Cuba: A classic car buyer's paradise in 2014?
Cuba: A classic car buyer's paradise in 2014?
Rules are easing on buying and selling the old American cars that still line Havana's streets.
Fri, Dec 27 2013 at 1:47 PM
It’s no surprise that Cuba, aside from having free state health care, is a haven for old American cars. The streets are lined with classics of the fin era ending in 1959, an estimated 60,000 of them, and you’re more likely to see a ’58 Eldorado or a ’56 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer than a modern Russian car. But the rules that kept those old Yank tanks on the road—often, due to the economic embargo, with Soviet-era engines and hand-made parts — are changing, and the big beneficiary could be the American classic car buyer.
Since 1959, new cars — hugely expensive — were sold only at state-approved dealerships, and you needed a permit to buy a car, with preference going to those with connections. People waited many years for those permits. That, combined with a 100 percent import duty, meant that even modest newer cars were worth a fortune—how does $65,000 for a 2005 Honda Civic with 60,000 miles sound? Or $40,000 for a seven-year-old Hyundai Accent?
The artificial barriers also inflated the value of the pre-revolution American iron — until 2011, the only cars that people could legally buy and sell without a permit. Even patched-together jalopies from the Big Three sold for tens of thousands of dollars. For the last two years Cubans have been able to trade in newer used cars, but the new reform just announced by the Council of Ministers does away with the permit process, though the state retailers will remain in place.
There are two possible outcomes of this. The first: business as usual. People in Cuba don’t have a lot of disposable income, so there’s not going to be a big rush of new car buying. And the American cars — still the cheapest option — will keep their place as treasured family transportation.
More:
http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/transportation/blogs/cuba-a-classic-car-buyers-paradise-in-2014
