Old American Cars are Everywhere

The only cars you see in Havana—in fact, all of Cuba, except for the occasional old Soviet made Lada and rare new South Korean car, are American cars built prior to 1959 during the heyday of big, confection colored gas hogs.  Cuba was an exciting destination from the 1920s until the Revolution in 1959.

The first private job—2 years ago under reforms instituted by Raoul Casteo—were taxi drivers. The train is not at all reliable and not used due to no schedule, and the buses are very crowded and nowhere near what is needed to transfer people around Havana or anywhere else.  These old cars carry 4-6 people for 50 cents to 1 CUC each.  This makes driving a taxi a fairly lucrative job.  As more and more taxis were needed, 1956 Chevy Bel-Airs and 1959 Impalas came from other provinces to Havana.  The result is that Havana is a constant parade of old American cars in every color imaginable!  Some are fixed up and some are pretty dilapidated.  The government doesn’t allow cars to be sold and the only cars that can be traded are the old American cars