Car dealerships in Steamboat Springs and Craig are hoping for the best outcome as they try to understand the impacts from tariffs while preparing customers for the possibility of rising prices in the coming months.

“The uncertainty that we’re facing is not of our fault, but that’s the way the world is now,” said Scott Cook, who owns car dealerships in Steamboat Springs and Craig. “The only thing that I am relatively sure of is that things are not going to be cheaper three months, or six months, from now. Whether it’s cars, or appliances, or milk or anything else.”

In March, President Donald Trump announced that he would impose a 25% tariff on all vehicles starting April 3, and on vehicle parts shipped into the United States by May 3. The tariffs are applied to imported passenger vehicles including sedans, SUVs, crossovers, minivans, cargo vans as well as light trucks.

The tariffs also apply to automobile parts such as engines, transmissions, powertrain parts and electrical components.

According to a statement from the White House, those tariffs could be expanded to additional parts if necessary, and importers under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement will be given the opportunity to certify U.S. parts and systems will be implemented such that the 25% tariff will only apply to the value of their non-U.S. content.

This week, Cook said he still wasn’t sure how the tariffs on vehicles and vehicle parts will be handled and how those tariffs will affect the price of cars or how manufacturers will respond. According to a report from AutoTrader.com, nearly half of all vehicles sold in the United States are imported from other countries.

Some local car dealers say it would be hard to find a car on their lots that was entirely manufactured in the United States.

“I’ve read some experts feel like that if the tariffs stay the way they are right now it will raise the price of the average car from $3,000 to $6,000, which is a pretty good range of what they’re going to be because they don’t know whether they’re going to charge the tariff on each part, or the whole car,” Cook said. “I think that everybody’s hope is that this is just kind of a bargaining chip to get some unfair tariffs that have been charged on American products unwound, and that we go back to where we were before this started.”

He said in today’s global market, vehicles come from all over the place, and that a Chevrolet pickup on his lot may have been built in Mexico or Canada while others are built in the U.S. In many cases, however, it’s a combination of all those places with parts coming from a number of different countries.

“I’m not sure that there’s any car in the world that is built completely at home,” Cook said. “I mean, I don’t know that if a car is assembled in Japan, if all parts are made in Japan or whether they import parts from other parts of the world.”

Cook is not alone as he tries to figure out what these tariffs will mean for his business and what it will mean for the customers he has been serving for decades.

“We’re getting new cars in now that are that are not affected by it, but the effective date was April, 2 or April 3 and I’m not sure whether that was the effective date of when it was imported into the country, or when the dealers got it,” said Cook who added the tariffs are already impacting what he can offer customers. “Subaru has cut off sold orders temporarily. We normally order a lot of sold Subarus, but until they get this figured out they don’t want to do it.”

Car buyers in this part of Northwestern Colorado basically have three local choices when it comes to purchasing a new vehicle locally. Steamboat Motors located at 2310 Lincoln Ave. sells new vehicles from Ford, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and RAM; Victory Motor of Craig, located at 2705 W 1st St., offers new cars from Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram. There is also Cook, which operates Cook Chevrolet in Craig at 1776 W Victory Way, and Cook Subaru in Steamboat Springs at 1955 Curve Ct.

Ralph Eppard, general manager of Steamboat Motors, said he couldn’t say what the tariffs will mean for his business and his customers.

“The Ford guys are saying it’s going to be minimal, and then the (car manufacturer) Stellantis guys are telling us they’re ready for price increases right now,” Eppard said. “It’s hard to tell.”

He said there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the tariffs right now, and just like his customers he will have to wait to see. He said the dynamic has left car dealerships in a tough spot.

“We all have to get our inventory months and months ahead of when it’s here,” Eppard said. “When we order cars, and it takes 90 days to get here, and by then things might be very different than they are right now.”

Eppard said he has a good inventory of new cars at the moment and is optimistic that Ford, which he says is the largest car manufacturer in the U.S. by a long shot, will be able to help limit the impacts of any tariffs on his business. He said the impacts from tariffs are already influencing business and he has noticed an increase in customers walking through the doors of the dealership with their eyes on a new vehicle, adding that the market is heating up for pre-owned options

“It’s already feeling very COVID,” Eppard said. “What we have on the ground now is the stuff that’s pre-tariff, right? So, it’s moving the market. People are actively looking and then used cars are jumping up in value so much because they’re anticipating that new cars are going to be a harder deal.”

In Craig, car buyers will also find Victory Motors of Craig, a family-owned business handed down through generations that is now owned and operated by siblings Tony, Steve and Irene Maneotis. This year the dealership is celebrating its 50^th anniversary.

Tony Maneotis said he understands the tariffs will add costs to new vehicles as well as the parts that are used by his mechanics to service those vehicles. 

He said he has been told by Stellantis that he will not have to pass the tariffs on to his customers at this time, but said he is concerned about how the tariffs will impact the flow of new vehicles. Like so many other businesses across the country, he is waiting to see how those costs will add up and, like Cook, still is not sure what that will mean for the dealership.

“It has impacted us,” he said of the tariffs on Wednesday. “On our Ram Heavy Duty side all of our trucks are built in Mexico, and a lot of our parts come out of Mexico, Canada and Detroit for all makes and manufacturers, and of course, it’s harder right now to get vehicles shipped to us.”

Maneotis said he currently has 30-plus units sitting in a yard in Mexico that the manufacturer is working to have shipped to the United States. He said the manufacturer is attempting to divert the units from a 212,850 square-foot Stellantis assembly plant in Saltillo, Mexico to Texas and then to Craig.

“We’re going to try to do whatever we can to work with the consumer and help them out,” added Maneotis. “We want to do everything for our customers …  Our goal is to take care of everybody.”