Why Everyone Wanted the Worst Car in the World

The Yugo is widely regarded as the worst car ever. It was poorly constructed, nowhere near reliable, and not so easy on the eyes. The Yugo was the butt of every joke and the junker in every garage. But for all its shortcomings, it sold like hotcakes when it arrived in the U.S. In this episode of Wheelhouse, Nolan tells the story of the Yugo's creation and makes the case for updating its reputation from worst car to huge success.

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[Donut]

So I definitely got a big part of this story wrong: the assertion that Yugoslavia was part of the Soviet Union. This Is incorrect. In the West, this assumption can be traced back to Yugoslavia’s formation in 1943. During WWII, the Allies: The US, UK and USSR supported Yugoslavia’s fight against the fascist Axis occupation. We just kinda assumed they stayed allied with the USSR, but that’s not what happened. After the war, relations between Yugoslavia and the USSR fell apart, with Yugoslavia denouncing Stalinism completely and forming its own socialist government. Yugoslavia was in fact on the Western edge of the Iron Curtain, and maintained a delicate balancing act between Western and Eastern bloc countries. According to globalvoices.org “its independence from both the Eastern and the Western blocs was a key feature of its national identity.”

I sincerely apologize for the error and for any offense it may have caused; and I will be more diligent and discerning in my research moving forward. Thanks for your time.
-Nolan

[penzlic]

Everyone in Balkans *mocks Yugo*

Outsider *mocking Yugo*

Balkans: "Pump your brakes, kid, that car's a national treasure"

[ivanvujadinovic]

Yugo was the first car I learned how to drive in! lol .... and yeah, Yugoslavia was never Soviet

[krab]

Yugoslavia was never affiliated with the Soviet Union. They were one of the only communist states that arguably stood in opposition against Soviet influence.

[tetchuma]

My uncle had one, and I always thought it was cute. When a part went bad, he just bought another used Yugo and cannibalized parts. He had 4 at one time, which made his own car kind of a Frankenstein’s monster, but still very simple. We used one as a farm truck after our Datsun 720 finally broke down. (We carried big bags of cattle cake pellets in the back)

It wasn’t fast, but it was a ton of fun to jump around in the dirt! It was solid enough to beat to hell on bumpy roads, but the dashboard would break if you held onto it too hard. It just kept going no matter how many great grandkids tried to kill it... It was cool because we didn’t care about protecting it, and it was surprisingly durable because it didn’t have a lot of stuff to break.

I’d love to relive that feeling of getting airborne in one again. (But I’d recommend a helmet)

[Taabituubi]

Ah, the humble Yugo. The only car that came pre-dented.

[danielivanovic]

I'm from Serbia, and i have to say, it's fun to drive a Yugo, it's cheap, around 200-300 usd, and it's better to sit in a car, than on a bike :'D
P.s. Pozdrav svima sa Balkana, od Srbije do Slovenije ✌️

[leemilica]

Fun fact: I still see a ton of them being used everyday in Serbia.

[drivero]

here in the balkans we say that yugo is a car for five, one is driving and other four guys are pushing

[Tr]

Donut : yugo is shit
Ballkans : you just started a war

[SvdSinner]

As HS kid, I got a chance to drive a Yugo. Loved it -- you had to drive it like a racecar just to keep up with traffic. All the fun of redlining the engine with no worries about speeding tickets.

[crimsonMX]

The Yugo is still such a common sight to see in Serbia. They're cheap but they never die.

[jacobtoda]

I want to Tesla-ize a Yugo. Imagine the acceleration. Rocketing quietly to my certain death.

[MrMortadelas]

You view it as slower than a Golf, I view it as warmer than a Vespa.
Great car.

[pckldplmfshcm]

"Why everyone wanted the worst car in the world"

But I'm still the only one I know driving a PT Cruiser.

[paulandjana]

I had a Yugo. There, I said it. When I was in college in the year 2001(mature student at 28) I was studying motor mechanics. I had a reconditioned engine from a Fiat Uno turbo(1.3 about 120bhp). The teachers wanted a project for the students to work on, so I suggested putting this engine in the Yugo as it was basically the same size and fit. It went in, we upgraded the brakes and I got that all done for free. The college was happy and so was I. It was really fast but it was also a death trap. When hitting the brakes after awesome exeleration, the rear wheels would come off the ground because there was no weight in the back. :) Oh yeah, and a fiat fanatic I know told me the same guy who designed the VW Golf, designed the Yugo.

[NikolaMatic]

Greetings to all of you here, from Kragujevac, Srbija! :-D

[nalgene]

"Like a LADA awful things..."

I heard that.

[dylanmontealegre]

Yugo in one sentence, “better hope Yugo forward, or Yugo backwards”

[sagoda]

"Worst car" the yugo

Me: *angry serbian noises*