Yugo
 |
Two Yugos |
The
Yugo is a
subcompact car made by the
Zastava automobile works from
Serbia and Montenegro, and previously the
former Yugoslavia. The main production is in the city of
Kragujevac in central
Serbia. Initially it was sold as
Zastava Jugo, and its current version is called
Zastava Tempo.
The car's design was very similar to the
Fiat 127, a popular model of the early
1970s, and was the product of a long-standing working agreement between Zastava and Fiat, a major
Italian car maker.
Zastava still sells cars in
Europe under both the Zastava and Yugo brand names, but production is only about 10,000 annually (
as of 2004), approximately 3,000 of which are hatchbacks and sedans based on the
Fiat 128. The Yugo models have included: Yugo 45, 55, 65, 60efi, 45a, 55a, 45ax, 55ax, 55ex, Koral, Tempo, Cabrio, etc. Zastava has produced over 750,000 Yugo cars since the introduction of the series in
1980. Their larger Florida line of cars also evolved from the Yugo design.
The Yugo was introduced in the summer of 1986 at $3990 by
Yugo America, a company founded by
Malcolm Bricklin. It was by far the lowest-priced new car available in the USA at the time, and sold very well at first. Its quality led
Consumer Reports to call it "one of the worst cars [the magazine had] ever tested." By the early 1990s, Yugo America floundered and Zastava withdrew the car from the US market due to severe restrictions placed on trade with the rump Yugoslavia because of the involvement of its government in the
Yugoslav wars.
In the United States, Yugo developed a reputation as being very unreliable and dangerous, despite the fact the cars passed all
quality checks upon importation.
Three models of Yugo were sold in the United States: The basic GV hatchback version, the race-inspired GV-X which, aside from cosmetic touches, was mechanically identical to the base car and, at the top of the price scale, a cabriolet-roofed convertible. All shared a high-compression 1.1 liter, 67 horsepower (50 kW) engine designed by
Fiat for use in its 127 hatchback and mid-engined X1/9 roadster. The fact that the engine required the use of a high-grade motor oil designed for motorcycles is reported to have caused problems for Yugo owners despite the engine's reputation for durability in its original home country. Unfortunately, the rather robust engine was backed by a relatively weak Zastava four-speed manual transmission and clutch. No automatic transmission option was offered. Nevertheless, those familiar with the 127's prowess as an
autocross racer meant that many a Yugo GV was modified with
Abarth racing parts and sent to participate in
SCCA-sanctioned events, notably in the organization's "Solo II" category.
Bricklin signed a deal with Zastava in 2002 to bring back the Yugo, a model tentatively called the ZMW. Zastava Motor Works USA, his company, expected to sell 60,000 cars in 2003. Because of the vehicle's problems, both real and perceived, this plan ultimately failed as well. This in turn led to a series of popular jokes and riddles about the car both in the US and even from Yugoslavia.
Even though the Yugo is considered a lemon by many people, some Yugo owners find it rational to own the car due to overall buying and maintaining value. They claim that the criticism of the Yugo is just like the criticism of the
Toyota Prius; even though many owners talk about how they experienced numerous problems with their Prius, it was actually due to the fact that they didn't know that hybrid vehicles needed to be cared for differently than regular gas powered vehicles, and never took the time to read through the operating manual or learn how to properly treat a hybrid vehicle. Some Yugo owners are saying similar things; they claim that the main reason why Yugos were considered lemons was neglect by careless owners (delayed oil changes, improperly cared for, trying to pinch pennies and delay replacing parts, etc.) because they say that they properly cared for their Yugos and they have dependably run.
Another emphasized pro for Yugo owners in ex-Yugoslavia is cheap spare parts and mechanics' labour due to the lack of significant model redesign in years of Yugo's presence on the market, even though American Yugo owners can still generally find parts and they are very easy to repair, needing just minor repair skills to repair one.
The Yugo's reputation as a lemon has survived in fiction long after the cars were no longer sold in the United States:
Movies
Inspector GadgetDragnet (the
1987 comedy version)
Drowning MonaBowfingerDie Hard: With a VengeanceThe Crow (1994 movie)
Music
*
Paul Shanklin has a song,
In A Yugo, which pokes fun at a
liberal couple who buy a Yugo to save gas, only to end up being killed by an
SUV.
Novels
CatalystFlorida RoadkillNeedful ThingsThe Stand (Uncut version)
Television
Saturday Night Live: SNL debuted a
spoof commercial in 1986 for an extremely cheap subcompact car called "Adobe," which according to the advertisement is literally made of clay and sells for only $179. The pitchman (played by
Phil Hartman) prefaces the car's introduction by declaring, "These days, everyone's talking about the
Hyundai, and the Yugo. Both nice cars, if you've got $3,000 or $4,000 to throw around."
The Simpsons:
Homer Simpson test drives a car from a country that the dealer tells him "no longer exists", but the car "gets 400 hectares to a tank of kerosene." As Homer attempts to push-start the car, the dealer shouts: "Put it in 'H'!" In the
Serbian language (officially written in the
Cyrillic alphabet), the word for 'Neutral' is 'Neutralan'. In Cyrillic, the word would be written "Неутралан" with an
H, which does indeed look exactly like a Roman H. This fact is also used in
Murder on the Orient Express. This effectively proves that the car is from a country using the Cyrillic alphabet, but it couldn't be a Yugo because cars only have their 'neutral' labeled if they're automatics, and the Yugo was strictly a manual car.
Whose Line Is It Anyway? In every episode at the beginning,
Drew Carey says a little joke talking about how the points are useless. On one episode, he said "The points are as useless as a fully loaded, top of the line, Yugo."
Midas did a commercial featuring a guy woo hooing and doing crazy stunts in a Yugo. It shows the car about to crash into a lake when it cuts back to the shop and a mechanic says "Yugo, what are you going to do?"
Reference - Langenscheidt's Universal Dictionary: Croatian
*
Zastava corporate site*
Yugo Redux, a March
2002 article from
Forbes*
...Man behind the Yugo to lead new import wave in 2007, a January
2005 cover story from the
Detroit News*
Recreation: Autos: Makes and Models: Yugo from the
Open Directory Project website
