GM Rules the Road in Cuba

Eating my heart out. Watch this video, and just think of all the parts you could get. An Edsel Taxi??? Some old woodies on the road still?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31310462

 

ohh man i envy you canadians....you can actually go there.

forget the parts you could buy! think of the stuff you could sell! espescially if the embargo was lifted.

id love to move to the bahamas establish residency and start collecting used parts to ship there!

 

Don't know if its changed in the Bahamas, but Freeport wouldn't even let foreign residents to many parts of the island. That was in 1971. Expect its changed by now.

We've got friends that go to Cuba annually. I should ask them if they know much about the inner workings of getting parts and stuff. A real bottle of Bacardi would be nice. Mexico only sells Cuban 1873 Bacardi, BTW. The good stuff. The trick is in smoking the cane sugar and using the right cloves, so I was told.

 

We all could learn a thing or 2 from the Cuban car enthusiast, that vidio although great does'nt even come close to show how good they are at there it and keep em on the road with little $ and or parts.

Several friends have been there, I'd love to see it before 'Ol Fidel dies to enjoy it before it becomes completly basterdized/modernized as so many sleepy old countries have.

 

I'd say you've got about 3 years to do that. Once the US opens diplomatic relations, it'll change fast.

 

yeah, next thing you know we will be pushing hybrids on them.

 

Wow, talk about a living museum!!

 

There's a few around. Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador AND South Africa which has a special trade pact for cars with Australia. Aussie makes a lot of SA's makes.

 

The MS-BHO commentator has to insert her anti-old-car biases into her piece. The guy with the Cadillac replaced the original gas engine with a Diesel engine. Her implication was that he did so to replace that "gas-guzzler" with a more economical engine; when in reality, he replaced it because it was probably near-impossible to keep that Caddy running as stock! To her, ALL of the cars there seem to be GM, when the videographer taped cars from all of the American makers. Plenty of Chryslers, GM, Ford, and even a Hudson and a Studebaker were pictured. Notice, she scorns their choice of transportation, as they "spew their fumes". Guess what? These guys are the epitome of economically-friendly transportation! You can not just sell your car in Cuba! What these folks are driving are handed down from one family member to another over the years! You can not just go down to the local used car lot and get a car, because there are none! If you are amongst the Communista Party elite, you can get a later-model car, or even a new one, but that is it.

Neat article, but next time, I'll watch with the volume muted, considering the source of the news item.

I did get a Cuban license plate from a Canadian friend that was travelling there, about two years ago. Guaranteed, the rarest one in my collection!

 

watch this! love the pics...and the music!

 

All of the LARGE trucks pictured are Russian, except for one International.

 

only 1 was russian....at least one was an old HINO ..japanese. i thought a couple of the dump trucks were old dodge 600's

 

No Dodges in that video at all. Most were Soviet-era ZIL or GAZ trucks, which are very similar to appearance to US-built International Harvester trucks. There was a '58 IH 2-ton in the bunch, and the truck in the hay field was a Hino, but the rest were Russian rigs.

 

wow no kidding those GAZ's look a lot like an american trucks,
he he but no rumbling v8 in a soviet truck.

have you ever seen a cuban camelo bus ? im sure some of our canadian friends that have been there may have ridden one.

think: city bus meets a cattle trailer


hmmm early to mid 90's american IH tractor...wonder how they got that? saw another pic of one being pulled by an aeromax tractor

 

That may have been a Canadian-built IH tractor in the pic. Not sure what kind of trade embargo the Canadian gub'mint has with Cuba, but obviously, heavy equipment seems to get a way in. Another way might be through a third-country sale. Lots of trucks get exported from the US and Canada to Mexico, Panama, Honduras, and Colombia. They all trade with Cuba, so it likely went that route. Seems odd to see that OTR sleeper cab tractor pulling that trailer-bus around the city. It would be much more practical and much shorter in length, to have a single-rear axle, cab-over daycab (no sleeper) pulling that around.

I'm curious what customs tariff Cuba imposes on trucks? I know that Panama and Colombia both have a 8% tariff on trucks (30% on cars!), last I checked (1992). Plus, who, other than a Cuban government apparatchik, would have the $$$ to import one?