Summary
Germany vows not to “give in” as Donald Trump imposes a 25% tariff on imported cars, effective April 2, with parts tariffs starting in May.
France, Canada, China, and Japan criticize the move, warning of economic harm and trade disruptions. European leaders call for retaliatory tariffs to maintain a balanced trade field.
Automakers’ shares, including General Motors and Ford, dropped significantly.
Trump argues tariffs will boost US manufacturing, while critics claim they will increase consumer prices and hurt global economic ties.
US is so incredibly short sighted. Everyone is competing for the few viable, demographically supported consumption markets. After global retaliation, US goods world wide will no longer be competitive. China, Europe, S.Korea and Japan will happily replace the US market share. He should have stuck to painting his balls orange and eating crayons.
I feel like Trump’s entire point to this is literally to make the US more isolated and self-sufficient. While I get the point of the latter, this whole charade is making it very clear that the US should NEVER be trusted going forward. If such sweeping changes can be made by one deranged man’s pen, every 4 years the US could instantly change all posture and break every agreement on a whim. The US multi-tiered “checks and balances” do not work and no one will know what the US will do, near term or long term. This sends a clear message of “don’t do any deals with us”. Stability is NOT the US way in the slightest.
Trump’s entire goal, and I cannot stress this enough, is power.
If Trump believes that making allies and negotiating trade deals would make him powerful to his base, he absolutely would. This guy is using the military, tariffs, and executive orders as a flex. He doesn’t care about the economy. He only cares that his power is unchallenged.
100%.
This is exactly right… Even if Trump declares it was all a joke and now we can go back to “normal”… everybody (except MAGA level idiots I suppose) will know there are no guarantees with the USA and their word is worth less than rat poop
EVERY deal with the USA in the future will have that priced in
The word of the USA isn’t worth anything now. We can’t trust the USA to do the right thing.
except MAGA level idiots
Crys in being British and missing out on the resurgance of European unity because our PM prefers to felate Trump.
I believe China and India are going to benefit from Trump’s tariff. China will continue penetrating foreign markets with cheaper EVs while USA, Japanese and Korean brands will lose global marketshare.
Good point, China alone can get India driving in EV’s . One nagging thought Is that if US can’t have dominance by alliance, market control or coercion it will try to create dependence through war. If the world is at war, it knocks all directly involved parties way down the economic ladder, needing financial and industrial support from the US. Removes competition, creates highly indebted dependants , not unlike WW2. Speaking to some old timers , it’s clear that whenever the US economy falters they export war. Why would this be any different. Perhaps what we’re seeing with abandoning Europe to deal with Russia is a setup for EU to get economically degraded again. But if US is really trying to corner China as they say, leaving Europe vulnerable is counter productive as China will benefit.
The US auto market is already no longer competitive. This is just the nail in the coffin.
US vehicle manufacturers will just put up their prices by 24%.
This is definitely what’s going to happen. They also will never come back down.
Seize the German Tesla factory and hand it over to VW.
Show musk that the bite of his orange lapdog has consequences.
VW is flailing currently. Honestly? They should just get rid of the of the factory as it should not have been build in the first place because it is in a water protection area and they require about as much water as a 40000 people, which the area cannot handle longterm. And it didn’t take a damn month for the paint shop there to spill 15,000 liters of chemicals for the first time.
VW can’t use the factories they have.
Some other German brand then? BMW? Mercedes?
Rheinmetall
(Deutschland by Rammstein Intensifies)
To make self driving bombs?
Wartburg
Giving into a bully leads to more bullying. This is the right call.
is america great again yet?
Tariffs=corruption. This is just one more grift for Trump et al. One more way for Trump to funnel money into his coffers.
Honestly, I don’t think most people in the U.S. who buy German cars are worried about the price. I have a used 2018 Audi and I love it — it has buttons and knobs instead of a touchscreen and is really fun to drive — but if anything goes wrong, it’s like a thousand dollars to fix. It’s a PHEV and I have solar panels so I basically never have to buy gas. And I got it during the pandemic when the used car prices went insane. I traded in a dented Toyota for more than I bought it for and ended up with an Audi A3 e-tron sportback.
But I’m the exception. I would think 99% of new Mercedes, BMW, Audi, etc. buyers in the US are buying a luxury car and 25% percent is not going to dissuade them.
The tariff applies to all imports, including budget options from Japan and Korea. It’s not just about luxury vehicles, and I have a feeling it’s meant partly to reduce competition for Tesla.
Don’t worry, Tesla will raise their prices too, because of the other tariffs on the electronics (and because they can).
And they’ll still have a devil of a time selling them
They couldn’t give me a Tesla.
I have a feeling it’s meant partly to reduce competition for Tesla.
Trump turning the White House lawn into a Tesla dealership to help their declining sales should have been a clue for what was to come.
Probably applies to parts for repair too unfortunately.
It’s going to hit GM and Ford who are set up to build cars in Canada and USA. The cars they make in US rely on a global supply chain. It’s going to fuck every carmaker in the US market. Hyundais and Chevys are going to go up in price 30% overnight with the metal tariffs on top of all that.
BMW are build in USA, no tariff on them.
Now $1250 to fix since parts tariffs are coming in May. As an owner of an AMG this is annoying and while I have the money to ignore these impacts it’s still frustratingly stupid that it’s even happening at this level. Every part to repair my car usually has to be shipped from Germany which means you and I will be paying more.
Also, new German cars are mostly touch screens and capacitive buttons. So they need frequent electrical components when they fail.
Also, 99% of German car buyers were the same people paying double for a G wagon during COVID and are now so upside down in their loan that the cars are falling like a rock for pricing. Those people have jobs that generally depend on a healthy economy…
Like rich people are going to drive a Ford, Chevy , GM, or a Hyundai.
They’ll pay any extra because these tariffs will only serve to pump up their executive pay more than what the tariffs will cost as they get tax cuts and gouge the rest of us using tariffs as the excuse.
I don’t even now what Trump is wanting us to “give in” on, or if he has anything in particular that he wants. Isn’t his position basically that the tariffs are good for the US purely in their own right, and exist for their own sake? He thinks that by doing this it’ll magically revive the domestic car manufacturing industry and then they’ll have tons of cars and money and everyone else will think he has giant hands.
He’s just a snake oil salesman looking to cause a problem to sell the solution. Just the usual conman shit, but at a national level.
AND endorsed by the public, at least some of them.
German cars are better anyway. I doubt they’ll be upset by this shocking development.
