President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday imposing 25% tariffs on automobiles and their parts not made in America.
The impact could affect everything from the price of your next car to the costs of maintaining your existing car. While consumers rarely pay tariffs directly, tariffs increase the price of producing those goods, increasing the price of producing those goods on the company’s end — a cost that is frequently passed onto the consumer.
The tariffs start at midnight on April 3. The lone exception to those tariffs will be vehicles and parts imported under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which won’t be subject to the full tariff rate, according to USA TODAY.
“This is the beginning of Liberation Day in America,” Trump said inside the Oval Office. “We’re going to charge countries for doing business in our country and taking jobs, taking our wealth, taking so much out of our country.”
Here’s what to know about the impact and how the newly imposed tariffs will put a strain on car buyers in New Jersey.
New Jersey no longer has any operating car assembly plants, but once had a booming production line — including at one time the largest automobile assembly plants in the U.S.
The Ford Motor Company operated a plant in Mahwah, producing 6 million cars from 1955 to 1980. At the time of its completion, it was the largest motor vehicle assembly plant in the U.S. It replaced the former Edgewater plant that operated from 1930 to 1955.
The Edison Assembly Plant, known until 1980 as the Metuchen assembly, was a Ford Motor Company plant that operated from 1948 and closed on February 27, 2004, according to the New York Times. It manufactured nearly 7 million vehicles over 56 years.
New Jersey also had a General Motors automobile factory, the Linden Assembly, which operated from 1937 to 2005. A total of 343,000 automobiles left the General Motors’ super-assembly plant before production came to a halt as the U.S. geared up for World War II, according to Military.com. The plant was later used to produce fighter jet planes for the U.S. Navy, then resumed auto production in the years following.
The new tariffs could increase new-car prices anywhere from $3,500 to over $12,000, according to an Anderson Economic Group analysis cited by CNN. Meanwhile, higher new-car prices frequently push buyers to the used market, which is still reeling from curtailed production during the pandemic that translated to fewer late-model, lower-mileage cars for sale today.
The short-term effects of new tariffs could also exacerbate a shortage of desirable cars for sale, according to Cars.com. Anytime there is a disruption, it causes gridlock and fewer cars in production, the article said. “The lower end of the market is particularly vulnerable to new tariffs, as reasonably priced cars are frequently assembled in countries with lower labor costs in order to make them financially viable to sell.”
While a car can be assembled in America, every model-year 2025 vehicle had at least 20% of its parts sourced outside the U.S. and Canada, according to data from the Department of Transportation.
With that in mind, the American-Made Index has ranked the “most-American” cars, taking into consideration: assembly location, parts content, engine origin, transmission origin and U.S. manufacturing workforce.
Tesla, the all-electric automaker, has topped the list for four consecutive years. The Model Y, from billionaire and DOGE lead Elon Musk’s company, has sat at the top spot since 2022.
Lori Comstock is a New Jersey-based journalist with the Mid-Atlantic Connect Team.

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