I happened to notice that the vehicles identified in a couple of national Toyota commercials were 2024 models. It’s the middle of 2025, and the 2026 model year should be with us soon. What does this mean?
It means Toyota is scraping the bottom of the barrel of its inventory–the cars they haven’t been able to sell for two years–because those cars weren’t subject to tariffs. At some point, the company will run out of that kind of lackluster inventory, and prices will have to go up.
In other words, if you were thinking that the concern about tariffs and stagflation was just so much hot air, think again.