Are tariffs on every car shopper’s mind?

Maybe not, but data from Car Wars indicates “a significant shift” in customer conversations, with more dealership customers talking about the issue in the week before President Trump’s 25% auto tariffs took effect on April 3.

The provider of call tracking, texting and phone technology for auto dealerships said mentions of “tariffs” in dealership phone calls during the week of March 27 rose nearly 4,000% from five weeks before.

While that increase is certainly eye-opening, Car Wars was quick to point out the tariff-related calls represented just 1.26% of total calls in its sample, which the company described as a “limited yet representative subset” of calls into and out of dealerships that week.

Car Wars audited dealership phone calls using large language models and found references to tariffs spiked from 918 mentions the week of Feb. 20 to 36,955 the week of March 27, and the percentage of total dealership calls mentioning tariffs increased from 0.03% to 1.26%.

Not all of that surge in tariff conversation was fueled by car shoppers. In fact, the data showed dealership staff mentioned tariffs nearly twice as often as customers, with the agent often bringing it up first, using it as a strategic tool to build urgency and get buyers into the dealership.

“This surge in tariff-related conversations is a clear signal dealers are proactively using timely market topics to engage buyers and drive them into the showroom,” Car Wars CEO Stephane Ferri said. “Dealerships need to be prepared with informed answers and strong phone processes to turn uncertainty into opportunity.”

That said, the number of customer mentions was 23 times greater in the week of March 27 than five weeks earlier, which Car Wars said confirms there is interest and concern from consumers as well.

In a news release Car Wars quoted a dealer as saying “it felt like as many as one in four calls” over the weekend involved concerns about tariffs and potential vehicle pricing changes.

Trend-based data from Car Wars’ LLMs indicate the mentions of tariffs as a percentage of total calls continue to grow each day, the company said.

“We’re closely tracking how this narrative is affecting dealership conversations,” chief technology officer Matt Andrus said. “By surfacing these insights in real time, we’re helping our dealer partners quickly adapt their messaging and improve outcomes on the phone.”