Supreme Court Blocks Trump Tariffs — But Car Prices Aren’t Coming Down

The auto industry may be getting a bit of a reprieve from the latest round of tariffs enacted by Pres. Donald Trump following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision announced last Friday finding most of his early import duties were illegal.

But automakers and auto suppliers still face earlier tariffs on imported vehicles, parts and metals not covered by the court’s ruling. And that means auto buyers will continue to pay substantially inflated prices at a time when many potential customers have been driving out of the market.

A new study by CatalystIQ found prices for some vehicles have risen by as much as $4,000 since last autumn due to Trump’s tariffs, the figure varying widely depending upon where vehicles are produced.

Related: Supreme Court Rules Against Trump Tariffs — But Automakers Aren’t Off the Hook

Sidestepping the Auto Industry

“I’m trying to unravel all the pieces (but) the auto industry is no better off than before,” said Tyson Jominy, lead data analyst with JD Power. The Supreme Court ruled most of the tariffs the president enacted last spring violate constitutional separations of power. While that ruling covered tariffs on a wide range of products imported into the US, it did not include automotive goods.

Duties on foreign-made autos and auto parts were enacted under separate rules and remain in place, as do tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. When those were enacted last April, Trump signed a pair of directives preventing various levies from piling atop one another further raising the impact on the auto industry. But that means the SCOTUS ruling last week leaves automotive tariffs in place.

Trump Fires Back

Though it was widely expected that the court would overturn most of the general tariffs Trump enacted, the move triggered an angry response from the president. Among other things, he accused the six justices who ruled against him of being under “foreign influences.” In turn, Trump immediately turned to  separate authority to enact a new 10% global import tariffs. Then, on Saturday, he boosted that figure to 15%.

That triggered initial panic in automotive circles. The American Automotive Policy Council, which represents Detroit’s three automakers – General Motors, Ford and Stellantis – quickly reached out to the White House for clarification. The new tariffs could have added billions of additional costs for manufacturers already largely swallowing billions of dollars in costs from the earlier auto import tariffs.

The good news, at least as far as the auto industry is concerned, is that the White House has again signaled it won’t pile the new, 15% global tariffs on top of what the industry is already saddled with. So, for now, the situation “remain largely unchanged,” said Erin Keating, head of automotive research for Cox Automotive. But Trump’s latest move, she cautioned, “underscores how fluid the trade environment has become.” And with a president willing to act out of whim and anger when it comes to trade, Keating – as well as several industry executives who spoke to Autoblog on background – warned this could lead automakers to delay critical investment plans.

What About Consumers?

The good news appears to be that the latest Trump tariffs won’t have any impact on vehicle prices. The bad news is that the Supreme Court ruling won’t have any impact on vehicle prices.

All told, Cox Automotive estimated manufacturers like GM, Ford, Hyundai and Toyota collectively paid about $25 billion in tariffs. If there’s a silver lining for consumers it’s that “You can’t pass on all tariff expenses to consumers,” said Jominy, especially at a time when “affordability” has reached crisis level, analysts estimating millions of consumers are being driven out of the new vehicle market. As a result, automakers took a big hit to earnings last year and are expected to be in the same situation in 2026. That said, some brands are starting to test the waters, beginning to pass on more tariff costs. Porsche, in particular, raised prices in January, the second time it did so since last summer, blaming tariffs.

Related: Ford Considers Letting Chinese Automakers Build Cars in America

Even with manufacturers still swallowing most of the costs, vehicle prices have been rising. Power puts the figure at about 2.5% of the price of a typical vehicle. Considering the average transaction price is currently around a record $50,000, that would work out to around $1,250. CatalystIQ, meanwhile, says the impact varies widely, largely due to the way tariffs are applied to different trade partners. Its study, which tracked vehicle price hikes since last autumn, found Canadian-made vehicles are up an average $4,000, with those from Mexico rising by $1,500. Even American-made vehicles were hit due to the use of foreign-made parts and metal.

Automakers Play Wait and See

Though Pres. Trump’s latest tariffs appear to be largely a backlash to the Supreme Court ruling, he has argued that trade sanctions are needed to convince the corporate world to shift more manufacturing back to the U.S. So far, the results are questionable. U.S. employment, in general, grew at a slower pace in 2025, according to federal data. The manufacturing sector actually shed about 68,000 jobs, according to KPMG, a large chunk of that coming from the auto industry. The data shows that about 10,000 of those lost jobs came from the Detroit Big Three.

There has been some movement towards bringing back some automotive manufacturing, companies like GM, Honda and Stellantis shifting some products from Canada and Mexico back to the States. The most significant announcement was made by Hyundai which expects to spend $26 billion to boost U.S. auto production, build robots and set up a steel mill in Louisiana. But Jominy, Keating and other analysts caution that it could take years to reshape the global manufacturing system – with many manufacturers simply biding their time waiting to see what the next moves by the Trump administration might bring.