‘President Trump has had meetings with both domestic and foreign auto producers, and he’s committed to bringing back auto production to the US,’ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in April<\/a>.<\/p>\n ‘So we want to give the automakers a path to do that, quickly, efficiently, and create as many jobs as possible.’<\/p>\n Older cars got more expensive last month as pricing pressures increase on automakers\u00a0<\/p>\n Some automakers have decided to move production to the US in response. GM announced a nearly $1billion plan to rejig a battery plant in Western New York into a V8 truck plant, while Honda said it’s building several cars in its Ohio factory<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n BMW is also building more cars in the US<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the tariff plans have triggered pricing alarm bells in the auto industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n So far, multiple automakers have quietly rolled out thousand-dollar price hikes on cars across their lineups.<\/p>\n Ford tacked $2,000 onto the price<\/a> of their Mexican-made cars in May. Subaru issued a 16 percent price hike<\/a> on a base model for 2026. Volkswagen followed suit<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n ‘Business is not sustainable longer term without significant price increases,’ Mark\u00a0Templin, Toyota’s chief operating officer for North America, said in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n ‘And the industry already has an affordability problem.’<\/p>\n Last month, the average consumer spent over $49,000 to roll a new vehicle off the lot.\u00a0<\/p>\n Toyota will build two more cars at its massive manufacturing plant in Kentucky<\/p>\n The new car will reportedly receive a RAV4-like build and three rows of seating – it could look similar to the Urban Cruiser, which is on sale in parts of Asia and Europe<\/p>\n Toyota and its executive chairman, Akio Toyoda, have been slowly releasing EVs into the US – they will soon build two more in Kentucky<\/p>\n Toyota’s CEO,\u00a0Koji Sato, has been helping the company ‘strategically transition’ its manufacturing to avoid high-priced auto tariffs<\/p>\n The high pricing pushed thousands of drivers towards used cars. But even the\u00a0secondhand market has a price problem: in August, the pre-owned vehicle market hit an inflation<\/a> rate of 15 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n Car repair inflation also ticked up eight percent. That could hurt drivers who aren’t expecting to buy a new car by spiking insurance premiums<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n ‘Tariffs are\u00a0going to drive up auto costs,’\u00a0Michael DeLong, a car insurance analyst at\u00a0the Consumer Federation of America, told the Daily Mail in March.\u00a0<\/p>\n ‘It’s not going to be helpful to consumers. It would make auto costs increase for everyone.’<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Trump’s policies haven’t delivered the desired effects on federal jobs data.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Older](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/102084651-15092333-Older_cars_got_more_expensive_last_month_as_pricing_pressures_in-a-2_175773538708.jpeg\")
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