The second-hand car agency on 20th Street, between 3 and 1 Boulevards, Playa (Havana), woke up with a line of fifty people. They were eagerly waiting for a batch of carts to sell the currency that would arrive on Monday. Despite stratospheric prices, there is already a waiting list to buy them.
“They’ve been arguing in line since I arrived a few minutes ago,” he says 14ymedio a user who came to see the models. “They have a very detailed list of exchanges, because some want to buy up to two cars. They are waiting for some to come in, but the fight is for Renault Talisman and Geely CK,” he explains.
At the agency, which belongs to the Cimex corporation, the Gaesa military conglomerate and has a monopoly on the sale of cars in the country, there are only a few “crushed cars” that buyers do not see at the moment. “The whole discussion is for those who are going to enter, so I’m already making two lists, one for each model,” says the man.
“You can go and come with confidence, my brother, I write everyone on this list,” shouted a man at the head of the queue to another who wanted to leave the queue for a few minutes and come back later.
“They have a very detailed list of exchanges, because some want to buy up to two cars. Wait for some to come, but the fight is for Renault Talisman and Geely CK.”
According to the store’s board, the cars currently on sale are the Chinese Geely CK, at $ 32,000, and two models of the French brand Peugeot: a partner, at $ 63,971, and a 508, at $ 72,000. The desired Renault was not on the list.
“There, in that piece of the block, the ticket rings, really the tickets,” says in a joking tone a neighbor who was walking on the sidewalk in front of the parking lot.
By February 2020, the cars were sold in the CUC, but then Cimex changed the sale to freely convertible currency (MLC) and included about 30 models, with a sale price between 34,000 and 90,000 dollars.
According to the agency, the new prices had a 10% discount, and the cars must be paid all at once and with a magnetic card.
Since the beginning of this new way of marketing, there have been complaints from customers about the mechanical defects discovered after paying an astronomical price.
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