Transportation

Car Shoppers Outracing Trump Tariffs Poised to Lift Auto Sales

Car shopping website Edmunds projects first-quarter sales totaling 3.8 million vehicles, a 1% jump over a year ago and the strongest start to the year since 2021.Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

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By David Welch

March 31, 2025 at 11:00 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Brittany Humphries and her husband Jon Bassford are what sales people at car dealerships might call motivated buyers. The couple, who live in suburban Maryland outside Washington, DC, moved swiftly to lock in purchases this year to avoid the risk of paying thousands of dollars more once Trump administration policies on electric vehicles and tariffs fully kick in.

The couple’s story presages a buying boom as people rush to get ahead of the 25% tariff hike on imported vehicles that President Donald Trump announced on March 26, which is set to go into effect on April 3.