I always chuckle when I hear that “the key to happiness is lowered expectations”; in fact, I’ve found myself saying it a time or two. With an initial base price of $3990, you’d be excused for thinking that the Yugo GV was the poster car for those kinds of sentiments.
The Yugo seems to be the perfect car for personalization; just the other day, I saw a parked Yugo with a license plate that said “Bad Car.” It helps to have a sense of humor when you’re driving a Yugo as your hobby car, because I imagine you have some interesting conversations. It’s like hearing a Ralph Nader joke for the 114th time when I’m driving my Corvair convertible.
The fact that any Yugo still exists is amazing. Some are almost 40 years old, and they were based on a Fiat that was designed back in the ’60s. The featured Yugo, located in New Jersey, appears to be rust free: The seller includes several undercarriage pictures to prove it.
Managing to survive 37 years without turning into a ball of rust, especially when a sunroof is involved, deserves a loving new owner.
The interior could use a professional detailing, but the seats look rip-free and the dashboard doesn’t appear to have any cracks. Maybe the mileage has something to do with it; the seller lists it as 51,000.
The Yugo was sold with 1.1 and 1.3 liter four-cylinder engines (by the way, did you know that they sold a Yugo Cabrio?). This one has the 1.1, and probably the four-speed manual, although the information in the ad is limited.
The seller claims that the car was bought at auction and has been sitting since 1996. The other bad news is that it does not have a title (it is being sold on a bill of sale). That would be a problem in Michigan where I live, but some states are more lenient about things like that.
If you live in a state where a missing title is an easy workaround, this Yugo might be the car for you. Drive it ironically or unironically! You will be the talk of every car meet you attend. Cars like Chevettes, Escorts, Reliants, and Yugos once plied every street in America, and now they’re almost gone. This Yugo is on eBay with a starting price of $1000 (even less than it was new!).
Fun write-up Aaron. The poor Yugo, gatherer of trite jokes. Similar to your experiences with your Corvair.
It was meant to be a cheap car. How cheap? $3990 in 1987 equates to about $11,000 today. I’m not sure, but the Mitsubishi Mirage might be the cheapest new car today. I was curious and poked around the Mitsubishi website. I saw one available in stock for under $17,000, but building one online today was closer to $18,000. Think of everything available on said Mirage compared to a Yugo— airbags, 100k powertrain warranty. etc. We’ve come a long way.
Maybe there is someone out there who wants to nurse this Yugo back to health.
And, the average life of that Mirage is probably like 10 years. Compare that to they Yugo, where mist of them were probably in the junkyard after 5 short years, most of which were probably spent parked or in the shop.
Unloved? Yes. Classic? Nooooooo. The only cars that can legitimately be labeled “Classic” are those officially recognized as such by the Classic Car Club of America. Yugo is definitely not on that list.
So almost no 50s, 60s, and 70s cars which are undoubtedly classics…
The rest of the world would beg to differ.
@CCFisher: and who are they to say that? If they say that at all, it sounds weird, if not stupid? BTW, FIVA is main global organization for classic car fans. And they are very clear, all 30+ years old cars are classic cars.
In Greece and mostly in Europe FIVA is the only body that inspects and gives to your classic this designation. It has grade A for totally unchanged as it left the factory cars and grade B where performance additions like exhaust, air filters, carbs etc are allowed but only if they are of the same age as the 30+ years old car. With this document in hand you can apply for classic car state benefits.
I didn’t know that some “Club” had a trademark on the phrase “Classic Car”.
I’ve never heard of the Classic Car Club of America, and they sure as heck are not the arbiters of what is a classic. A true classic looks as good today as it did when new…maybe even better. A Yugo, while maybe vintage, will never be a classic.
What a load of poo! Who exactly made the “Classic Car Club of AMERICA” The End-all be-all of what constitutes being classic car? And what exactly do any of them know any old foreign cars?
Friend of mine had one of these. We had 5 people in it with an empty half keg in the back.
Empty keg? What use is that?
People talk so much crap about these little cars. I sold them new and they only people that had trouble with them were the people that didn’t take care of them. They were basically a fiat 128. Look at the body and interior on this one. Not in bad shape at all for its age.
Untrue. I bought one new and it didn’t run right from the get go.
Did you not 1st test drive it(if it was on the lot) or at least a demo Yugo before buying?
Yes, it seems to be a writer’s claim to fame i.e. write up junk on Yugo’s.
Years ago I owned a auto rental company where we owned 6 Yugo’s.All were purchased used but with few miles. They were great cars! I still have one. They are easy to maintain and get 40 mpg. Glad you brought up the Fiat relationship. Do classic Fiats get the same put downs? These cars had some problems because they were sold to people who did not maintain them and were looking for a cheap to buy car. The only precaution is to change the timng belt every 30K miles as they have an interference engine
In response to the question if I test drove it or not, you don’t always take the demo. If the test drive went well, so should the purchase.
Yugo’s once plied every street in America? Nope. Not even close. But I do love the custom 1/4 wrap on the steering wheel.
I noticed it as well… looks like some Gladiators half armour, or a street fighters knuckle guard.
Very 80’s.
Why do Yugos have a defrost grid on the rear window?
So you can keep your hands warm while pushing it!
– Sorry, just had to let that one out…
Yes, most appropriately name car…
It sits while you go.
I remember when these were being sold new and there was another big jump in gas prices. If you had a Yugo with a full tank of gas it doubled in value overnight.
I am glad that some examples of these cars have survived. They are a part of automotive history and need to be preserved. What I find odd is that there seem to be more Yugos that survived than other hatchbacks of the era that were better cars. I had a Mazda GLC back in the 80s and I NEVER see one on the road OR on-line.
I’m confused is the person getting rid of this thing offering to pay $1000 dollars to get it out of the driveway or do they really want that for this $200 dollars of scrap metal
Yugos are jewels compared to Trabants… Drove a Yugo for a few weeks in L.A. traffic. Tolerable… Drove a rented Trabant in Berlin (they were semi-classics there after the wall went down {1993?}), was happy to get it back to the rental garage. Roy Marson and Tracy (above) have it right – much like a poorly tuned Fiat, but as reliable as you should expect for the $$$ expended.
Located in: Browns Mills, New Jersey
When they came out a Ford dealer in Turnersville N.J. sold them,a friend of mine worked there at the time.
Believe it or not, I had a friend who traded a decent Porsche 911 for a spanking new Yugo. Chintziest car I ever sat in. Six months later he happily traded the Yugo for a decent 914. What a dummy.
I bet the Chevette scooter interior was not much better. & Dreyfuss’s car in you know what movie was a lot worse inside. lol
This car may not even sell for the $1000 minimum. Not too many cars advertised on EBay can say that……
I heard that when these cars hit the market way back when that they were also thinking about marketing a 4 door version of it to be known as a “WEGO” !
All the Stodda Baba’s in Cleveland swooned over these heaps. Took ’em right back to the “old country” with the shoddy fit and finish.
Give me the $1k and I’ll take it straight to the boneyard for ya!
Just for fun,check out the YouTube video “In a Yugo”
My wife and I put over 120K trouble-free miles on two of them over ’bout 15 years each. We both thought very highly of them. They were FIATs built under license and at the time were screwed together better than the Italian-built FIATs. I develop an emotional link with my cars and I’ve driven smaller FIAT sedans since 1958- their fun factor beats all-harry out of dull, serious oriental machines.
FIAT = Fun Italian Auto Toys
FIAT= Fix It Again Tony