Special attention is paid to the many American passenger cars that remained on the island, after Cuban dictator Batista fled to the Dominican Republic on New Year's Eve 1958 and Fidel Castro nationalized foreign companies. Despite their age and the problem of getting replacement parts, all those Chevrolet, Pontiac, Cadillac, Ford, Mercury, Plymouth, Dodge, Chrysler, Studebaker and Rambler models were still in use