You don’t need to look hard to find out how car dealers are responding to tariffs — they're advertising their approach in commercials, ads, and dealer websites.

One method gaining popularity is car dealerships promoting tariff-free cars to buyers as a sales tactic in the competitive new car sales landscape.

President Trump’s 25% tariffs on auto imports, which started on April 3, have put foreign automakers on the back foot. Analysts see prices jumping as much as $3,000 for cheaper cars and up to $20,000 for luxury autos, and dealers know even the smallest price hike is bad news for sales.

Taking the tariff heat off is one way to go. And the dealers have different tactics within this playbook.

“No Added Tariffs. 100% Tariff Free,” says the banner on the website of Mercedes-Benz (MBG.DE) of Calabasas in Southern California. Mercedes has said it will cover the costs of tariffs for model year 2025 cars, and it likely has enough inventory in hand that was imported before the tariffs to keep that promise.

Read more: What Trump's tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet

Mercedes-Benz of Calabasas

Infiniti of Englewood in New Jersey posted on its site, “Invest in an Infiniti without new tariffs,” likely pointing buyers to cars that were imported earlier and the all-new QX60 SUV, which is made in the US.

And Porsche (P911.DE) of Tyson’s Corner in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., beckons buyers to “select from an array of new vehicles brought into the US before April 3rd,” when tariffs were imposed.

“I think it is a good sales tactic, but keep in mind right now they are tariff-free cars ... because the tariff has not started yet, and cars that are being produced will have tariffs, so I'm not so sure how they sustain that marketing,” said Tom Maoli, owner of Celebrity Motor Car Company, a dealership that operates Lexus, BMW, and Ford showrooms.

Maoli, a Republican who worked on Trump’s first-term transition team, is not a fan of the tariff approach, and his stores aren’t using the tariff-free ploy.

“This is a very short-term marketing plan,” he said, adding that when earlier imported car inventory runs out, and brands like Mercedes stop paying the tariffs, there’s only one place for it to go. “Manufacturers are going to have no choice but to pass it on to the consumer.”

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A Southern California dealer that operates a couple of mainstream franchises doesn’t like the policy either, but said there might be a choice.

“We did [advertise tariff-free cars] in an email blast or two but have since stopped,” the dealer said, opting to remain anonymous. “Personally, I don’t like that kind of stuff, but if everyone is doing it, you sort of have to remain competitive.”

Mercedes thinks the plan is a good one, and it intends to keep it going.

“No other OEM has made that commitment to protect an entire model year — I can't tell you how much that means in terms of what we'll absorb in cost, but it's a lot, right?” Mercedes US chief marketing officer Melody Lee said at the New York Auto Show on Thursday. “But we're doing that because we know our dealers and our customers need some reassurance of what's going on.”

Lee added that model year 2026 price protection “is still something that we're discussing too.”

Infiniti (7201.T) said the company is going to keep prices steady in the US, at least for the short term.

“We announced to the whole [Infiniti] network last Friday that we will keep MSRPs flat, tariff-free, if you will, until June 2,” Infiniti Americas vice president Tiago Castro said to Yahoo Finance. “That doesn't mean that June 3, we're going to change — all we wanted to confirm is, as we're studying this and we're trying to navigate and identify the best way to move forward, we don't want to make any drastic changes that will impact clients or retailers.”

Informa Plus Photo Agency via Getty Images

Castro said part of that plan is to lean into QX60 production at Nissan’s plant in Tennessee for domestic production and use excess capacity in Mexico to supply the Canadian market, as it won’t get tariffed as it would coming into the US. And the all-new QX65 will be assembled in Tennessee too.

The White House may point to this and claim that a new Infiniti nameplate coming to the US for production is exactly what tariffs are intended to achieve.

But for now, dealers say consumers are scared, and it’s likely why more and more dealers are advertising those tariff-free cars.

“There is absolutely panic buying going on,” Maoli said. “Consumers are trying to beat the deadline for tariffs.”

The big question for consumers, dealers, and automakers is what happens in the long term if auto import tariffs become the new norm.

Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.

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