The Washington Post says people are "scrambling" to buy cars, appliances and other big-ticket imports before Donald Trump takes office and puts tariffs on everything. These kinds of stories are usually based on super thin anecdotal data, but maybe there's something to this one:
There's no telling what's really driving this, but auto sales started to rise in October and are now about a million units above their recent average. As it happens, though, this is mostly due to seasonal adjustments: dealers aren't really selling more cars, but they're selling more than they usually do in November. But I guess that counts.
"There's no telling what's really driving this..." So these are the driverless cars we keep hearing about?
(Sorry. I saw the opening and just had to take it.)
Why do you think the German economy is in such trouble? The FDP stopped the subsidies for E-cars. So people brought forward their purchases and have now stopped. The next government can kick-start it again by putting it back. (Cars and car suppliers are a BIG part of the German economy).
But yeah, there will be a payback.
Exactly. Pulling demand forward results in a dip later on, followed by a lower than average participation rate. If auto sellers are smart, they'll push down prices and clear lots before they can't sell anything.
Pulling demand forward results in a dip later on...
Just in time for Donnie 2.
Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy four years.
Oddly enough, very anecdotal data (by which I mean Reddit posts mostly), suggests it's pretty hard at the moment to find a hybrid or plug in hybrid at a dealer willing to do the usual bargaining, at least in Southern Cal, where such things would be plentiful if the dealers had good sense about what to order. Not sure how that fits into this, but it's interesting, to me.
We're shopping for a new Civic hybrid and seeing dealer fees of $7k. They sure don't want to sell these.
Dealerships make a lot of their money on maintenance; EVs are simpler and have so many fewer moving parts than ICE cars and thus require much, much less maintenance. As a result, yeah, some dealerships definitely push people against buying them.
Arguably, since supply chains remain global, one might have some expectation that even domestic units will rise in price. But I think you need to look closer to shipments, not sales.
If I were an auto manufacturer (or any importer of anything), I would want to make sure I switched manufacturing capacity to focus on MY 2025 units and get as many of them out the door and onto US soil before Trump's inauguration.
I've never really believed Trump would tariff everything. The question is, will he pick enough symbolic battles to trigger a trade war? Time will tell.
I'm one of those buyers. I bought a 2024 Mazda3 hatchback to replace my now aging 2010 Mazda3 hatchback. I did think that either tariffs or general f up the economy and supply chains plus inflation meant I was better off buying now than waiting say until springtime, also my car needs a bunch of repairs that would be expensive.
I wasn't able to do the dealer incentives on the 2024 remaining or 2025 new stock alas because they did not have a car I wanted on the lot, but in a stroke of good fortune there was a 2024 gently used 2024 hatchback on their used lot, it was the trim level I wanted in a non-ugly color so I quickly determined it was my best bet and asked nicely for their best price on it. It was maybe about 7,000 cheaper than a brand new 2025 model with the same trim, I avoided a higher interest loan by whipping out my checkbook to pay for it hahaha.
I do wonder though if I could get a real steal on a car if I had waited to shop until next week as it really looks like the shutdown will happen and being in the DC that really looms large here.
My son bought a hybrid a month ago and stated the reason for acting now was to avoid the impact of Trump's tariffs. He and his wife, and you, can't be the only people who think this way.
You know it's a seller's market when ads like this appear.
https://youtu.be/vh3Di3LY6Ns?si=avgqSuKMm6xntmTh
My wife went into a panic r.e. the tariffs driving up prices on electronics.
Rather than fight her over the fact that both my laptop and phone are more that up to any possible demands on them, she drove us to get new phones and laptops. My old phone is now a "slide show" and Wifi Internet device. The laptop has been unpacked and tested, but is not in use. Her new laptop hasn't been taken out of the box.
The anticipated "Trump economy" is driving folks to irrational panic. The stock market has started falling a month before Trump actually takes office! And before
I sat down to rebalance various investment/retirement accounts.
It's almost enough to drive a fellow to move from investing in securities into durable land
and commodities that might prove useful under GOP rule,
e.g. guns and ammo. ;-}
I'm one of those buyers, so....
About a week after the election, after the initial mourning, my wife (an MBA) said, "Well, tariffs are going to mean inflation. We should move up major purchases." And since we'd be considering updating our car, it seemed like the right time.