DENVER — The Trump administration unveiled a new international trade plan on Thursday calling for reciprocal tariffs.
The tariffs will be customized on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the tariffs other countries impose on American products.
Thursday’s announcement comes on the heels of proposed 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from Canada and Mexico set to take effect next month. This means you might have sticker shock the next time you need a vehicle repair or if you're in the market for a new one.
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Advanced Transmission Center owner Shiju Thomas takes pride in staying on top of trends and the evolving auto parts market.
“We have talked, spoken to some of our vendors, and they said when and if those tariffs come, the prices will go up across the board on products to every person along the supply chain,” he said.
Thomas said his shop is preparing for the worst. He expects to see price impacts as early as April.
“We're in the business of serving customers, and there's going to be a lot of upset consumers, but there's only so much we can do because we're not controlling the price. The suppliers ahead of us are,” Thomas said.
Advanced Transmission Center tries to keep its shelves well-stocked with a lot of the parts and components they need to fix cars. But these tariffs could force shops like this one to wait to order parts until they’re needed, which means fewer parts on the shelves and higher costs for you.
To break down the nuts and bolts, Denver7 spoke to Tim Jackson, former CEO of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association.
“The auto industry can't turn on a dime. It will require planning and changing their production outlook and where the parts for those cars come in,” said Jackson.
He said those car parts add up to something bigger.
“It's very rare that a vehicle in the US that's built in the US is produced with any more than 50, 60, or 70% US-built parts. So all the cars in the US will get some increased pricing because of where the parts are coming from to build them,” Jackson explained.
That means you might end up paying anywhere between $1,000 to $3,000 more on the low end, and up to $5,000 more in more extreme cases.
Jackson told Denver7 he doesn’t anticipate used cars to be affected.
If the tariffs go into effect on March 6 and don’t change, these higher prices could stick around for a while.
“It'll be one to three years before the manufacturers can have a real impact on where the parts and the cars are coming from,” Jackson said.
That said, experts say if you're in the market to buy a car, do it now. The same goes for any major repairs.
“If a consumer has a vehicle that has known repair needs, I would highly encourage doing it now because those costs in six months can be significantly higher,” said Thomas.
Ultimately, automotive experts in Colorado said they are waiting to see how things pan out while trying to be proactive about the tariffs.
“I think the reality is that we don't know what to expect. There seems to be a lot of chaos in what the tariffs will or won't be,” said Thomas.
Jackson echoed similar sentiments.
“We're living through this new era of tariffs being implemented, so time will tell how it plays out,” he said.
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