Yugo | The Story of the Worst Car in America

#Yugo
In 1985 the Yugo exploded onto the US automotive scene as the most affordable car in America.
Seven years later it was gone, buried under bad press, reliability issues, a civil war, UN sanctions, and eventually bombing of it's factory.
This is the Yugo story.

[michaelrenato-xeoz]

i own a 1987 yugo gv i really like my car. i must add that i am a life long mechanic and enjoy working on it and its fun to drive

[dindinbre]

Yugos were made up till 2008! I'm from Serbia, living in its birth town. Yugos are still a very common sight, I see at least 50 every day, I even daily drive one! Even other Zastava cars like Zastava 101 (the Fiat 128 hatchback), Yugo Florida (marketed as Yugo Sana) and others. They are not as bad as people think they are. Driving one in Serbia is still a good financial choice, parts are still easy to find (at least the regular parts, finding something exotic like fog lights or GVX bumpers is a very hard task), people even convert them to run on LPG, so they end up being cleaner than many new cars! So, Yugo was never bad, it was just unsuited for American market.

[colbywalsh]

My great uncle bought a 1988 you go GV with air-conditioning at a Ford dealership in Colorado. Later on when he ended up moving to Kansas, he didn’t have anywhere to store it. I always thought it was a fascinating little car so they gave it to me. I actually had it running just a couple of years ago again. The only thing mine needs is a carburetor rebuild and a new alternator and starter. My uncle had done that timing belt service at 40, 000 and then at 80, 000, and I have 84, 000 now. Although whatever age is on the timing belt might be a problem. But I honestly am in the process of getting it in a little better condition and somewhat restoring.

[anthonyalico]

I was working at a Mitsubishi dealer in the early 90 and a Yugo was trained in and I did get to drive it. It was just a short drive but you could tell that you definitely got what you pay for. Not a car to take on a long trip or on the highway fell like a kiddy car.

[darylkik]

Our local Ford dealer who is still Rusty Eck Ford today was called, Rusty Eck Ford, DMC, and Yugo. (Rusty Wreck the dealership was referred to but mostly because it rhymed.) I still remember as a teenager what we said about the Old Fiat from Mr. Bricklin. I mean Yugo from the cool DeLorean of Canada type car. "I will go where ever you go, but I won't go in a Yugo"

[loriallen]

I remember the ads. As a new driver who wanted a car, it was appealing. But we couldn’t even afford a Yugo.

[brentboswell]

I remember watching MotorWeek's review of the Yugo and Hyundai Excel (both in the same episode!), and told my dad to watch it. He reneged on his plan to buy one for my older sister, and bought her a Ford Escort Pony instead...I remember installing a $30 Kraco casette stereo with two speakers and a radio antenna in that car to get around the radio delete 🤣 (this was before I ever had my learner's permit!)

[wall-e]

My memories of the Yugo include seeing one on a used lot in 1989 for $995 (great resale!), and another on a flatbed full of crushed junkers in '91 (great longevity!). If you haven't already, I encourage you and other subscribers to plug "Zastava Koral" into your search engine of choice to see "what might have been" in the USA, and what was sold in other markets until 2008.

[alangermann]

My parents bought a 3 year old Yugo back in the day with around 30, 000 miles for $600. Haha. They had it a number of years and only needed a transmission mount besides maintenance items. Still just very basic transportation. Lucky never in an accident!

[gregg]

Also you are correct if the maintenance was followed it was decent for reliability. Local lady had a red one for years and years .

[stevemorris]

They Fiat 500L sold in the USA was built in the old Zastava plant.

[izdomonkos]

You left out that they also made buses and motorcycles. The We go and the I go. Sorry, I am the proud owner of a Yugo that I drove probably a hundred thousands miles. It did me well driving to college and back. Yes, helped me to learn how to work on cars. So? Just, like any other vehicle you need to do the maintenance and you will be fine. It didn't hurt that my first car was a Fiat Spyder either. Peace.

[lukemauerman]

My ex decided we had to buy a Yugo. Mostly it was because our Pinto was a mess, but also every time we went to Europe we'd wind up renting a Fiat Panda, which is essentially the same car. We got an '88 GVX top of the line and it was pretty dire. We broke up, not because of the car, and I moved to California. At the time it was over $500 to upgrade the Yugo to CA emissions standards and I just couldn't swing it. So we left it back at the Ford dealer in the dead of night. Ford sent a single letter saying "you can't do that!" but for being a voluntary reposession, nothing ever happened. Ford ate the car and ultimately never said boo. It was not a well car. The steering would stick and all the knobs fell off

[MartinIbert]

I think the tell-all in your video is that "people who owned one would by another one". Because there wasn't anything fundamentally wrong with them. Like, at all. They were basic transportation, and if you could be bothered to do consistent basic maintenance on them (which, obviously, some US Americans could not), they will not die on you, ever. And they were dirt cheap, and economical. And if they do break, you can fix them with a hammer and a piece of string.

[joshrichardson]

I can vaguely remember seeing these as a kid. I was born in January of 80. Seen a lot of changes in the automotive landscape.
Even when I was young, I can remember hearing my dad speak of these cars and how bad they were.
Great video. Very thorough. You cover so much information in such a short time.

[joehorecny]

My neighbor's son worked at a BMW/Mercedes dealership, as a mechanic. Some one traded in a Yugo, it was a good customer so they didn't want to refuse. It had maybe 100 miles on it, basically new, the dealer wanted nothing to do with it. They offered it for free, to all the employees, no one wanted it, but neighbor's son thought maybe his sister would like a free new car. He said it was the worst decision that he ever made. That customer who traded the yugo, bought it as a toy for his daughter, and regretted it also. But she got a nice Mercedes out of the deal.

[JonathanMoosey]

Not sure if you knew this but Zastava tried to rebrand as ZMW (Zastava Motor Works). Of course the similar named automaker from Munich threatened to sue.

[chrislemaster]

Two men and a Yugo in Oakland CA got arrested followed by a push by shooting

[davorbatinic]

Yugo was a nice and contemporary hatchback of the era between late '70ies and '80ies, as a matter of fact more like '70ies than '80ies. That was one of the designer concepts for Fiat 128 that Zavodi Crvena Zastava purchased from Fiat to sell as it's original design of the final product, but fact is that a Yugo was a Fiat to it's core.

But Yugo was not a Soviet monopolist car, at domestic Yugoslav market that car had a competitor of contemporary western models, but in order to protect a Zastava-Yugo factory a Yugoslav government try to impose a protective fees and customs for imports of western models. Answer of some western car manufacturers was a assembly lines of some of their models in Yugoslavia, so VW, Opel, Renault, Citroen and Fiats assembled under Fiat brand at the same Zastava-Yugo factory were sold as the domestic cars made in Yugoslavia, so no a protective fees for those cars.

And a poor Yugo-pljugo (Yugo-sucker) only had a chance to conquere the rock bottom of it's domestic market. However, even in that segment Yugo had a strong competitors in Soviet VAZ Lada-Žiguli and PZ Fiat Polski, those cars were cheap sedans and station wagons, and Fiats as well, and Zastava-Yugo assembled Lada as domestic Yugoslav car, probably to strangle a Yugo was only a small hatchback.

So in order to survive Yugo suppose to be cheap, the cheapest one, and the most accessible car, that means a car were downgraded, and there was no a quality control what so ever.

That means that a brand new Yugo directly from the assembly line was a car DIY project. It was highly desirable to dissemble a new Yugo in order to reassemble it correctly, just for a quality control reason, and if you do so you gonna get a decent and durable small hatchback. All of those still seen on the roads of ex Yugoslavia had a such a treatment of their respective owners.

So as a Yugo owner, you have an opportunity to pass a learning curve to become a car mechanic.

And if you already have an dissembled Yugo, you had an opportunity to upgrade it. Yugo was a Fiat, Italy is just a short ride avay, and Abarth car tuning kits all custom made for Yugos were must have, an engine tuning kits, brakes and suspension and car body tuning kits, you name it. You could make a real small Abarth beast from it.

But by all means a Yugo was considered as a crap, even in Yugoslavia, it was a product of socialist planning economy, but that crap was usually "my first car", but as crap it had some potential if you invest a further work and money in it.

[Project_Low_Expectations]

Knew a girl in highschool who had a Yugo, she had it for 2 years, never broke down or had any issues, till she totaled it.