1950s American Cars in Havana Old City, Havana, Cuba
In Cuba tyhere are an estimated 60,000 of them still driving the roads today. In 1962 an embargo was placed on Cuba by the United States, effectively cutting trade between the countries. This meant that the cars in Cuba could no longer receive new replacement parts when something broke. Currently, the only way to keep these cars on the road today is by using Cuban ingenuity to adapt household products and Soviet technology into these vehicles. If a car is unable to be repaired at the time, the car is usually either “parked” for future repair or “parted out” (to produce extra income for the owner’s family) so that other cars can remain on the road.[4] During the years of Soviet Union influence on Cuba, Ladas, Moskvitchs and Volgas became the main cars imported by the communist regime, mainly for state use. As a result of these internal economic restrictions, to this day there is no such thing as a new or used private European or Asian automotive dealership branch in Cuba for independent purchasing by normal Cubans. On the other hand, many of these vehicles, especially those in taxi service, have been converted to accept replacement engines, usually Soviet diesel engines. Unfortunately, this is a “modification that sentences a car to a slow but certain death.”[9] The practical limits of engine longevity, scarcity of replacement parts, and the high cost of fuel in post Cold War (roughly 75 cents a liter in the summer of 2002) Cuba have made diesel power (roughly 15 to 20 cents)[11] a popular choice for engine replacement, if a suitable gasoline engine could not be acquired.
Size: 4800px × 3600px
Location: Havana Old City, Havana, Cuba
Photo credit: © Biblio Photography / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 50., 1950., 1950, american, biblio, car, cars, centre, chevrolet, city, classic, classic., colonial, convertible, cuba, don, habana, havana, la, morgan, photography, vieja, vintage
