The Defender is made in Slovakia not Slovenia!
The car is therefore made in the EU and is not a British car in regards to tariffs.

 

If the moron has “cut a deal” with JLR - it would be for all of their products -- irrespective of where they are built -- so Slovakia (Nitra) or Solihull (UK).

That’s pretty obvious, isn't it?

This is all fake anyways. So -- if he’s going by entity (and also by country) -- and in this case with JLR, doing deals by entity to get the ring kissed -- he doesn’t care where the cars are built. A deal with JLR would cover JLR cars, wherever they are built unless there’s a carveout.

Which, if you think about it is so completely backwards. Petty. Punitive. And silly.

 

Tariffs are per country, not this or that "entity" within a country. Hence, there is no "deal" with JLR, only for cars of any marque actually made in and exported from England. JLR cars and components from anywhere else (e.g. Slovakia) will be tariffed at 25% plus the "base" tariff of 10%.

The billionaires will still get their Rolls Royces (hurrah!). But us poors, once we see empty shelves on top of high inflation, will start to gather our proverbial pitchforks, and the W.H. will find away to back down out of fear they will lose badly during midterm elections.

Until then, the whip-lash tariff chaos will continue, and we will all suffer.

 

You're right that tariffs are per country, so there is no 'deal' with JLR. But / it's more complex than you explain. Although final assembly of the Defender is in Slovakia, tariffs are determined at final completion of the car based on the content mix of the vehicle. So the defender for example is 31% UK, 19% Germany, etc. And will get tariffed accordingly
Same btw for eg a Tesla assembled in the US which is around 75pc US parts so a quarter of it gets tariffed. Or a BMW X4 built in their US plant that is only 30% US parts so still gets a meaningful tariff

Here is a table of country of final assembly and countries parts that make up the car
It's all super complicated and messy. That's why free trade is considered good for global goods. Even if JLR built a US factory to assemble the defender, more than half the car value would still attract a tariff.

https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.go...cal-2.4.25.pdf

 

BritCars: Yes, you are right. For cars, assembled from globally-sourced parts, it's very complicated. I was simplifying things far too much. But prices will have to rise anyway, just not by 35% as you point out.

This is all very real. After I was warned by a service representative, I raced to buy an electronic instrument (that no U.S. company makes here) before May 2, and sure enough, on May 2 its price went up by about $1000. And now, when I buy electronic components, there are separate explicit tariff charges ranging around 10-50% tacked on the large percentage of items that are imported. The pain will be felt by everyone else too, and soon.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/business...over-mandelson
"The UK’s limited trade deal with the US has immediately prevented job losses at Jaguar Land Rover’s plant in the West Midlands, Britain’s ambassador to the US has said."

 

Well I got some AMAZING news from the dealer yesterday re Land Rover subsidizing most of (whatever tariff % is applied to the UK designed/sourced Slovakian manufactured) Defender tariff. Won't say anything more as mine is not even built yet and all of us waiting will all know for sure if not soon, then when the first bunch arrive at US ports in June. And, I don't want to jinx myself. Re that complicated tariff formula, will say that as someone who as part of my job is forced to pay attention to everything Trump says/tweets/hints at, the Defender tariff rate could have been decided as simply as Starmer saying, "Donald, would you mind the Defender being classified as a UK car? Sure Keir." Who knows but that's mostly how Trump World operates, he decides based on how he feels at that moment, largely determined on how much he likes the person asking, then the underlings make the math work.

 

I was at my dealership yesterday and was told the exact same thing. My sales guy said they were told to let customers know not to worry and that final details were being worked out but that the goal is that customers will not have to pay any of the tariff. Hoping it's true.

 

Sounds positive. Let's hope it settles out now!

 

I'm hoping I hear something like this from the dealer. My Defender is in the holding pool, ordered April 23rd, the factory hasn't accepted it yet. I'm guessing it can take a couple of weeks. Is this normal or due to the tariff pausing shipments to the US?

Maybe we will hear something from the earnings report on the 13th this week.