With President Donald Trump’s auto tariffs already in effect, consumers have been scurrying to buy new vehicles before anticipated price increases.

Dealerships in the area, such as Rentschler Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram in Slatington, have witnessed the frenzy up close and personnel.

Greg Rentschler, vice president for Rentschler Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram, said his dealership has experienced quite the uptick in sales of late.

“The entire month of March seemed like it was a July; it was very busy,” Rentschler said. “Typically March is usually a good month, but it was well above average.”

Rentschler said the dealership was a bit surprised by the uprising.

“It caught us off-guard a little bit,” he said. “We didn’t expect to be so busy.”

But, it wasn’t all due to the auto tariffs, Rentschler said.

“Not everybody was talking about tariffs, some of it was the spring market, it’s starting to get warmer,” he said. “We definitely did hear some of that if they rise prices, they want to buy it on the cheap side.”

Rentschler added that the prices had already come down in the past year.

“They feel like the deals are good enough now,” he said. “There are some good rebates and incentives.”

Rentschler noted that as of at least Thursday morning, his brands (Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram) temporarily paused production in Canadian and Mexican plants.

“Everybody’s doing their own thing,” he said. “They’re trying to not raise prices across the board.”

However, Rentschler said he believes they’ll definitely have some supply issues on a couple of models that are made outside of the US 50 states, as most of the production of cars at least in the country is in the Detroit/midwest area, or it’s in the south.

He added, “The landscape that we’re in is going to change and there’s a lot of wheeling and dealing to be had, not by us at this level. Hopefully all countries get better deals than we have in the past on tariffs.”

Rentschler described what he believes will be the main issue moving forward.

“I think the part situation is going to be worse than the car situation,” he said. “I believe that short-term, there could be a bigger parts issue rather than sales issues.”

Rentschler assured that customers of the dealership will continue to receive good

“We’re still going to make great deals; we don’t want to overcharge people for vehicles,” he said. “We know that there’s rebates still in place on any model no matter where it’s built, and sometimes they have low-rate financing available; rates have come down about the last year, so that’s helped as well.”

Above all else, Rentschler cautioned against making knee-jerk reactions.

“There’s no reason to panic-buy,” he said. “If you want something and you really wanted to have it in July, there’ll be great deals in July.’

Rentschler noted that lots of vehicles are built in the United States, and that the large majority of their volume is U.S. built vehicles and U.S. built parts.

“Most of which that is for sale really won’t be affected; there could be a color issue affected here or there along the way,” he said. “Otherwise, there’s no reason to panic buy, and when you’re ready and you need a vehicle, come out to us, and we’re ready to guide you through it.”

Sales also reached a feverish pitch at Lehighton Ford, so much so that it was at a level not seen

Adam Brobst, general manager, Lehighton Ford, attempted to put last week’s sales into perspective.

“Last week, I think it’s been the busiest week we’ve ever had in the history of our dealership,” Brobst said. “There’s no doubt there is little bit of panic fear over what is coming.”

Brobst said that historically, for every two new cars they sell, they sell one used car, but that over the last week, it has been 10 (new) to one (used).

“That is very abnormal, which is telling us that people are hitting the new market really hard right now,” he said. “From what we understand, pretty much every car is going to get more expensive in the near future.”

However, Brobst added that out of all the big mainstream dealerships, Ford is in the best position with the most American-made vehicles produced, and stands to be the least affected of all the big mainstream dealerships.

He said that Ford sees this as a huge opportunity for anyone who wants a new vehicle, and for the next month, they’re offering employee pricing to everyone.

“As long as I’ve been here, Ford has never done that,” he said. “That’s what definitely led to an absolute increase in new vehicle sales; the last week has been absolutely insane.”

But, Brobst noted there are still a few concerns about the auto tariffs on the horizon.

“We do not see an issue with getting parts from a supply perspective, (but) our concern is we have not been told yet how much of the supply chain will be affected by the tariffs, so we don’t know how much parts are going to increase in the future,” he said. “Due to the increase in new car buying, our biggest concern is actually running out of inventory in the near future.”