Queensbury car dealer braces for Trump auto tariffs

QUEENSBURY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — President Donald Trump is imposing 25 percent tariffs on vehicle imports. The move is expected to increase prices for American consumers and affect automakers that depend on global supply chains. The manager of Garvey Volkswagen-Kia in Queensbury says that if the Trump administration's 25 percent tariffs on automobiles takes effect it could particularly drive up the prices of foreign brands like the cars in his lot.

Manager John Peter "JP" Garvey walked NEWS10's Zion Decoteau through his lot of German and South Korean Cars. He anticipates customers won’t feel the pinch immediately. 

“For the next 60 to 90 days, most dealers will have enough inventory on the ground that they'll have enough cars that were imported to the US or that were made in the US before the tariff came into effect" said Garvey.

However, Garvey says the future after that is uncertain, and predicts prices could accelerate $5,000 to $15,000 per car. “Obviously we know that if cars get more expensive people will buy fewer of them which will mean that will have mark-on effects in the used car market as well, because people are buying fewer cars and the supply of used cars gets lower” Garvey added.

The President’s purpose for doing all this is to rev up domestic car manufacturing, and to promote trade agreements that are fair to the United States. Garvey sympathizes, however —“Even for cars made in the US, there's no such thing as a 100 percent American car," Garvey explained.

The White House says that of the 16 million cars Americans bought last year, half were imports. Of those 8 Million cars assembled here, only 50 percent of their parts were made in America.  And parts — of which his dealership has so many — are part of what Garvey expects to become more expensive.

“A lot of these parts are made in the United States but a lot of them come to us from overseas, the US, Canada and Mexico as well and those will be impacted by the tariffs next month" Garvey explained further.

Some budget models like the Kia K4 are produced in Mexico for reasons like cheaper labor. Garvey worries tariff related price hikes could drive them out of the market. 

“If you look at those cars that entirely exist because of their lower price points, and now suddenly they're 25 percent more expensive, they're sort of whole reason for being goes away" he continued.

Those parts could cost more, not only at the dealership, but at retail auto parts stores as well. The Trump administration's auto mobile tariffs are tentatively set to take effect on Wednesday, April 2.