As you have seen, this week brought an early salvo of the promised tariffs against the entire international car-making industry – a broader blast that’s ultimately going to be more costly to you, the consumer.

The tariff thinking seems to be along the lines of the January 1968 Vietnam War Battle of Ben Tre, which involved more than 1,000 military and civilian deaths and the leveling of 5,000 homes, and produced the famous quote, “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.”

The larger, infinitely complicated and totally politicized story of promised 25% tariffs on cars made outside the United States – which, knowing how these things go, might actually change again in the next 24 hours – is a strange tale of forcing the hand of the domestic auto business to do better, and punish outsiders at the same time. And, likely, produce much more expensive vehicle choices for American consumers in the process. Coverage this week suggested prices for many new vehicles could jump by as much as $10,000 as a result.

But as we’ve previously discussed, the American car business is not the same business it was in 1958, which seems to be the mystical point America wishes it could return to, on a variety of fronts. Or, even better, the 1920s, when Model T trucks were made at a building at 900 S. Broadway in Denver. 

With very few exceptions, new vehicles produced by General Motors, Ford and the Jeep/Ram/Chrysler family of Stellantis, are not fully manufactured in the United States, nor are they made of 100% American parts. Most of the domestic vehicles I’ve reviewed here in the last five years are a complicated mixture of Canadian, Mexican or international parts, with many assembled in Canada or Mexico. 

Wishing that away and hoping for a return to all-American manufacturing is a wonderful notion, but it won’t happen overnight, and it’s consumers, as well as everyone in the car manufacturing, parts supply and vehicle sales supply chain, that will be financially impacted.

Things will be even more tricky for legitimate foreign imports from Volkswagen, Mercedes, Toyota and the Korean and Japanese brands. They’ve all established a U.S. assembly footprint, but the models they make and the volume is still limited, so the bulk of their vehicles will be subject to new tariffs. And we won’t even mention Tesla at this point, or touch it with a 10-foot pole. That’s on advice from my attorney.

As I write this, the new Canadian Prime Minister and the U.S. President are chatting for the first time, though that American leader has made it painfully obvious his desire is to completely shut down the Canadian automobile industry. Mexico’s leader is preparing her own response over the weekend.

Looking for a deal? Maybe you should get to a car lot before April 3, when even more significant financial retaliation is promised, unless everything changes for the hundredth time, by then. It is indeed a rollercoaster.  

Andy Stonehouse’s column “Mountain Wheels” publishes Saturdays in the Summit Daily News. Stonehouse has worked as an editor and writer in Colorado since 1998, focusing on automotive coverage since 2004. He lives in Golden. Contact him at summitmountainwheels@gmail.com.