March was good to Ford.
In Q1, retail sales, or sales directly to consumers, climbed 5%, thanks to a strong March, when retail sales rose 19% and total sales bumped up 10%. That was a lot stronger than the 1.3% dip in total sales for the quarter overall, which was driven in part by lost sales volume from the discontinuation of the Ford Edge.
Gee, you have to wonder why on earth buyers might’ve been flocking to Ford in the month of March? Does the answer happen to rhyme with sheriffs?
If Ford’s results are any indication, it looks like some buyers have snatched up cars before President Trump’s 25% tariffs on passenger vehicles and key auto parts go into effect this week.
Ford will have slightly better luck than some other automakers with respect to tariffs, since it relies less heavily on imports, as Bank of America research analyst John Murphy shared in a note last week. Ford imports around 20% of its vehicles, Murphy noted, while carmakers like Toyota, Hyundai, and Nissan import more than 50% of their vehicles.
Car buyers may feel the results of auto tariffs as soon as mid-April if companies jack up prices, according to Cox Automobile Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke.
Trump, for his part, is staying characteristically flippant about the possible price challenges facing consumers as a result of tariffs.
When asked by NBC News if he was worried about price hikes on automobiles as a result of auto tariffs, he said he “couldn’t care less, because if the prices on foreign cars go up, they’re going to buy American cars.”
Trump also denied a Wall Street Journal report that he warned CEOs at top automakers that the White House would view car companies that raised prices as a result of tariffs unfavorably.
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