New cars for Cuba
The Cuban street scene is a nostalgic sight. Here, vintage American sedans still rule the road. But that's about to change: The Communist island state has lifted a 55-year ban on the import of foreign cars.
Overtaking without catching up
In the 1950s, Communists all over the world planned to be better than capitalism without trying to emulate it. This was summed up in the famous catchphrase "Overtake without catching up." Communist Cuba, however, has been finding it increasingly difficult to do any overtaking at all: Most of the cars on the island are almost 60 years old.
Revolution and restrictions
Cuba's antiquated pool of cars dates back to the revolution of 1958-59. Following their victory, Fidel Castro and his comrades decreed that citizens would still be allowed to own cars - but only cars that were already on the island. And these were...
Ancient sedans
...big old American road cruisers from the 1940s and '50s, such as Oldsmobiles, Chevrolets or Plymouths (l. to r. in the photo.) A few Soviet, French or Asian cars did subsequently make it onto the island, but in order to import them you had to have a special permit, which was only given to selected civil servants, business people and VIPs.
Everyone's a mechanic
For their owners, the mechanical dinosaurs are a nightmare. They're uncomfortable, they don't have air conditioning, and it's impossible to get your hands on spare parts. They're also terrible gas guzzlers: Driving 100 kilometers will often use more than 20 liters. Cubans have got used to patching up and repairing what in other countries would have long since been consigned to the scrap heap.
Horse-drawn carriages
And if a 150 horsepower motor finally gives up the ghost, single horsepower has to do. Carriages like this are a common sight on the island. However, as former East German leader Erich Honecker once said, "neither an ox nor a donkey is able to stop the progress of socialism." The same is presumably true of horses.
Chauffeured in style
Those who've registered their ancient automobile as a taxi are on to a good thing. Foreign tourists are happy to pay well for a nostalgic ride in one of these classic cars. Around three million tourists visit Cuba every year, the majority of them from Canada.
Slowly opening up
Cuba's streets will soon look quite different, thanks to Raul Castro (r.), the country's new president and brother of his legendary predecessor, Fidel Castro. Cuba's isolated economy is in a bad way. Lifting the ban on new cars is one of a raft of new measures aimed at moving the country towards becoming a market economy.
Cars for all - or only the rich?
According to an official publication, cars will now be sold freely at standard market rates. However, it's unclear how many of Cuba's 11 million inhabitants can actually afford to buy one. Civil servants, for example, earn the equivalent of about 20 US dollars a month.
In a few years...
... Cuba may look much like its Caribbean neighbor, Jamaica, where the streets are full of aging but sturdy Asian cars, most of them small or mid-range. If Communist Cuba really wants to get into the overtaking lane, there are a couple of other models that would be ideally suited to the purpose...
In the driving seat
... a Mercedes, for example? The German car manufacturer caused a storm a year ago when it used an image of the revolutionary hero Che Guevara for a marketing presentation and replaced the red star on his cap with the Mercedes star. But perhaps the ideal car for Cuba is the Japanese Mazda RX-8 (photo) - its marketing slogan is "Drive the Revolution."