Classic U.S. Cars Survive in Cuba

ZHANG:
As Detroit automakers battle to survive, their vintage cars in Cuba may outlive them. Lacking access to original car parts Cubans make their own parts or take them from other cars. Here's more.

STORY:
As U.S. automakers struggle to survive, they can take heart. Their gas guzzling cars may outlive them in Communist-run Cuba.

Even a four-decade long trade embargo has not kept determined Cubans from continually fixing up their beloved cars. Detroit relics dating back to the nifty fifties.

Just look at Havana's Malecon Avenue. It's a living automobile museum.

Old classic Buicks and Fords ramble alongside new Korean and French cars that aren't subject to an embargo, or what Cubans call a "blockade."

Lacking access to original car parts, Cubans like taxi driver Luis Alvarez resort to ingenuity.

[Luis Alvarez, Taxi Driver]:
"We have to invent here a set of pistons. But there are people who make the parts here in Cuba itself."

Cabbie Felix Padron scavenges for components.

[Felix Padron, Taxi Driver]:
"Adapting them to what's available, and finding original parts, but there aren't many. Some are from old cars, some from other cars."

Some 60,000 vintage cars are still running. Many of them are in good shape even if the chassis is the sole original part left. Some wheels are older than the guys behind them.

Daniel Vencomo's Buick predates Fidel Castro's revolution. His mighty metal reflects the adage, they don't make 'em like they used to.

[Daniel Vencomo, Taxi Driver]:
"Sixty-five years old, and I reckon this car is going to outlive me."

He says he'll pass it on to his youngest son.

And so, whether Detroit lives or dies, their cars will likely live on. They're as symbolically Cuban as Cohibas.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Ntd
• NTDTV
• news
• Cuba
• U.S.
• guzzling
• Cars
• Detroit
• automakers
• survive
• embargo
• automobile
• museum
• Buicks
• Fords
• blockade

[sweetbilly]

Oh some of those baby's are fucking cherry too!! Man you don't see vehicles like that anymore, that's when Detroit "KNEW" how to build cars ...who wants to buy one of these new plastic pieces of shit that break down in six months because they are designed by the engineers to break down in six months ...I sure as hell don't.

[rahla53]

Cuba was one of richest port in the whole world, please read about its history...

[HarryCat101]

CUBA IS THE PLACE TO VACATION.

[fsrodolfitocarlos]

@rahla53 it looks like it is the same thing before and after the 1959

[websuspect]

Cuba was a US emerite.

[Avantime]

Cuba was an american playground before Fidel Castro took power and becomes a communist state.

[rahla53]

Havana, Cuba 1930s, this the title of a vid, that will give you an idea about how it was before.....the revolution

[chrisfball12]

i think its better if we leave them alone as is. I want to be able 20 years from now and say WOW

[Dave985033]

wow...sorry to hear that. thanks for the information. What a high price to pay for freedom in America.

[Dave985033]

no 1970s classics? ;(