Is There A New Life For Cuba's Classic Cars?

[eridani]

http://www.manufacturing.net/news/2014/12/is-there-a-new-life-for-cubas-classic-cars?et_cid=4335332&et_rid=54679148&type=headline

Dairo Tio cruises the streets of Havana in a gleaming black 1954 Buick with polished chrome highlights and the diesel motor from an electric plant bolted beneath the hood.

When the brakes failed in his beautiful Frankenstein of a taxi cab, Tio couldn't work for 15 days as he waited for a machinist to hand-carve the necessary screws.

The half-century-old embargo on most U.S. exports has turned Cubans into some of the most inventive mechanics in the world, technicians capable of engineering feats long lost to the modern world of eletronic ignitions and computerized engine calibration.

President Barack Obama's announcement that he is loosening the embargo through executive action has Cubans dreaming of an end to the era of cannibalizing train springs for suspensions and cutting tire patches by hand. One of the measures announced by Obama last week would allow U.S. exports to Cuba's small class of private business owners, which includes thousands of mechanics and taxi drivers who shuttle both Cubans in battered sedans for about 50 cents a ride and tourists in shiny, restored vintage vehicles for $25 an hour.

While the details of Obama's reforms remain uncertain, Cubans are hopeful that their publication in the coming weeks will be the announcement of the end of a five-decade drought of cars and parts.

[Historic NY]

1. Problem is they need unfubaring...too many years of retrofits...

for missing parts, engines, etc. Haggerty just ran an article about them, while they look fine on the surface its whats underneath that counts. Their scouts showed many easter bloc countries engines and diesel engines used as replacement. They even found a skill metal worked who could make 1958 Caddy bumpers........wait for it......from tin.

Cost more than what they are worth.

[No Vested Interest]

2. One has to wonder why there aren't car imported from Europe, Asia, etc.

- countries which do not have an embargo on Cuba.

I understand that certain products have been imported.- cheese comes to mind, for one.
I also understand that the average Cuban could not afford an imported car under the low Communist pay scale.
Still, one would think that for the tourists who come from Canada and Europe, modern automobiles would be available.