Cars Are About to Get Even More Expensive

President Trump's 25% tariff on foreign cars—and foreign car parts—takes effect next week, and the auto industry is bracing. It could take weeks or months to see the full impact, but those in the market for a new or used car should not be surprised to see noticeably higher prices depending on the brand. Coverage:

• The Washington Post reports that companies including Toyota, Honda, Subaru, and Lexus are likely to get hit first because they have relatively small stockpiles of inventory in the US.
• "We're going to start seeing prices rise almost immediately," Charlie Chesbrough of Cox Automotive tells the Post, predicting a $6,000 average markup per vehicle. "Some of the most affordable vehicles—compact SUVs, for example—are made outside the country, so they're going to be the most vulnerable."

• So buy American then? It's not that simple given that US automakers rely so heavily on parts from, say, Mexico or Canada. The New York Times estimates a spike of about $3,000 for a car made in the US and $10,000 or more for imported vehicles. CBS News has a brand-by-brand breakdown on how individual companies might be affected.
• Complicating matters for US automakers is that Trump warned top executives during a White House call earlier this month not to raise their prices in response to the tariffs, reports the Wall Street Journal. It was not clear, however, whether they would face penalties of some kind should they do so. Trump promised the tariffs would be "great" for them, eventually.
• NPR suggests that Elon Musk's Tesla might emerge as one of the winners in all this given that it makes all the cars it sells in the US in Texas and California. Musk insists the tariff impact on his company will be "significant," but the company "is one of the least impacted" among American car makers, says Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities.

(More tariffs stories.)