bmer
Tire Trailblazer
Wow, this is a historic moment! 
Tue Sep 29, 2009 8:00am EDT
By Esteban Israel
HAVANA, Sept 29 (Reuters) - After three decades as the favored car of Cuban nomenklatura, the austere, Russian-built Lada has spotted a Chinese rival in its rear-view mirror.
Ministers, communist officials and police are switching their Ladas, with its stiff manual steering, for the smooth hydraulics of the Chinese-made Geely CK, a modern sedan that symbolizes the island's new alliance with Beijing.
China, now Cuba's second-largest trading partner behind only Venezuela, has shown an ability to quickly penetrate and dominate markets around the world with many of its products.
But Cubans say their love for Ladas, which are probably the most visible legacy of the country's Cold War alliance with the Soviet Union, will keep the cars on Cuban roads.
"I do not think it will be easy to displace the Lada," said David Pena, a 39-year old mechanic who recently founded Cuba's Russian Automobile Club. "For us this car is like a family member."
Cuba is well known for the vintage American cars that prowl its streets, relics of pre-revolutionary Cuba and rolling tributes to the islanders' mechanical inventiveness.
But the truth is they are greatly outnumbered by Ladas, of which there are an estimated 100,000 in Cuba, compared to somewhere around 60,000 of the old U.S. cars.
The Geelys, based on a Daewoo design and powered by a 1.5-liter engine licensed from Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), have begun showing up with increasing frequency on Havana streets.
They have a sleek and stylish look and come with air conditioning, electric windows and CD players.
The Chinese cars are so far showing up in very limited numbers, as government vehicles and rental cars, but their ranks are expected to increase in a sign of China's growing economic relationship with Cuba and business interests on the island.
Geely, China's biggest privately owned car maker whose worldwide strategy has been founded on exporting low-cost vehicles, shipped more than 1,500 cars to Cuba this year through June, the Miami Herald reported on its website.
CULT OBJECT
But the no-frills Lada, based on the Fiat (FIA.MI) 124 from the 1960s, has become a cult object in Cuba for both its utility and its enduring presence.
Pena and dozens of other Lada die-hards gather every month in Lenin Park on the outskirts of Havana to talk about and show off their cars.
The Soviet Union took Cuba under its wing in 1961, two years after Fidel Castro rose to power in a 1959 revolution, and until its implosion in 1991 showered the communist-led island with billions of dollars in subsidies and goods, including the Lada.
From the time it arrived in the 1970s, the car, so spartan it does not even have hubcaps, was a good fit for economically challenged Cuba.
Continue reading: RPT-FEATURE-Russian Lada gets Chinese rival on Cuban roads | Reuters
Tue Sep 29, 2009 8:00am EDT
By Esteban Israel
HAVANA, Sept 29 (Reuters) - After three decades as the favored car of Cuban nomenklatura, the austere, Russian-built Lada has spotted a Chinese rival in its rear-view mirror.
Ministers, communist officials and police are switching their Ladas, with its stiff manual steering, for the smooth hydraulics of the Chinese-made Geely CK, a modern sedan that symbolizes the island's new alliance with Beijing.
China, now Cuba's second-largest trading partner behind only Venezuela, has shown an ability to quickly penetrate and dominate markets around the world with many of its products.
But Cubans say their love for Ladas, which are probably the most visible legacy of the country's Cold War alliance with the Soviet Union, will keep the cars on Cuban roads.
"I do not think it will be easy to displace the Lada," said David Pena, a 39-year old mechanic who recently founded Cuba's Russian Automobile Club. "For us this car is like a family member."
Cuba is well known for the vintage American cars that prowl its streets, relics of pre-revolutionary Cuba and rolling tributes to the islanders' mechanical inventiveness.
But the truth is they are greatly outnumbered by Ladas, of which there are an estimated 100,000 in Cuba, compared to somewhere around 60,000 of the old U.S. cars.
The Geelys, based on a Daewoo design and powered by a 1.5-liter engine licensed from Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), have begun showing up with increasing frequency on Havana streets.
They have a sleek and stylish look and come with air conditioning, electric windows and CD players.
The Chinese cars are so far showing up in very limited numbers, as government vehicles and rental cars, but their ranks are expected to increase in a sign of China's growing economic relationship with Cuba and business interests on the island.
Geely, China's biggest privately owned car maker whose worldwide strategy has been founded on exporting low-cost vehicles, shipped more than 1,500 cars to Cuba this year through June, the Miami Herald reported on its website.
CULT OBJECT
But the no-frills Lada, based on the Fiat (FIA.MI) 124 from the 1960s, has become a cult object in Cuba for both its utility and its enduring presence.
Pena and dozens of other Lada die-hards gather every month in Lenin Park on the outskirts of Havana to talk about and show off their cars.
The Soviet Union took Cuba under its wing in 1961, two years after Fidel Castro rose to power in a 1959 revolution, and until its implosion in 1991 showered the communist-led island with billions of dollars in subsidies and goods, including the Lada.
From the time it arrived in the 1970s, the car, so spartan it does not even have hubcaps, was a good fit for economically challenged Cuba.
Continue reading: RPT-FEATURE-Russian Lada gets Chinese rival on Cuban roads | Reuters
