Are you buying now because you anticipate higher prices?

[Groove01]

Thinking about purchasing a new vehicle in the USA. This article details what automakers are thinking and doing. If you are a "car guy/girl" this is a good website to keep up on the industry.

From Employee Pricing to Halting Imports: Here's How Automakers Are Reacting (Updated)

With automotive tariffs now in effect, automakers are responding in various ways, with some like Audi and VW pausing imports altogether.

tflcar.com

Waiting on employee pricing for the CT5-V blackwing.

That might prompt me to accelerate a purchase.

Unlikely though, but wishful thinking is fun - lol.

 

[JRowland]

Not audio but if we’re talking cars then yes. My wife picked this up Saturday and that decision was definitely influenced by the potential increase coming in May.

 

[Timcognito]

Waiting on employee pricing for the CT5-V blackwing.

That might prompt me to accelerate a purchase.

Unlikely though, but wishful thinking is fun - lol.

Rocket ship. Just in case you missed this. FYI

MotorWeek | 2025 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing & 2025 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque | Season 44 | Episode 30

Join us this week for the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing and Range Rover Evoque.

www.pbs.org

 

[JeffS7444]

I'd happily consider a new GR-Corolla if it's TCO were an insignificant percentage of my net worth (I wish!). But I personally wouldn't care to take on debt in order to acquire one.

 

[Groove01]

Rocket ship. Just in case you missed this. FYI

MotorWeek | 2025 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing & 2025 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque | Season 44 | Episode 30

Join us this week for the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing and Range Rover Evoque.

www.pbs.org

Comes in manual as well

 

[Soandso]

No I won't be buying discretionary (not necessary) audio gear I had intended to as a consequence of the new USA tariffs. For me it's about the price point where I have decided un-necessary audio equipment is worthwhile, or not.

I'm stateside USA where the income tax (federal and state) payment deadline just ended. I'd planned for months to use my anticipated (and now governmentally confirmed) tax over-payment refunds for a specific used headphone that I found regularly offered for sale in several other countries cheaper than here in the USA.

Previously overseas audio gear came directly to my residence without any importation charges. While in contrast, bought in the USA my state would have required an automatic tax charge (10+%) added to my transaction payment. So, now there is little difference to my total expense for buying here than the cost of getting it from those other countries' sellers.

In effect this is an example of the new administration's method for re-incentivizing that we in the USA buy within the national economy. And if I had gone ahead buying the headphone from a USA based seller the money would've been contributing to the national economic activity. In contrast, had I been incentivized by the lack of an importation charge (tariff) the purchase money I sent overseas would've been contributing to some other country's economic activity.

In a small way this is an example of the new tariffs working to reduce the USA trade imbalance. Even though I'm not buying the same discretionary item stateside the relevant amount of that disposable income remains available to me for deploying in the USA as purchases and/or additional capital for USA investment.

"Demand destruction" is a pending economic factor (when people buy essentials-->> pass on discretionary items -->>economic churning slows -->>jobs become redundant -->>household cash flows tighten -->>local purchasing declines-->> ever more effects spread). This is more relevant beyond the short term obsession with potential price increases due to the new USA tariffs.

We can look ahead how the advanced economies will be having to deal with this (demand destruction) and the USA new tariffs will add pressure on it (figuring on reduced export sales to the USA, like my example). It should be understood that well before the current USA administration's inauguration leading up to these new tariff impositions The European Central Bank was lowering interest rates and just did so further a few days ago. They have been making money more available (cheaper to borrow) since sometime in 2024. It is the European monetary policy order to bump member nations' economic activity; the USA once did something similar and we nicknamed it "helicopter money" flying around in our economy.

Here in the USA there are pressures to likewise lower interest rates to prevent spiraling "demand destruction" from entrenching. All this by way of explaining why I think the USA and Europe (Japan too) will in due time work out a mutually satisfactory trade compromise despite recent politicians' posturing. Maybe then I'll buy that headphone from overseas after all.

 

[xanalog]

Sometimes politics and audio do mix well:
It was time for me to replace my speakers, so I pulled-out of some stocks just before tariff-dip started.

Sometimes politics and audio do not mix well:
I rushed to purchase them before the tariff-*hit starts; which may result in my speakers getting contaminated with tariff-politics.

Win-win-win!

 

[Waxx]

Not audio but if we’re talking cars then yes. My wife picked this up Saturday and that decision was definitely influenced by the potential increase coming in May.

View attachment 446192

Maintenance and parts will still cost you some tarrifs altough, and BMW needs a lot of maintenance and it ain't cheap (even without tarrifs). I know that, i also have one from 2022 and have almost a 2x a year maintenance appointment (i drive a lot for my job).

 

[JRowland]

Maintenance and parts will still cost you some tarrifs altough, and BMW needs a lot of maintenance and it ain't cheap (even without tarrifs). I know that, i also have one from 2022 and have almost a 2x a year maintenance appointment (i drive a lot for my job).

I'm hoping not and I tried to hedge that. I have my car and currently 4 motorcycles I maintain myself so I paid a little extra ($800) for 7 years or 75,000 of covered maintenance on hers (she drives about 8-10,000 miles/year). It includes oil and filter changes, 1 tranny and differential fluid change, and 2 brake fluid changes plus some other stuff but those were the important ones for me for saving my time. Obviously wear items are not covered but my wife generally doesn't wear much besides tires until close to 100,000 miles usually, knocking on wood as I type.

 

[Waxx]

Don't count you can maintain a modern BMW. The computer systems are so complex that you need the right computer and hardware to do that. And only BMW partners have those. It became like that also because of the security for these cars, as they were prime subjects to cartheft (at least in Europe). Now they are almost impossible to steal without being caught. I know people with a lot of car experience and knowledge, but they also need to bring their BMW to the dealer for maintenance, because without the right tools you can't do nothing anymore.

Some hacked their way trough it, but it causes more problems than it solved i hear and many of those cars won't drive anymore without passing trough a BMW dealer to fix the things. Cars today are driving computers, not analog mechanical devices anymore.

 

[teched58]

I just want to say how proud I am of ASR for trusting that we the members would be able to behave like adults in discussing this topic, which for some reason everybody else is afraid of. So thank you, @amirm , for trusting in your community. And thank you and welcome to @RickS

Of course it's an appropriate topic because it's 100% relevant to modern audio (e.g., AVRs fade as cheap Class D amps rise). Indeed, I sit here daily monitoring the prices of Chinesium amps and DACs from Fosi, Aiyima et al on Amazon. So far, I haven't seen any significant rises in prices (maybe $5 or $10 here or there) and no lack of supply or shortages.

 

[Titurel]

I just want to say how proud I am of ASR for trusting that we the members would be able to behave like adults in discussing this topic, which for some reason everybody else is afraid of. So thank you, @amirm , for trusting in your community. And thank you and welcome to @RickS

I'm less inclined to "throw flowers," as the only guaranteed acceptable posts are venting about the inconvenience, expense, etc. of tariffs, whereas substantive discussion of the underlying question is verboten.

Having made my panic buying early (like last year), I'm only worried the 25kg of green coffee beans I have in stock might not be enough to ride out current market fluctuations.

 

[Azrael]

The USA does not have an income problem, it has a distribution problem. They are not alone in this (it's a problem in my country too), but it is particularly pronounced there.

But yes: it's easy to blame others, solving internal problems is often more difficult...

 

[JeffS7444]

 

[Salt]

Second hand my save a lot of money nowadays ( have a look at hifishark.com).

 

[Esprit]

Someone will make money by being a middleman.
Buy from China to Europe and then ship the product from Europe to the United States.
I could invent a job...

 

[D2013]

The USA does not have an income problem, it has a distribution problem. They are not alone in this (it's a problem in my country too), but it is particularly pronounced there.

But yes: it's easy to blame others, solving internal problems is often more difficult...

Can you explain what you are trying to say without beating around the bush?

 

[RickS]

I'm less inclined to "throw flowers," as the only guaranteed acceptable posts are venting about the inconvenience, expense, etc. of tariffs, whereas substantive discussion of the underlying question is verboten.

Flowers need not be sacrificed on my behalf thanks.

The underlying question(s) are not "verboten", but tariff posts do need to be substantive and not politically charged. I know ASR has members on many sides of the tariff debate. While some might see the tariffs as 2 dimensional, as soon as you consider members from outside the US, they are clearly multi-dimensional.

We have some very smart members and would welcome if someone can make any strategic sense of these tariffs. In any case, suspect this may be a while as would need to first have a known set of them, and the tariffs are clearly anything but stable currently. @GXAlan hosted a thread on the new tariffs that was open for about 2 months. I just reviewed it (along with all moderated posts) and there was not a single post that articulated how more tariffs would benefit the US strategically. At this point, if such a plan existed, expect it would have been shared months ago.

I plan to keep this thread open as long as it is a productive exchange. Thanks to all members who have and will contribute constructively!

 

[GXAlan]

@GXAlan hosted a thread on the new tariffs that was open for about 2 months. I just reviewed it (along with all moderated posts) and there was not a single post that articulated how more tariffs would benefit the US strategically. At this point, if such a plan existed, expect it would have been shared months ago.

Only because you dragged/tagged me into this…

The reason there was no post articulating the possible benefit of tariffs in that thread was that everyone was following the no politics rule and focusing on practical non-political information related to buying audio gear.

To provide a thought experiment…

Can China's stimulus response offset Trump's tariffs? - Asia Times

China’s ambitious “around 5%” growth target this year increasingly has a Donald Trump problem. Every time the US president raises tariffs for mainland goods — 145%, at least for now — he makes it harder for Xi Jinping to avoid Beijing’s fate in 2022 and 1990. Those are the only two times in the...

asiatimes.com

While it is true that we US consumers pay tariffs on goods coming in, the claim that other countries are paying for the tariffs is not as far fetched when you step back and think about what a “stimulus” actually means.

We laugh at the idea of U.S. making Canada a 51st state or acquiring Greenland from Denmark. The Canadians and Greenlanders are perfectly happy being separate from the U.S.

The People’s Republic of China is actively intent on acquiring Taiwan and has used military force (encirclement, live fire exercises) in demonstrating the seriousness of their intent.

Every yuan that the PRC is spending to support its domestic economy as “stimulus” in response to U.S. tariffs and in particular toward factories that used to supply US with low cost goods, is yuan that is not applied toward building toward the officially stated military readiness goal of invading Taiwan by 2027.

Is it possible that the Chinese factories that were making random consumer goods for SHEIN will pivot to military production as a result of the stimulus? Sure. Paratroopers need parachutes to be sewn. And that would accelerate the outcome you are trying to prevent. So it could easily backfire resulting in a worse future.

If you want to understand a debate, you need to understand all perspectives and you need to understand the branching points. You need to see all the possibilities.

Separate from the possibilities are the probabilities.

That’s different.

An open minded Democrat should recognize that the Republican plan could possibly work out well, but opine that the probability of success is too vanishingly small and a high probability of catastrophic disaster means the current path is wrong.

An open minded Republican should recognize that the Democrats concern about a catastrophic global depression is a valid, one of many worst case scenarios, but opine that the risk of continuing with the status quo and consequences are even greater risks than the current high risk action plan.

The opinion part is politics. You won’t be able to convince the other side that your assessment of probability is the correct one.

However, the recognition of all possibilities is science.

(And to follow ASR rules about posting YouTube links, that is a clip from the Avengers movie, where Dr. Strange looks at the future and all the possible future timelines.)

 

[diablo]

View attachment 446496

MiniDSP issued this statement on Wednesday -

US Tariffs situation

Dear All, Time for an update on the tariffs situation... Like many manufacturers, we've been trying to figure out a plan of action on what is a very fluid situation with regards to US tariffs. As some might be aware, custom rules are changing rapidly, sometimes outdated by the time an item...

www.minidsp.com

"With that regards, 2 options will happen starting tomorrow:
a) We put all shipments to USA on hold till the situation makes more sense. We're not shipping life saving equipment so maybe best we wait this out so we can save you cost.
b) We pre-apply duties to your order starting from April 25th. It might be ok for small purchase but not for larger as budgets are tights. If tariffs get modified, we could always reimburse the extra duties?"