CLEVELAND — Tony Lewandowski held on to his old car for as long as he could.
“I paid it off years ago… haven’t had a car payment. Tried to ride that out for a long time until I couldn’t anymore,” Lewandowski said.
This week, what started as window shopping turned into a new set of keys in his hand.
“I was surprised with how reasonable the prices are,” he said.
He’s not alone.
Despite looming tariffs, experts say car buyers haven’t yet felt the pinch. Research from Edmunds shows car prices are down about 0.7% since the summer, new and used alike. The dip comes largely because manufacturers are covering the added costs themselves.
“I think GM this year has absorbed a billion dollars in tariff costs already,” Joseph Yoon, Emunds consumer analyst, said.
But those savings may not last forever.
Experts predict manufacturers may not be able to hold off passing those costs to buyers beyond 2026.
For now, though, some local dealers say the combination of steady prices, lower interest rates, and fuller lots is giving shoppers more options than they’ve seen in years.
Mike Arnoff, General Manager at Ken Ganley Kia in Mentor, said the dealership has roughly 400 cars on the lot.
Just a few years ago, it was the opposite. During the pandemic, dealers sold through their inventory, sometimes down to zero, pushing prices up for both new and used vehicles.
Now, Arnoff said, more buyers are trading in cars with higher payments from a few years back and refinancing into lower ones.
“We’re putting people in payments 100 [to] 200 dollars lower,” he said.
For shoppers willing to wait a little longer, experts say the best time to buy is still at the end of the year. Cars often hit their lowest prices around the holidays.
Tariffs are expected to show up in pricing by the time 2027 models hit the market. But right now, for buyers like Lewandowski, it’s a window of opportunity.
