• Submitted by: manso
• Travel and Tourism
• 08 / 15 / 2011

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After 59 years, it doesn't look too bad, does it? This is a 1956 De Soto -- with a a 2-liter Toyota engine in it. / ELLEN CREAGER/DETROIT FREE PRESS

Free Press travel writer Ellen Creager is with the first American tourists on a new "people-to-people" cultural tour that started Thursday. Except for a brief window 2000-2003, it is the first time in 50 years the average American can travel to Cuba.

HAVANA -- Did I mention the cars? I will write more about this later, but pre-1959 American cars are indeed common -- not just 1950s cars but even 1940s or older. One man showed me under the hood of his 1956 De Soto -- it has a 2-liter Toyota engine in it.

They do what they can, scavenging parts from every odd source to keep these babies running.

I saw one 1950s car -- I couldn't even tell you what year or brand -- with a Chevrolet nameplate on the front and a Chrysler nameplate on the back.

Yesterday in front of the Museum of the Revolution I saw three people pushing an old 1970s-era Russian Lada while a man started it as it moved. A woman jumped into the rolling vehicle on the passenger side as the engine sputtered to life, and they drove off.

"Magician mechanics" is how Cuba's few private car owners are often described. I believe it.

Source: http://www.freep.com/article/20110815/FEATURES07/110815009/