1949 Chevrolet Styleline DeLuxe Sport Coupe

"Idle along a country lane made smooth as asphalt by the magic of Chevrolet's new ride. Sweep down a broad highway while Panoramic Visibility unfolds a fuller, safer view all about you. Answer the invitation of any road and enjoy all the extra values exclusive to Chevrolet in its field. From Push-Button Door Handles to Center Point Steering, from Body by Fisher to Valve-in-Head engine, Chevrolet is first for quality at lowest cost!"

This is how an original "Full Vista" windscreen looks like after more than six decades: starting from the edges, the safety glass became "blind" over the years, which makes for a truly interesting look. Most windscreens of vintage Detroit Iron in Cuba have long been replaced, simply because you couldn't see through anymore. The amazing thing is, that new windscreens are available despite a non-existent supply of original spare parts. They get shaped in various clandestine workshops throughout the country. Safety glass? No, señor! Accidents and breaking glass will have dreadful consequences, but at least you'll have a windscreen at all. Considering that producing the panoramic screens of the latter 50s with their extreme curvature was a highly demanding industrial process, we marvel at the skills and artistry of cuban craftsmen who achieve similar results without elaborate tools.

Most cars of Chevrolet's first all-new postwar generation you see in Cuba, have four doors, and some are fancy hardtops or convertibles. Since the economic conditions in Cuba continue going downhill, various vintage cars, deemed being too impractical not too long ago, are awaken from their sleep in gloomy garages. This Chevy Styleline DeLuxe Sport Coupe is one of these rather uncommon sights. Although having just two doors and a tight cabin, it is being revitalized and soon will serve as a particular (read: privately operated) airport shuttle, explains its owner. Any business idea is welcome in Cuba, as long as it lets you make a living. And certainly, the idea of cruising along in Chevrolet's first all-new postwar design sounds very appealing to us.

1956 Mercury Custom Hardtop Coupe

"This long, luxurious coupe carries Mercury's famous low-silhouette styling into the Custom line. There's the promise of agile going and peak performance in every line plus traditional Mercury operating economy and stamina (9 out of 10 Mercurys ever built are still going strong)."

Being "the lowest-silhouette 4-door hardtop ever built" (as an contemporary ad proclaimed), made the Montclair Phaeton certainly the undisputed star in Mercury's lineup for 1956. But when you could omit two doors and fifteen horsepower, you also could opt for the entry-level Custom Coupe and buy similar looks for much less money. The 1956 Mercurys shared their body with Ford, but rode on a four-inch longer wheelbase. This longer wheelbase, together with the horizontal two-tone color split (not exactly pictured here) and the tunneled headlights visually stretched the cars and made the Mercurys look decidedly more modern than their Ford counterparts.

1939 Chevrolet Master DeLuxe

"Lucky the man, or the lady, who owns a new 1939 Chevrolet! They are driving today's performance leader – the liveliest of all low-priced cars – with a mighty supply of quick, eager, reserve power packed into its famous valve-in-head engine. When traffic has started moving, and every driver steps on he accelerator with the thought of 'going places,' it's the Chevrolet driver who safely takes the lead! And when the scene changes to open country, and high hills loom ahead, it's the Chevrolet driver again who goes over the top with the greatest of ease! First in acceleration! First in hill-climbing! First in all-round efficiency with economy! That's the story of this fleet, safe motor car, and, incidentally, that's why it is first in sales among all cars in the nation! Drive the winner! Place your order now for a new Chevrolet!"

The painted front grille of this Chevrolet Master DeLuxe makes for a quite mousy look, but don't be fooled: this was a surprisingly glamorous looking car when presented in 1939. One of Harley Earl's occasional tricks was to use similar styling elements on two marques throughout the GM portfolio to valorize the downmarket brand. With the 1939 Chevrolet, for example, you could buy the looks of a 1939 Cadillac, but for a much smaller budget. Two years later, the front grille of the Chevrolet resembled the much pricier Buick. Thus, Harley Earl brought some class into the low-priced field, and customers honored Chevrolet's "upscale" look with an impressive demand.

One battle that Harley Earl couldn't win for years, though, was the integration of the headlights into the front fenders. It was an inevitable step towards the fully mono-volume shapes that would characterize automobiles after the mid-40s. Harley Earl's designers had proposed integrated headlamps since the early 30s, but GM's top management and engineering were reluctant to bring them into production, because they feared that any fender bender would inevitably lead to misaligned headlights. Usually the man of industry-firsts, Harley Earl had to leave this design innovation to the competition: arch-rival Ford had introduced integrated headlights in 1936 and Chrysler already in 1934. Mounted atop of the fenders, the headlights of the 1939 and 1940 Chevrolets were an intermediate compromise, before they finally moved completely into the fenders in 1941.

1954 Oldsmobile 88 4-door Sedan

"We call them the newest new Oldsmobiles in fifty-seven years! Each one bears the unmistakable mark of Tomorrow in the breathtaking sweep of longer, lower lines. Each one offers you a veritable rainbow of color harmony. Each one has the flashing power of a new, livelier edition of the famous 'Rocket' engine! In every way they're cars of tomorrow, as you'll see the first time you drive one."

"The Dream that Couldn't Wait" is waiting for its driver on this peaceful evening in Moron. Since the introduction of the powerful "Rocket" V-8 engine in 1949, Oldsmobiles were respected as innovative, although conservative cars in the public opinion. The 1954 overhaul of the lineup brought very elegant cars: big and with impressive, but not yet exaggerated styling. Despite their huge dimensions, Oldsmobiles were always easy to drive. The "88", pictured here, was the entry-level car in Oldsmobile's lineup, but already well-dotated. The only visible difference to the fancier "Super 88" was a tiny badge on the rear fender.

Enjoy another quote from the sales-brochure in a very snazzy 50s language: "Shaped on Oldsmobile's drawing board many years ago . . . sheduled for completion in 1955 . . . perfected a full year in advance! This is Oldsmobile for 1954 – breath-taking beauty and record-braking performance translated into reality! The fresh, original concept of this Oldsmobile finds brilliant expression in its new lower, longer, lovelier styling. In the daring new slant of its sweep-around panoramic windshield . . . the modern magnificence of its Custom-Lounge interiors . . . the hundreds of dramatic innovations from new 'World' crest to contoured tail-light! And, to match Oldsmobile's dream-car design with power – a new 185-horsepower 'Rocket' Engine!"

1971-1988 Lada 2101

"More and more people are discovering the special qualities and excellent value for money of the Lada. No other car in its class offers anywhere near as much..."

A common stereotype of Cuba contains sandy beaches, happy people, cigars and big american cars. But sure not everything is what it seems to be. Cuba's automotive landscape, for instance, is clearly dominated by other, newer cars, mainly from Russia, Korea, and recently China. But somehow, the elated visitor's brain manages the trick to completely exclude these vehicles from the picture and leave us with the cliché. It's an interesting phenomenon...

While most foreigners embrace the vintage Detroit Iron, some cuban choferes seem to prefer anything that was built on the other side of the Iron Curtain, when they can get ahold of these russian cars. There's a myriad of Moskovichs and Ladas populating the island, most of them used by government owned agencies or being granted to the most merited revolutionaries. But from time to time, some of these cars somehow find their way to the private market. Contrary to the American cacharros, spare parts are very easy to find in case something breaks, which makes the russian cars a smart choice for choferes that must rely on their cars. Well, this situation might change soon, because the famous Lada faces the end of it's production run. Lada spokesman Igor Burenko recently has stated: "Demand for the Classic has dropped a lot. It is time to say goodbye." And the end of spare parts supply will cause the same dilemma to the Ladas as to their big brothers from America.

But now say hello to the Lada 2101. Our pictured car, save for its bumper, looks pretty much the same as its "mother", the Fiat 124. Unveiled in 1966, the Fiat started a very successful career on European roads by being awarded "European Car of the Year" in 1967. For the time, the Fiat was quite advanced: compact outside but very roomy inside. Technically simple, the car was agile, economic and (untypical for a Fiat) pretty reliable. The soviet government soon choose the Fiat 124 for licensed production in the new established AutoVAZ factory. As usual in socialist countries, all economic decisions are politically triggered. Part of the decision for Fiat was the strong presence of Italy's communist party within Fiat. Even Stavropol-Wolschskij, the place of the new joint-venture factory, was renamed into Togliatti in honor of the former leader of the Italian Communist Party who had died in 1964.

Fiat invested in building the factory and the first "Shiguli" and "Lada" cars left Togliatti in 1971. Except for the different names (Shiguli for domestic and Lada for the export market), the cars were identical, but slightly differed from the original Fiat 124: the adaption to rough russian driving conditions included slightly thicker sheet metal for the body panels, a revised suspension and an updated engine with overhead camshaft, plus an auxiliary manual fuel pump and a starter crank in case the battery was drained in the cold. The Lada 2101, produced in the look of our pictured car through 1988, soon was exported in different versions to western countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain and eventually even found its way to Canada.

To pay back the Lada's licensing costs, Russia supplied Fiat with steel, which was the base for all Fiats and some Alfa Romeo cars that were built from 1971. Soon, this agreement backfired on Fiat: the high amount of copper in the Russian steel caused an intergranular electro-chemical reaction (in other words: severe corrosion) on Fiats and Alfas, and thus, eventually on Fiat's brand image, too...