1952 Pontiac Chieftain DeLuxe 4-door Sedan

"BE sure to see the great 1952 Pontiac! It brings you General Motors' sensational new Dual-Range Hydra-Matic Drive* — coupled with Pontiac's great high-compression engine — and a new high-performance, economy axle. At the touch of your finger, you can elect to have tremendous acceleration and snap to go! Or, with equal ease, you can choose an altogether different type of performance; silken, gliding, gas-saving — perfection itself for the open road. In other words, you have the power you want — where and when you want it. And there are many other advancements in the new Pontiac, too. Better see it — drive it — today. It's a sensation!"

The tone of this Pontiac ad sounds like half a decade ahead of time. Remember, Pontiac was GM's most conservative division, and who was in the game for performance in the early 1950s most certainly went shopping somewhere else. Pontiac, instead, was the choice of the sound and prudent folks who were looking for a handsome looking but still reasonably priced automobile. The abundance of shiny chrome trim and a long accessory list made many forget that the Pontiac was essentially a pimped Chevrolet, albeit one with a longer bonnet and an optional eight cylinder engine underneath. To most buyers, the Pontiac appealed as a car that would let the world know that they could afford more than a Chevy.

Pontiac's approach — solid quality rather than innovation — had brought the company forward in the 1930s and 1940s. When the American car market began to become saturated at the dawn of the 1950s, however, this strategy began to backfire: customers were more and more longing for the latest and greatest in automotive fashion. Now, an Indian chief as figurehead and Streamline Art Deco styling cues were clearly a thing of the past. Yet, it ain't easy to give up on a strong identity: Pontiac would hold on these brand symbols for four more years, before new management had the courage to turn things upside down and make the stuffy brand an desirable icon for America's youth.

1947 Mercury Eight Convertible

"Graceful as a yacht! Always so smooth — so easy to handle — such satisfaction to be seen in — Mercury now gives you even more of everything you want!"

Double horns and heavy-duty spotlights didn't come standard, but otherwise this fine convertible looks pretty much like it did when leaving the assembly line nearly seven decades ago.

The impressive look obscures the fact that this generation of Mercury cars technically dates back to 1941. Mercury sold merely prettied-up prewar models in the postwar years, just like most American car manufacturers did. Under their skin, these Mercurys were essentially better appointed Fords, powered by identical engines and transmissions. Few customers would notice the two-inch longer wheelbase of the 1947 models, or their smaller wheels (15 inch instead of 16 inch on the Ford).

What they noticed, though, was the glitzy styling, that made the Mercury look good even in the presence of Detroit's finest. The extra bucks paid for a Mercury went almost completely into extensive chrome trim, better upholstery and a definitely upscale appearance, compared to its Ford sibling. More than 10,000 convertible buyers in 1947 didn't mind paying the markup to get more "prestige" in return.

Yet, it didn't pass unnoticed by Ford's top management that people still saw too much Ford in the Mercury. The next Mercury generation, scheduled for 1949, should become closely tied to Lincoln and thus finally justify its premium price tag.

1985 Chevrolet Caprice Classic

"Few automobiles have risen beyond their intended status to offer qualities unsurpassed by the most expensive cars of their time. Yet here is Caprice Classic for 1985. Chevrolet's ultimate expression of first-class travel. Here is everything to make you secure in your choice of a new automobile. Full-size room to sit and stretch, while splendidly isolated from the annoyances of road and weather. Controls that comfortably respond to your every command. The peace of mind that has been secured by more than 5,000 Chevrolet dealers. Here, too are new Caprice qualities at your service. Electronic Fuel Injection, for example, for effortless power from Caprice's standard 4.3 Liter V6 engine. And suspension refinement so remarkable it redefines full-size riding comfort. You could pay more — up to four times more — for the qualities embodied by Caprice Classic. But the question is why?"

The "Acapulco" fuel station in Havana's Nuevo Vedado district is a nice carspotting place: in daytime, the adjoined café and bakery "Pain de Paris" causes a constant coming and going of customers and their cars. After sunset, Havana's youth meets here to start off into the night or to watch the latest flicks at the nearby "Acapulco" cinema. Attention seekers like that place, too: the young driver of this Chevrolet Caprice Classic is a frequent "guest" here. Admittedly, his ride always steals the show: shiny 22-inch wheels are definitely not common in Cuba and the pimped Chevy repeatedly earns admiring comments from bystanders.

When new, the Caprice certainly didn't turn so many heads. In the 1980s, it was considered a cheap and cheerful option for elderly people. Incidentally, the Caprice originates from pretty selfish interests of Chevrolets top management: in 1964, GM demanded that the executives should drive only cars of their own division. What certainly wasn't a problem for Cadillac's top brass, posed to be a threat to the prestige of the management of the cheaper makes. Quite a few Chevrolet managers were probably surprised how everyday travel felt in a plain Chevy. And — voilà! — already in 1965, Chevrolet presented the Caprice as an extra ritzy version of the Impala, with all fancy features available at the time.

Fast forward twenty years, and the Caprice was still around. In fact, the full sized Chevy now was a survivor of two energy crises and the resulting shift in the automotive landscape of the U.S., when downsizing became the word of the day, if not of the decades to follow. Because Chevrolet's full size lineup had been significantly "downsized" when the pictured generation was presented in 1977, Chevrolet decided to keep it in production, but didn't spare much energy in updates. The occasional facelift, and modernized engines every now and then kept the Caprice Classic alive all the way through 1990. A novelty for 1985 was a new 6-cylinder engine with electronic fuel injection to match the contemporary emission standards. Yet, perhaps the strongest argument for the Chevy's seemingly endless production run was its reasonable price: the tooling costs had been paid off already in the early 1980s, and the fullsize Chevys could be sold pretty cheap.

How our pictured car came to Cuba despite the embargo, though, is up to speculation. The "Landau Equipment Package", which "includes Landau-style vinyl roof cover, bright moldings on roof, belt and front fenders, Sport mirrors", suggests that this wasn't the average low-spec fleet car that enterprises or embassies would use and dump. The young driver gave away that his family got it "from outside", but was short on details. But consider this: the ample Chevrolet, we've learned, is a common sight in Venezuela and other Latin American countries. Many Cuban professionals are sent on a misión to Venezuela, usually spending around two years there as development workers. Cuba in return gets cheap oil and the Cubans, beside a higher than average salary to ease their sacrifices, have the right to import goods upon their return. Most bring DVD-players, TV-sets or fridges, but some can even afford to bring cars. This way, we imagine, the Chevy could have found its way to the island. What do you think?