For Yugo, a Place of Eternal Rust, er, Rest
By Richard S. Chang

How do you make a Yugo go fast? Push it off a cliff.

What do you call the passengers in a Yugo? Shock absorbers.

Why do Yugos have heated rear windows? To keep your hands warm while you push it.

The list goes on and on. But the factory that built the cheap car, which became the butt of countless jokes, has come to a screeching, clanking, rattling halt.

(Yes, just like the cars.)

Yugo has become the first automaker to fall in the face of the global financial crisis. The Yugo factory in Kragujevac, Serbia, will be transformed to make cars for its new owners, Fiat.

Introduced in 1980, Yugos had not changed all that much. “At its factory in central Serbia, it is almost as if you are transported back to the former Yugoslavia,” reports the BBC. “The cars, which were named after Yugoslavia, are put together by hand, as the factory couldn’t afford an automated system.”

The Yugo brand was introduced in the United States in 1985 by Malcolm Bricklin, the entrepreneur who had brought the first Subarus into the country, according to John Matras of the Auto Review Examiner.

“Selling for $3,990, the Yugo GV (for “great value”) was significantly the cheapest new car for sale in the country,” Mr. Matras wrote. “Sales were initially strong as car buyers were attracted to the low price, but the cars could charitably be described as being unsuited for American driving.”

For instance, Consumer Reports called the car a “barely assembled bag of nuts and bolts.”

Sales of Yugo in the United States ended in 1992. The company managed to chug along in Serbia under the auspices of Zastava Automobili, which is owned by the Serbian government, until 9 a.m. on Nov. 11, when the last Yugo rolled off the assembly line — or what workers there like to call a drag race.

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/for-yugo-a-place-of-eternal-rust-er-rest/

I didn't realize Malcom Bricklin brought those into the US. It's amazing to think that labor was so much cheaper than the automation would have been.

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

aahhhh sigh.....

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"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

Fiat bought Yugo? Wasn't the Yugo built using outdated Fiat tooling?

That's what I thought too!

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2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car

Bricklins sucked, Yugo's sucked... so it follows that Bricklin sucked

IIRC, it was essentially a Fiat 128, which wasn't a bad car - 35 years ago.

Here's a comeback that will slap you down a bit - He was also the U.S. importer of the evergreen Subaru 360:

oh god.. not that car oh no its making me tremble in my boots

You're not trembling in your boots, you just have one of those cars stuck in them. If you take off your boot and shake it out you'll be fine.

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http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/l...aman/Fleet.jpg

Peach Parts W124.128 User Group.

80 280SL
85 300SD
87 300TD
92 300D 2.5 Turbo
92 300TE 4Matic

The body was pure Yugoslavian sheet metal brilliance. The running gear was all FIAT. What a combination, huh?

Here's some stuff to do with a Yugo: Yugo Art

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1984 300TD

It still is in certain parts of the world. In Nam where I do business, it is cheaper for us to buy ladders and have an employee or two or three stack bags of animal feed about 20-30 feet high as opposed to buying a forklift of sorts. We did the math and found it would not pay.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

I actually saw one on a road a few months back. Wish I could post the photo but the cell kicked the bucket a few weeks ago.

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1982 300GD Carmine Red (DB3535) Cabriolet Parting Out
1990 300SEL Smoke Silver (Parting out)
1991 350SDL Blackberry Metallic (481)

"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

I saw one of those in town yesterday, and it was pulling a trailer no less.

I know the Yugo assembly plant was a target of the US Bombing campaign during the Kosovo situation, supposedly due to the assembly and repair of military infantry fighting vehicles (Soviet BTR 60's) but I wonder if it was really an attempt to make sure they couldn't return to importing Yougo's to the US.

Now if we could just do the same to GM.....