National Post

Cubans now allowed to wheel and deal
Want to buy a blue 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air for $11,000 or a Soviet-made Lada 1600 for $15,000? Or for that matter, sell one. In communist Cuba, now you can.

For the first time since the 1959 revolution, Cubans have the right to buy and sell any car — something that was only done before with the government’s OK — or on the black market by illegally purchasing vehicles licensed to someone else.

Decades of trade sanctions and a ban on car sales have nurtured the island’s trademark “stuck-in-time” feel, where 1940s and ’50s Chevrolets and Fords are revamped with used engines and spare parts to clunk around on the roads of the Caribbean island.

Now hundreds of Cubans are taking up the opportunity to enjoy a first taste of wheeling and dealing in the auto market. (Photo: Desmond Boylan/Reuters)