mexican, Canadian and American economies are piling up due

to the unpredictability of U.S. tariffs, with rising

expectations for both a recession and more inflation. Those

concerns have caused consumers to grow more cautious.

Across the border in Calgary, Canada, Darby Madalena dashed

off to a nearby dealer to buy a 2025 Subaru Forester about a

year ahead of her original plan. "It didn't make sense to wait

anymore," said Madalena.

Philip Hodge also finalized his purchase for a new Mustang

Mach-E electric vehicle, knowing the Ford model was imported

from Mexico into the U.S. "I was like, let's just get it done

now and not worry about it," he said.

Car dealers say they have enough vehicles in inventory to

weather weeks or months of instability. Dealers had an average

of 96 days of supply on their lots in February, according to Cox

Automotive, a 26% increase from the start of the year.

Some dealers say the short-term uncertainty is a boon as

more customers may wander into the showroom.

"People start hearing that tariffs are coming, they'll

probably want to come and buy my cars out of stock," said

Dearborn, Michigan Ford dealer Jim Seavitt. He said sales were

very strong the week of March 3, but he credits that more to

deals he was running, not tariff worries.

Even so, some dealer web pages used the threat of levies as

a sales tactic. One Subaru dealership in Connecticut blasted a

banner on top of its website: "Final clearance pricing on

remaining 2024s - save now before tariffs drive prices up."

Cars have become less affordable since the pandemic, as the

average vehicle sales price reached $48,641 in January,

according to Cox Automotive, a 30% increase from the average

$37,348 price in January 2019.

Some buyers pushed up their purchases last year after Trump

was elected, expecting that he would make good on the tariff

changes he floated on the campaign trail.

"In early November, we thought 'we should probably get

serious about this,'" said Saud Ansari, who lives in the

Cleveland, Ohio, area. He finalized the purchase of his 2025

Toyota Sienna from a dealer near Columbus, Ohio, shortly before

the inauguration.

Trump delayed the original duties until March, and then

added another one-month reprieve for all vehicles compliant with

the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) rules of

origin. But for Ansari, the threat of tariffs and concerns about

higher interest rates was enough of a motivation.

"I'm glad to have it out of the way for a few reasons.

Number one is the uncertainty ahead," he said.