president Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order scaling back tariffs on automakers the 25% fee on imported cars and car parts stays but car makers won't be forced to pay additional tariffs like those on steel and aluminum the change comes as the industry grapples with uncertainty and added costs due to the tariffs and analysts still expect overall car prices to rise senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan takes a look at how it's affecting car shoppers in New Jersey heads up New Jersey car shoppers while Donald Trump did begrudgingly grant a few concessions to concerned car makers they'll still end up paying most of the president's 25% tariffs on imported cars and auto parts that'll probably drive up prices on both new and used vehicles by thousands of dollars in coming weeks there already is an affordability issue with new cars and so this only uh this only makes it worse andy Shapiro owns the Hudson Auto Group in Jersey City he says his suppliers Hyundai and Subaru will try to eat some of the higher new car costs but repair bills could sore and so that's my real concern is that people who have significant issues whether it's a major engine issue or a or a body repair we just don't know what that looks like but uh but it's not going to be it's not going to be good eventually the consumer is going to see it especially if it's on for the long term laura Para heads NJ car an auto dealer lobbying group she says dealers and car makers including GM and Ford had asked the president to walk back some of his tariffs warning they'd push up production costs eat into profits and raise prices new car prices currently average $50,000 in New Jersey and loans aren't cheap another big fear and we've been seeing this growing which is longer term um longer term loans uh higher monthly payments you know the average monthly payment since CO has continued to go up and the cost from new vehicles continues to go up but at a Michigan rally celebrating his 100th day in office Trump claimed his tariffs on autoimp imports would force car makers to build factories and restore the industry here in America this is going to create more jobs in this state and this country and to help these auto makers bring their factories home as rapidly as possible I've just signed an executive order to give partial tariff rebates to any company that assembles its cars right here in the US trump signed two new executive orders excusing automakers who pay the 25% import taxes from also having to pay other levies like steel and aluminum tariffs and the president cut them some slack on his auto parts tariff exempting small percentages of the manufacturer's suggested retail price for cars assembled here over the next 2 years but just in case we can't get everything in time we gave them a little bit so it's 15% of the parts and then it's 10% of the parts we give them a little time before we slaughter them if they don't do this right this kind of kicks the can down the street for probably two years for the automakers um it still hurts imported automobiles and Rucker's economist Tom Prusa predicts two years is nowhere near enough time for car makers to totally retool and revive auto manufacturing in the US prussa also foresees continued fallout from what he calls Trump's haphazard approach playing favorites one of the complaints is this kind of leads to this kind of crony capitalism there are countless other industries that are rightfully screaming i'm still paying the tariffs on my inputs and I am suffering many New Jersey businesses stockpile merchandise earlier this year frontloading inventory ahead of the tariffs but ports are already starting to notice a decline in shipping traffic jersey auto inventory is now down to about 30 days supply at pre-tariff prices if you're looking to buy a car in the next couple months Shapiro advises do it now while there is still ground stock that exists that is pre-tariff and if your car needs repair schedule that before those tariffs kick in on Saturday i'm Brenda Flanigan NJ Spotlight News [Music]