Almost 40 years after its start from the production line, this car cannot even be called an oldtimer. The Yugo was owned throughout the decades by a lot of people in the Balkans. Probably some readers of my post can relate to some things I will write here. I myself used to own this vehicle for a few years and it left me with more bad memories than with good ones. But the car has a cult status where I am from and it is connected to a lot of nostalgia. Even today you can see them on the streets in Croatia and other countries that were once part of former Yugoslavia. I was inspired to investigate a little bit more about the car by the post of @jelena.koprivica.
The Yugo 45 in pop culture
Some say yes others ask are you crazy? Opinions differ and a lot would argue that the car is a piece of crap not worth the metal it was built of. According to many people and not just in my part of the world, it is one of the worst cars ever built by humans. That might even be true but the car left a mark in the world and yes it went further over the borders of Yugoslavia. The Yugo was sold throughout Europe, Africa, and both Americas. And yes I mean the US of A, the car was first introduced at the Los Angeles Auto Show in 1984. and the first five cars were sold in 1987. at a price 3.990 USD. The marketing scheme was to sell the car to middle-class families in need of a third car with the slogan Everybody needs a Yugo sometime. A total of more than 140 000 Yugos were sold in the US making the car an instant hit. Problems started soon as buyers discovered that the car had many faults and was unreliable.
In Yugoslavia, the Yugo was the car of the people the working class but also a statement of the communist regime to show off their manufacturing capabilities. The car can be seen in many movies and tv shows from around the Balkan countries, they are even song about the Yugo 45 like from the Bosnian rock group Zabranjeno pušenje. But not only can it be seen in pop culture in my part of the world the Yugo left a mark in the United State of America if you can believe it, if not here are a few examples.
The most memorable is probably the comedy movie Drowning Mona from 2000 where everybody in the movie drives a Yugo including the sheriff. The list goes on, most of you did not even notice in Die Hard 3 when Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson steel a gold-colored Yugo, to mention just a few more: The Crow, Bowfinger, Dragnet. Even the Simpsons and the cast of Saturday Night Live make fun of the Yugo 45 in some episodes.
You can see the car at the end of Metallica's music video for the song The day that never comes and least but not last Paul Shanklin - In a Yugo.
The Yugo a car for the people
The Yugo was produced till 2008. and over 800 000 cars left the production line and were sold. The Yugo first emerged under the model name Yugo 45, and later other versions were produced like the 55, 60 and 65 depending on the horsepower. For the foreign market, the Yugo EFI, Florida, Koral and Tempo among others were built to accommodate outside markets. To better engage your imagination the Yugo was a four-wheel hatchback with tree door and a petrol engine it had absolutely no other features like electronics other gadgets of that time. The car, by all means, was not a reliable one and most have problems with the engine, the interior or the whole car. Second, to that, it does not look pretty either. One of the jokes that gets me still today is :
On the other side, it was the first car for most of us living in the former Yugoslavian states as it was really cheap to buy. Parts were another great subject as there were pretty cheap, everything that could break could be replaced for about 100 kuna/15 euros/16 USD. Except for motor if it would break it was not worth repairing, you would sell it to the scrap yard and get a few hundred kuna for it.
All in all, maybe it was not the most beautiful car or even the most reliable car but for most of us it was a piece of our past growing up and a lot of nostalgia is tied to it.
A short history of the Zastava automobile factory
The Yugo among other cars came out of the Zastava Automobili factory in Kragujevac in today's Serbia during the 80s. It was one of the first concept cars produced entirely by domestic engineers and designers with a little help from FIAT. The car factory was formed in the 50s and became the star of the Yugoslav auto industry producing a variety of different cars, not just for the domestic market but exporting to other countries in the world. The Zastava factory did not start out as a car manufacturer, the history goes back to the 19th century. The production here started in 1851. under the name, Kragujevac Vojno Tehnički Zavod or Military Technical Institut and the first products were not cars but cannons for the military. During its later years, the VTZ started to expand to the production of firearms and around 1939. started assembling Chevrolet military trucks. During WWII the production stopped and was resumed during the 1950s under communist rule and the name of the factory was changed to Zavodi Crvena Zastava or Red Flag Factories. It was then decided that in the future Kragujevac factories would produce cars. After WWII as there was no tradition of car manufacturing and the know-how was not there a cooperation with Italian FIAT started and the Zastava factory started to produce or replicate Italian cars under license for the domestic market. Zastava car factory continued production during the 1990s and the 2000s but did not survive globalization and went bust in 2008. The Italian car company FIAT took over the factory and today it goes by the name FIAT Automobili Srbija.
A short overlook of the car that marked a generation and conquered even the United States. I am sure there more movies and tv show where a Yugo is mentioned and if you know one or two let me know in the comments below.