"It's the smartest, most colorful Chevrolet you ever saw! There is new styling . . . a clean-lined new grille design, new wider parking lights, new trim and ornamentation front and rear. There are new exterior colors and combinations — the most beautiful choice in the low-price field — matched by completely new interiors in colors that complement the body colors! And there are new and improved features, plus solid, deep-rooted quality in every engineering detail, to make this new Chevrolet an outstandingly fine, dependable and economical performer over a long, long time . . . the kind of proved quality that, year after year, leads more people to buy Chevrolets than any other car . . . the kind of proved quality that's especially important to you today!"
The Punta Gorda peninsula in Cienfuegos is the home of quite a few well-preserved vintage cars from Detroit. This one here, a 1952 Chevrolet, couldn't look much better across the Florida Straits. Keeping a car in this condition in Cuba requires not just connections and money aplenty, but also a lot of determination. Mind you, car dealers, junkyards or the internet to track down spare parts are practically non-existent here, and even the simplest restoration job can take years.
Four years after its introduction in 1949, the Chevrolet lineup still looked the part, which clearly speaks for the timeless class of its design. Under the supervision of Harley Earl, Chevrolet designers had sculpted a well-proportioned car that didn't seem to age. For that reason, all that was needed to keep Chevrolet the best selling marque in the U.S. were minor modifications and yearly trim changes.
To the casual observer, Chevrolets of this vintage seem to dominate Cuba's automotive landscape. A surprising number of them is still in a pretty good shape. Admittedly, these cars were best sellers in their time, but their basic construction and build quality were exceptional, too. Even considering various profound rebuilds and restoration jobs (as explained at Caristas), their healthy substance sure helped these Chevrolets to survive the decades in an outstanding condition.