Report: Tariffs Will Raise The Price Of Car Repair
Our friends over at The Drive have an article out suggesting that auto-parts prices are due to rise thank to President Donald Trump's tariffs.
That, of course, will make it more expensive to have your car serviced.
The outlet interviews the CEO of an auto parts company who says that while consumers have yet to feel the impact of Trump's tariffs, they will soon. Just in time for the holidays.
Premium Guard Inc. CEO Anan Bishara tells The Drive that as an example, the price of a catalytic converter could rise from $1,500 to $2,500.
This despite some apparent relief on auto-parts tariffs from the Trump administration. The reason why certain parts will cost more is because they use steel and/or aluminum, which are heavily tariffed. Not only that, but many parts come from China, which the Trump Administration is planning on slapping with heavy tariffs.
The effects have yet to be felt because it takes some time for companies to adjust pricing and because some manufacturers took a wait-and-see approach earlier this year when tariffs were just being announced.
Bishara points out that some parts are difficult to source from anyplace but overseas -- pointing to hydraulic power-steering pumps. With electric-assisted power steering proliferating in new models, production of new hydraulic parts will be limited, but there are still Chinese companies making the systems for older cars. So, with no investment in building new parts, shops will turn to Chinese parts, which will be tariffed.
Your humble author has an immediate family member working on the front lines of the auto-parts game, and I've reached out to see if she is seeing any tariff effects as of yet. I will update when she replies. UPDATE: The answer is yes.
There's more over at The Drive.
[Image: Andrii Kozak/Shutterstock.com]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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Never the inflation of a fraudulent financial system.
Never unintended consequences of 20,000 federal statutes and counting which are never reviewed and never expire.
Never the fact the nation was purposely deindustrialized thirty years ago where a small percentage of the then older adults made a fortune.
Never the J.I.T. manufacturing model.
Never the absurd employee costs (FICA, Unemployment/workers comp) before the cost of unions and typical Western wages.
Never the stratospheric deficit since 2001 courtesy of multiple Kongresses (who have passed four actual budgets on time since 1977 hence the unending CR bills).
Has to be muh tariffs.
The price of pre- tariff vehicles was ridiculous. I hate to see what Trump's bad judgement will do to post-tariff automobiles. It obviously won't affect him or his family. They ride around in vehicles paid for by you and I. I doubt he could even drive something if he had to.