Benjamin Stein, general manager of Keystone Motors Volvo in Pennsylvania, was getting hammered with questions from his neighbor about the impact of tariffs on the price of a new car the neighbor had ordered. “He wore me out,” Stein tells WardsAuto.

He figured others had similar concerns.

So, Stein put together an email that went out to the dealership’s entire database of customers. The email contains key details about the tariffs and how they will or will not impact vehicle prices, adding that Keystone Volvo has more than 300 vehicles in stock which are not subject to tariffs.

“I said, ‘let’s get ahead of this, let’s get in front of it and hopefully inform people,” Stein says.

There was, and still is, a lot of confusion around the tariff’s impact. To help consumers, dealerships – through email, websites, and social media – are proactively providing key facts about the tariffs and how they will impact vehicle prices.  

“People thought all the cars on the ground were going to be re-priced,” Stein says. “We had so many people coming in to buy cars we couldn’t give them the level of service we are used to providing.”

Last month, President Trump announced a 25% tariff on auto imports. A few days later, he announced a swath of “reciprocal” tariffs on all imports, separate from the auto import tariffs. Then, he announced a 90-day pause on most of the reciprocal tariffs.

However, the 25% tariff on imported vehicles and parts is still in effect.

Those tariffs are on consumers’ minds. Car Wars, which provides phone solutions to dealerships, saw a 4,000% increase in the mention of “tariffs” on calls to dealerships from the week of February 20 to the week of March 27, from 918 mentions to 36,955.

In percentage terms, the mentions went from 0.03% to 1.26%, “a noteworthy but small segment of total calls,” Car Wars says.

A Little Help From a 20-Group Friend

Stein got the idea for the explanatory email from a LinkedIn post from Liza Borches, president and CEO of Carter Myers Automotive, a Virginia dealership group. Stein knows Borches from a shared 20 Group.

Her post let consumers know that not every vehicle is subject to the tariffs and that her dealership group had over 2,000 new cars in stock that were not subject to the tariffs.

“At Carter Myers Automotive, we represent 18 different brands and are here to help you gather all of the information that you need so that you feel comfortable, confident and excited to buy a car during this time of constantly changing information,” Borches writes.

Borches’ post also includes a video of her discussing the tariffs’ impact.

Maple Hill Auto Group of Kalamazoo, MI, has a “U.S. Tariffs” category on its website in the “About Us” drop-down with information about the impact of the tariffs, including updates.

For example, on April 3, Maple Hill explained that the reciprocal tariffs would not affect the previously announced 25% auto tariffs.

Maple Hill also included a bit of reassurance.

“We added a disclosure that prices may change, but we’d do our best to honor any written estimate no differently than before – for 30 days – and our owner doesn’t play the ‘better buy this car because there won’t be any soon’ markup games that some dealers adopted during COVID,” Maple Hill service director Jeff Daniel tells WardsAuto.

Walking the Lot

Zac Kinch, general manager at Bob Rohrman Toyota in Indiana, took to social media to give customers a tour of the dealership’s lot, identifying which models were produced domestically and thus would avoid a tariff and those which were imported and thus faced a tariff.

In a one-minute video, Kinch imparts useful information, such as the fact that the 2025 Tundra is produced in San Antonio. “No tariff,” he says, pointing at a Tundra’s
Monroney window sticker.

Kinch also says Rohrman will produce a list of all models so customers can identify which face a tariff. The video urges viewers to follow Rohrman Toyota on all social media channels for updates.

Updates there are sure to be, because the tariff situation changes frequently.

Dealerships will find a way to handle whatever comes their way, Keystone Volvo’s Stein tells WardsAuto.

“Unlike COVID, there isn’t a supply-chain issue at the end of this thing,” he says. “Production is going to keep going (because) car manufacturers have to keep building cars. (Dealers) are resilient. We’ll figure this out. We’ll navigate it.”