Right at Home on a Trailer: 1986 Zastava Yugo
How horrid is the Yugo? One measure of its popularity is the Yugo Club Facebook page: last post in 2023, and all of 370 followers. Rack that up against total production from 1980 to 2008 of almost 795,000 copies, sold all over the world. Perhaps those 370 souls own the only un-rotted, un-crashed, not-yet-left-by-the-roadside Yugos on the planet? The US was not lucky enough to be spared this pestilence: none other than Malcolm Bricklin, sire of multiple bankrupt ventures including his own car company, chose communist Yugoslavian automaker Zastava to foist upon us the cheapest car we’ve seen on these shores. A new Yugo cost less than $4000 in 1986, while a Honda Civic would run you $7500. But was the Yugo still a perfect example of “price far exceeding value”? Ponder the fact that in 1992 128,000 Yugos – nearly all of the US imports – were recalled for violating emissions standards, and that was after a seat-belt recall in 1986. Emissions and safety are basic tenets of carmaking, and the rules are not a secret. It’s astonishing that the Yugo was even allowed into the US. Today, we investigate a project Yugo (yes, somewhat redundant I know), here on Facebook Marketplace, listed with an asking price of $4000. Bruce – thanks for the tip, keep them coming!
This mournful Yugo has been sitting in a garage for over twenty years, probably due to its broken timing belt. That’s bad news because the Fiat-based 1.1-liter four-cylinder is an interference engine. If the timing belt broke, much worse could be in store. Engine aside, we suspect this Yugo has accumulated many other reasons to sit during the intervening years. Parts can be had from here; a timing belt is $16.80, but the work order – once you fix the brakes, flush everything, replace the tires, and get it running – will be a significant percentage of your purchase price. When all’s said and done, you’ll have a vaguely-shifting, vaguely-braking car that can barely make 60 mph in fourteen seconds. Hills and highway merging require planning. I can’t even imagine four people in a Yugo – performance must sink by half.
This Yugo’s interior is in decent condition after all these years, particularly since it was made of the very cheapest plastic imaginable. Later cars were a bit better – most automotive journalists regard the ’88 to ’92 versions with a degree of grudging … acceptance. Yugo was not big on interior appointments – there’s no glove box, and the only vents are those two you see centered in the middle of the dash, though buyers did enjoy an am/fm radio. Don’t even think about air conditioning.
Reverse lights were an afterthought, hung below the rear bumper. A rear defroster came along only in 1986 – before that, I suppose you could mount a candle on the rear parcel shelf. Fans will say that the prices of Yugos are rising, but so is the price of everything else. Essentially, the Yugo has just about held its value since new – not a terrible result. I guess if I had to have a Yugo, I’d swap this engine for a larger Fiat type and hope for the best; what do you think?
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Comments
I remember a new Yugo on display, roped off, at Lennertz Oldsmobile in Merrillville, IN. Just across the street from the Y&W drive-in for those that know the area. People did crowd in to see the Yugo…there were occasional United Steel Workers folks picketing.
I never understood the market for ultra cheap-o new cars when decent used cars were available. In 1986, you could find a 2 or 3 year old Tercel or other cheap, reliable import for under $5500 and get years of trouble-free use out of it. Plus a proven service network.
I remember the old SNL skit about the Adobe–“The little car that’s made out of clay!” For the spoof advertisement they used an actual Yugo covered in orange play dough.
Correction—they used a LeCar. Pretty close though.
It was a Renault LeCar.
Goss Dodge in Burlington, VT used to sell Yugos as a sideline. They had a fully optioned-up 5 speed GVX with alloys, body kit, black over silver paint and a price tag north of six grand parked right out front for most of 1988. I suspect anyone seriously inquiring about buying one would’ve been sold up to a similarly dated but far superior Dodge Omni “America”.
Stuff an LS in it.
…or at least a Suzuki Cultus 3.
I had one, long ago. As a road car, the Yugo/Zastiva/Fiat 127 was pretty good. But engineering fails were all over…the interference design being the least of them.
Moar likely, THAT the belt was LIKELY to break. It’s what killed mine.
The seller should find a good fabricator, to put in a Toyota, or Suzuki, or BMC Mini, driveline into it.
Heated rear window kept your hands warm while you pushed it.
What do you call a restored Yugo? A wheelbarrow. What do you call a Yugo at the top of a mountain? A miracle. Yugo with a flat tire? Totaled.
I was dying to put these in the article, thanks for coming up with one joke, so I could rally back with a few!
Wow! Been awhile since we’ve heard those and still,perfectly appropriate.
Yugo but it don’t go.
Once described as “a Communist version of an Italian copy of an English economy car..”
What could possibly go wrong?😱
What great restraint you have!
You could also have made that mountain joke with the later Dodge Neon. Ask me how I know. I was trying to get that thing up a mountain and was debating if I should ask someone to get out or cut holes in the floor so we could Flinstone and help it out.
How do you double the resale value of a Yugo? Fill the gas tank. Why did the Yugo have a standard rear window defroster and wiper? So your hands wouldn’t get cold when you pushed it.
I remember in the 80’s an Olds dealer was so desperate to get rid of these.
“Free yugo with purchase of a new olds”
The You-don’t-go was not a bad car by design.
If the design had been taken over to the Japanese, it would have been great in short order.
Driving dynamics were superb. Even less-successful aspects, such as the gearshift, which got a lot of complaints…was no worse than with the Beetle.
It just needed to be re-worked to HOLD UP.
Wretched little car that will barely be a footnote in automotive history. It will only be rememberer due to its low, low price, awful reputation and its country of origin.
Steve R
And the one that killed Leslie Ann Pluhar, when it was blown off the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan.
You might as well invite Hyundai and
KIA to this lemon fest too. Their early
offerings were just as bad if not worse than the Yugo shown here. In
fact, one of my adopted sons referred
to them as Japanese Yugos. In fact,
a banker friend of mine once told me
that he had to buy back 13 KIA sedans under Florida’s Lemon Law.
They were indeed that bad. Got to
the point that the banks wouldn’t
finance ’em for fear of getting stung.
That’s why you see these cars with
lifetime warranties today. Both Hyundai and KIA were forced to offer
such plans to appease the banks at that time. Best thing to do with this
car would be to convert to an electric
vehicle for those short trips to the smoke shop somewhere to get a Dew. After all, the gas engines weren’t that much better.
Hyundai and Kia are Korean, not Japanese.
Put it in “H”!
A four door Yugo? We-go.
Give the folks at Yugo this much: they were honest about the fact that they had designed and built a disposable car.
Michelle, that was a great write-up!!! It took me a whole ten minutes to stop laughing. You missed one thing, though. Does the price include the trailer? It looks so natural sitting there.
Thanks, you made my day!
Great for Arizona ‘yard art’ , but for that it needs to be ‘free’.
Reminds me of the SNL sketch on a ‘cheap’ car called the Adobe … made of clay. Might be on YouTube if one looks it up.
My best friend Larry worked at a Ford dealer in Turnersville N.J..He called me the day they received their 1st Yugo.I read this article this morning and then checked my Facebook and low and behold there his picture that his sister posted. I last saw in in 93′ when I flew home from AZ for mom’s funeral. What a coincidence !
Located in Greensboro, NC
$4,000 for $100 bucks in scrap metal I’m in the wrong business
I used to visit a dealer (about 1989) that was dual line Oldsmobile and Yugo. He had two-year-old new Yugo’s in the back of the showroom for less than $2,000 and a half-dozen new “parts” cars out back. Disposable for sure.
The ULTIMATE Yugo joke: My wife and I simultaneously happily owned two of them over a period of 12 years. Actually, the original #2 car was killed by 60 ft. of an 80′ ice-laden pine tree at less than 5K miles… bent everything but still the doors open/closed and it ran just fine.
Put over 100K trouble-free miles on the other two and finally sold ’em, still running great and looking quite presentable. Did CT to WI round trips a couple of times and CT to FL when we retired.
They were FIATs built under license (with a dedicated body shell) and, at the time, they were better built than the Italian-built FIATs. All that was required is to do the recommended maintenance at the proper time and they just kept tickin’ along.
They were roomy, comfortable, fun-to-drive, economical, blah, blah, blah.
So, the jokes on the rest of the world. They were a bargain and filled the role they were designed to fill.
Period.
$4000.00 … For that 😂😂😂
The $4000 is for the trailer, the junk on it is free with the sale!
I think he errored on the 0s. I believe he must of meant $400.00.
Back in 1964 my father and I cut the roof off of a 1952 Dodge Coronet because I liked convertibles with the top down. I drove that around the farm and up and down the dirt road to my cousins house. A Yugo would be perfect for that.
Or for those of us who love Cadillacs, put one in the trunk as a spare
i thought that the car got its name after a group of drinkers finished there beer and needed more and no one volunteered to go and get more . every time a name would come up that person would say no yugo…
A magazine review of the GV model said that the shifter had the smoothness of a baseball bat in a barrel of coconuts. I’ve wanted one ever since.
I’ve told this story before…..
About 8 years ago, I registered my nice ’76 BMW 2002 into the huge Arthritis Foundation Car Show in Columbus, Ohio (my hometown). Upon arrival that Saturday, I was given my entry packet, and instructed to go to the area where the BMWs would be.
When I got there, there was only one other BMW in the section. BUT, the entire Yugo club had showed up next to the BMWs! Every model of Yugo from 2 doors to 4 doors, even convertibles. And all in perfect condition! I believe there were about 12 Yugos represented, as compared to our paltry 2 BMWs. It was kinda humiliating….
Ah, another Malcolm Bricklin creation – the PT Barnum of the automotive world.
It’s hard to say which was his biggest failure – the Subaru 360, the SV-1, or the Yugo. All were okay ideas for the time, just never executed properly.
I wonder if the air cooled replacement engine at front of trailer is included?
What really killed the Yugo was the dethroning of Tito. That led to the breakup of the country into all its factions cobbled into one at the end of WW1. This led to said factions shooting at each other instead of building cars.
There was a 4-door, a Zastava-built FIAT Uno, in the pipeline, one of which I saw at Yugo’s Ramsey, NJ, HQ.
Oh, what could have been, especially after the original 55hp 1.1 liter model got all sorted and fuel injected. BTW, the last ones imported, the GVX, was a blast to drive what with the FI 64hp 1.3 liter engine.
A guy walks into the auto parts store and asks the clerk “Can you give me a gas cap for a Yugo?”.
“Seems like a fair trade” answers the clerk.