The British ad nicely summarizes the character of the Fiat 125 Special: sports car performance, combined with a refined appearance. The fact that Gianni Agnelli, the flamboyant celebrity and Fiat boss, preferred cutting through the Turin traffic discreetly in a Fiat 125 Special rather than in a Ferrari or another pretentious model out of the Fiat portfolio speaks for the car’s inherent qualities.
When presented in early 1967, the Fiat 125 Special was a genuinely progressive and luxurious sedan — and a pretty fast one, too. A modern 1,608 cc DOHC engine with 100 hp (73,5 kW), 5-speed gearbox and air condition came standard. The design, created by Fiat’s Centro Stile under supervision of Gian Paolo Boano, was closely related to the Fiat 124, the quintessential cubist car of the era. There was a drawback though: visually, the Fiat 125 hardly stood out of the average Fiat lineup, despite its upscale qualities.
Likewise in Cuba, which is full of these Fiat sedans. Usually you see them in shape of its derivatives, such as the ubiquitous Lada from Russia, or the Polski Fiat 125P. But the central ridge on the bonnet and rectangular headlight bezels betray that our pictured car wasn’t produced in an Eastern Bloc country. It is a western Fiat instead, albeit one from South America: between 1972 and 1982, the Fiat 125 was also produced in substantial numbers in Córdoba, Argentina. The Argentinian version was technically identical to the Italian cars, but had a 4-speed transmission.
If you look closer, the Fiat 125 is a little larger than the typical Lada which itself is based on the more humble Fiat 124. Longer wheelbase and a more elaborate rear axle improved the ride substantially. The rear passengers enjoyed more than 3 inches (85 mm) more legroom than in the common Ladas. This comfort and the superior stability at higher speeds make the Fiat 125 very popular with Cuban choferes until today.
But perhaps even more interesting than its specs is the story that surrounds its arrival on the island. In 1973, the newly elected left-wing government under Juan Domingo Perón tried to stimulate the Argentinian economy, and practically obliged the national car industry to increase their exportation quotes year by year in ambitious steps. And Cuba was a happy taker. In February 1974, a vast delegation, including treasury and finance minister José Ber Gelbard and representatives of all major car makers in Argentina, visited Havana and closed the deals on various models to be acquired in large numbers by Cuba. To secure the trade, Argentina would guarantee credits of more than 1.2 billion Dollars over a six-year period and with a 6% interest rate. It looked like a win-win situation: aside from the economic benefits, Cuba could circumvent the U.S. trade embargo, and both countries could boast about their political triumph over the common “enemy” in Washington. Even more so, as the independent subsidiaries of GM, Ford and Chrysler in Argentina had a large part of 44,000 vehicles worth $130-150 million in the trade. It was a slap in the face of the Yankees.
But the party didn’t last long: to reinforce the embargo, the U.S. soon set out to put a foot on these exports, and pressure on Argentina. Vicariously, Brazil complained within the OEA (Organización de Estados Americanos) that its neighbor country violated a commitment to suspend all commercial exchange with Cuba. And this was the end of the large-scale automobile influx in Cuba.
Nonetheless, 6,000 Fiat 125 were shipped to the island in 1974, alongside thousands of Peugeot 404, Dodge 1500 and Ford Falcon of Argentinian origin.
Ironically, the Perón government never saw a peso for all these cars. The credits fell into default and were never paid back by the Castro regime. To this day, all subsequent efforts to recover the Argentinian money failed. Which seems like a common pattern and a reason why all later efforts of large-scale car imports to Cuba, be it with Korea or China, terminate after a short time, because the vendors never see their money.
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