St. Charles, MO (KMOX) - How will tariffs impact your next car repair?
KMOX auto expert Greg Damon, General Manager of Sparks Tire and Auto in St. Charles, thinks people should brace for increased costs at the repair shop. Damon says “Absolutely I do think parts will go up. They’ve been going up exponentially ever since COVID, especially tires.”
Damon says it’s very tough to procure parts in a timely manner and original parts are often on backorder. He tells Total Information A.M. on KMOX, customers will have to realize when they bring a car in to a shop, they're probably not going to get it back the same day because it can take a day more to get the parts in to repair the vehicle.
He says at his shop they try to buy domestic parts as much as possible. But he points out it's tough to find aftermarket parts in many cases which leaves original parts as the only option.
Damon says “the price of new cars will certainly increase.” That means people will keep their cars longer, "we’re seeing cars 15 years old and up" points out Damon. He says cars today are built better than what they used to be. He adds, if you keep the maintenance on them up-to-date and keep up with repairs going, you could get 200,000 -- or even 300,000 -- miles out of your car.
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