Here’s a few repurposed ones:
In 1985 or '86, Consumer Reports tested the recently-introduced Yugo and Hyundai Excel.
Their summary:
For the same cost as one of these two really bad new cars, a wise consumer could buy a US-made vehicle that is ~ 3years old, and that would be far more reliable, and would have better driving dynamics.
That being said, I knew a woman who bought a Yugo, and after she dumped it, her best defense of it was… Well, it wasn’t THAT bad!
I never asked her to quantify the Yugo’s “badness”.
Never drove one. In my day it was the Fiat, like the 500. The boss had one painted purple for delivering chicken. It wasn’t THAT bad. A friend of his had the junk yard down the road which is probably where it came from.
It was a 70s Fiat design originally meant for local productions.
There was a popular joke in the Yugo era. Guy walks into a parts store. “Can I get a gas cap for a Yugo?” Clerk says “sounds like a fair swap.”
If you want an interesting read, check out Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History. It’s amazing what a PT Barnum the guy who imported them was.
I used to work with a technician that bought one to commute from Southern PA to Laurel MD. It was a 100 mile round trip daily. He knew how bad the Yugo was, but he didn’t want to put 500 miles a week on a decent car. He had it for about 3 years before I left for a different job. It’s what he could afford.
the 1st one seems to be a “high line” Yugo . . . because it has alloy rims and what looks to be additional lighting, maybe fog lamps? between the tail lamps and the license plate lamps
What a waste of alloy rims
I like the 2nd one
seems appropriate
Was that Malcolm Bricklin . . . ?
It’s better described in the book but the whole book covers the history of Zastava, the Yugo itself, and the various cars that Malcom Bricklin brought to market.
Basically Bricklin wasn’t the first one to try to import the Yugo but he took the credit.
That because he was “successful” in importing it, unlike the first entity that attempted to do so. When the Yugo was first subjected to emissions testing in The US, it led to a fairly long delay before the manufacturer could figure out how to clean-up the emissions. During that delay, the first importer bailed, and Bricklin jumped onboard.
Yep. Was also responsible for Subaru being here - at least that one worked out, unlike Yugo and the SV-1.
Sometimes YoGo…sometimes YoDon’t.
Gas-Monkey-Garage sold one once…for a lot more then what they originally sold for. Seems people collect them. There was a YuGo dealer in Hudson NH that lasted for about 4 months.
I can’t really complain too much about them…I use to own a Vega. At least the Vega is no longer considered the worse car sold in the US thanks to YuGo.
How 'bout this one?
That man is warped. I hope he keeps up the good work.
I love the Cadillac powered Yugo, but disagree with the engine weight part of that story unless I’m just flat missing something. Cadillac 500 engines do not weigh 1500 to 1600 pounds each. They’re only mildly heavier than a small block Chevy and claimed weight on a complete engine top to bottom with everything in place is roughly 675 pounds.
A 4100 pound car with a claimed engine weight of at or over a ton and a half? Something missing or I can’t seen the forest for the trees.
The author of that article probably confused the total weight of engines plus transmissions with the weight of each.
Even a Caddy with one 1500 lb engine under the hood would be hopelessly nose heavy.
David Letterman’s top 10 list of things that were good about the Yugo included, ‘At least no one will steal it.’
An American ambassador to Yugoslavia got a lot of good feelings there by driving one.
Was the SV-1 the particularly hideous looking “safety vehicle” . . . ?!
If so, I clearly remember it was described as looking like it was trying to swallow an 8-track tape
That’s a very apt description. I always regarded it to have been very close to looking cool, but missed the mark just right so that it looked incredibly stupid.
Additionally, the few people who had a slight frontal impact with a Bricklin reported that the bumper didn’t return to its normal position after impact.