The Yugo is History
22 Nov, 2008
22 Comments 
You probably don’t have a clue what I’m on about with the Yugo do you?
Officially called the Zastava Koral (AKA The Yugo) was the people’s car of the former Yugoslavia, which of course slid into history some time ago, much like the Yugo, as of November 20, 2008.
Believe it or not, the Zastava plant in Serbian town of Kragujevac shipped the Yugo to over 70 countries including the likes of India, Colombia, Sudan, Egypt and the United States, who alone bought 141,000 of them. You know why?
You could buy one brand new for $3,990 and get a 10-year/100,000 mile warranty and free maintenance, too good to be true, you say.
You’re absolutely right, Car & Driver magazine called it “The Disposable car by Bic” while a Consumer Reports review wrote that it “barely qualified as a car”. The US based National Public Radio weekly program “Car Talk” was not so kind, it voted the Yugo as “the worst car of the millennium”
I did hear of some horror maintenance stories such as, when a buyer’s window wouldn’t work properly, he took the Yugo to the factory to have it repaired and got it back minus the entire door panel, with a note on the seat saying “if they paid me more I would have finished the job”.
And there was a common saying in Serbia, which said, “If you want to double the value of your Yugo, fill it up with petrol”
But ask the punters across Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia and they’ll probably all agree that the Yugo will be sadly missed. They’ll also tell you its famous too, and there would be some truth in that.
Yugo-mania also swept through Hollywood for a time and was the star car in movies such as The Birdcage, Drowning Mona, Die Hard 3, The Crow, Inspector Gadget and 101 Dalmatians.
Engines for the Yugo ranged from 45bhp (34kW) to “large capacity” 65bhp (48kW) but weighed just 825 kilograms. The most successful models were produced from 1981-2008 and were built on a Fiat 128 Platform with Zastava design input.
The good news is – if you can call it that is Fiat has gone into business with the Serbian government and will set up a joint venture to build several models at the Zastava car plant.
Best you check where your Fiat is built and how much the workers are being paid before handing over your hard earned cash.
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November 22nd, 2008 at 1:20 am
Well I have only just found out aboout this car but I am sad to hear it’s stopped production simply because all of the new budget cars (Tata Nano etc.) have no character. This has bags of it. And a new convertible, no matter how dubious of quality and how bad to drive, for $3,990 isn’t bad at all.
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November 22nd, 2008 at 2:01 am
I used to see loads of these things about, they were really popular with the retired pikeys. Skoda got the butt of some jokes but these things were a joke.
Their passing won’t be missed i’m sure.
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November 22nd, 2008 at 8:37 am
And why would it not be missed Cupid? Its a national car for the masses of Serbia etc. Whats good for other people, may be bad for you. It was an honest national car for a specific audience.
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November 22nd, 2008 at 11:53 am
what a sh@t box
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November 22nd, 2008 at 2:18 pm
I wounder were the name Yugo came from, any thing that is givin a nick name must have been loved by at least some.
I would like to own one. Paint it bright yellow. Big chrome wheels and a huge turbo ;)
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November 22nd, 2008 at 2:43 pm
The Salesman,
It’s called the Yugo, because it came from the former Yugoslavia…
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November 22nd, 2008 at 7:00 pm
It reminds me of an episode of the Simpsons (and also Rocko’s Modern Life) where they look for a “new” car, and having the gears/dials/controls/etc all written in Russian.
“Put it in L! In L!”
But as The Salesman said.. a bright yellow one with a turbo would definitely put a smile on my face, if only for the cheek factor. The Mr Happy Car I’d call it =)
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November 22nd, 2008 at 9:37 pm
yebemti ovo ye ni veci govno u svet. Ko oce du kupit ovo kad mores dobit bole.
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November 22nd, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Mate this car represented the potential of former Yugoslavia. For a nation that was quite small and insignificant in the eyes of eastern europe, building their own car was a big deal. These cars still kick around in Croatia, Bosnia/Herzegovina and Serbia. The only reason people outside of these countries put the car down when it was made was because it would of been uncool to say anything positive of a car built in a socialist country.
Croatia, Servia, and Bosnia now wouldn’t be able to build a car if their lives depended on it as they don’t have the financial, nor capital ability to do it….They are “Independant” and “capitalist”-”democratic” now though, with 30% unemployement in Croatia…yeah geez all good…and on top of that no cheap car for the masses.
it had a 10 year warranty! that’s unprecedented even today, and this come from a Socialist nation.
Bring back the Yugo and Yugoslavia ;)
PS: regarding the Yugo “horror stories”, well i can name a whole heap of horror stories from established Western and Asian Manufacturers in todays manufacturing era…umm hello, all the major auto recalls that have occured by Holden and Ford (to name just two)?!
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November 22nd, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Sta ti ye “JAMES” ti misli da ovo ye naboli auto za europa. Ti si pravi budala co sve drugi ovde.
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November 22nd, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Did they export it to Columbia pictures or Colombia the country?????
Sorry for being so pedantic I’m sure it was just a typo!!
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November 24th, 2008 at 12:29 am
Carl, the spelling of “Colombia” is the least of this site’s worries! This is seriously the most poorly written article I’ve seen on what is an otherwise well put together website. Doesn’t anyone check their own grammar anymore?
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November 24th, 2008 at 7:02 am
OK Gradski, I’m all ears. I thank Carl for pointing out the typo so, perhaps you could point out all the other errors in the Yugo article. Oh, and do you have anything of substance to say on the actual Yugo car?
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November 24th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Anthony, the first paragraph is a bit of a mess. “Is” the Yugo the people’s car of the former Yugoslavia, or “was” it? Also, was it the Yugo that “slid into history” on November 20, or Yugoslavia itself? There’s a multitude of syntactic errors that confuse the reader as to what the actual subject of the sentence is.
Of course we all know that the topic of the article is the Zastava, but as an English major I’m just surprised that these errors can be allowed to slip through the cracks on a fairly large site like this. Elsewhere in the article there’s a few missing commas, hyphens and fullstops too, but I’ll let you guys find them yourselves. I’m not having a dig at you personally, it’s just that poor grammar is one of my pet peeves.
As for the car itself, I won’t be sad to see it go. The Yugo is a real blight on US roads and a severe safety hazard to boot. A cheap purchase price meant it was popular with drivers who didn’t want to spend much on their car and consequently many Yugos are in a terrible state of disrepair. I always exercise extreme caution when I encounter one on the road.
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November 24th, 2008 at 9:09 am
It would seem that you are the only one confused Gradski, I had no trouble following the content of the article, I guess sometimes you just have to use your brain.
This car is a classic!
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November 24th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Max, not to worry, Gradski is correct but although we are a large website these days, the site is still manned by humans and not Robots. If I was to pick up a copy of today’s New York Times or even the Washington Post, I could guarantee that I would find grammatical errors and simple typos.
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November 24th, 2008 at 9:19 am
Okay Max, so why did the Car Advice staff fix (most of) the errors then? My beef was not with the content, but the way it was presented. Talk about using your brain, sheesh!
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November 24th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Anyway, sorry for getting off topic. I don’t think the Yugo is the right car for this day and age and I’m glad to see it go. I know that will rub Yugo enthusiasts the wrong way (yes, they exist!), but I’m sure they’ll keep the Yugo flame burning by restoring and maintaining well-kept examples of the car. It’s not my cup of tea, but as long as others find enjoyment and take care of their own cars then that’s fine by me! Gradski out.
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November 24th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Just a quick’un about grammar - I find that if I type something myself I know what I am meaning to say so I miss errors. If I dictate (or have someone else read it before it goes) then I (or they) are more likely to pick them up. I personally wouldnt start a sentence with a preposition (”But ask…”), however I would have to defer to the great Sir Winston on that one, quote from article follows :- After an overzealous editor attempted to rearrange one of Winston Churchill’s sentences to avoid ending it in a preposition, the Prime Minister scribbled a single sentence in reply: “This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put.”
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November 24th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
MAX, is it possible you might have read the article AFTER it was fixed, hence why you had no trouble following it?
Wonderful thing about the Internet, it is dynamic.
As for the car, I didn’t know it existed, either. Of course outside of the country of origin it would be considered terrible. But within such countries (like the Polish Polonez), such cars are great for the people, and cheap to buy.
I do prefer to live in a country that actually has some standards of engineering and safety, but such things come at a price.
And just you all wait until (if?) Australia stupidly allows those terrible Chinese cars to be sold here for low, low prices. Who will the joke be on? The country that can’t build a decent car, or the one that allows it to be imported and sold? (Shame on you U.S.).
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November 26th, 2008 at 12:22 am
No need to wait; we’ve already got the Holdaewoos!
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December 14th, 2008 at 3:23 am
i got a new one in 1988, it was a great little car. we drove it for 13 years, it had 350,000 miles on it when my brother hit a deere with it!!! i wish i could get a nouther new 1!!!!
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