{"id":22816,"date":"2025-04-04T20:49:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T02:49:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trumps-tariffs-will-soon-make-cars-more-expensive-in-colorado\/"},"modified":"2025-04-05T02:49:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T02:49:56","slug":"trumps-tariffs-will-soon-make-cars-more-expensive-in-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trumps-tariffs-will-soon-make-cars-more-expensive-in-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s tariffs will soon make cars more expensive in Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mike
Mike Daigle, a sales consultant at Emich Volkswagen in Denver, sits inside an ID. Buzz electric van in the showroom on Wednesday. (Nathaniel Minor\/CPR News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Many customers at Emich Volkswagen in Denver have had one thing on their mind in recent weeks: tariffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all the talk,\u201d said Mike Daigle, a sales consultant at the dealership. \u201cMore and more people are coming in and that\u2019s at the front of their mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sales of new cars held steady at the dealership even amid a shaky economy, and used car sales have jumped in recent weeks, employees say. Dealers across the state reported busy showrooms last weekend too, according to a state industry group, as customers move to lock down new wheels before 25% tariffs on imported cars kicked in on Thursday. Tariffs on imported car parts begin on May 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cMyself included,\u201d Daigle said. \u201cMy wife and I just bought a car a couple of days ago just in anticipation of bad news, and so we just figured we would lock in some good pricing now while we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump announced the tariffs in March with the backing of labor unions, arguing they will boost manufacturing in the U.S. But automakers and industry groups say they will lead to higher prices in the short term. Trump also announced \u201creciprocal\u201d tariffs on Wednesday, which dealers worry could push prices even higher.<\/p>\n

But how the tariffs play out will likely vary across dealerships and automakers, said Matthew Groves, president and CEO of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association.<\/p>\n

Some manufacturers have indicated privately they will eat the cost of the tariffs as long as they can, Groves said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is founded on the notion that things are changing so quickly that this may or may not last very long,\u201d he said, referencing how the president\u2019s tariffs tend to shift over time and with sometimes little notice.<\/p>\n

Some manufacturers are stockpiling vehicles now so they can put off the tariffs\u2019 impacts for a month or two or three, Groves said. Fred Emich\u2019s dealerships in the Denver metro are taking the same tack.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe short term looks OK,\u201d said Emich, managing partner at Emich Automotive. \u201cBut the long term looks very difficult and is very unnerving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cars
Cars are on display in the showroom at Emich Volkswagen in Denver on Wednesday. (Nathaniel Minor\/CPR News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Other manufacturers may spread out price increases across all of their models, Groves said \u2013 even if some are manufactured in the U.S. and aren\u2019t as heavily impacted by tariffs.<\/p>\n

Groves said he\u2019s sympathetic to Trump\u2019s goal of increasing the number of cars made in the U.S. but warned of \u201cconsumer pain in the meantime.\u201d He and others said now is the best time to buy a car for people who may need one in the near future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you need a car, you should probably do something about it soon,\u201d said Daigle, the Emich sales consultant. \u201cIf you don\u2019t need a car, be prepared to drive what you have, maybe for quite a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even used cars, which wouldn\u2019t be directly impacted by the tariffs, are already seeing prices start to tick up as demand rises, said Rhiannon Wickizer, used car manager at Emich Volkswagen. Dealers are buying up used cars at auction, \u201cgearing to stock up inventory, I think, just anticipating the worst-case scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

will play out depends will vary across dealerships, automakers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22816"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}