When the Zastava Koral was introduced to the U.S. market in 1984, it was rebranded the Yugo GV. “Yugo” for Yugoslavia, the car’s country of origin, and “GV” for Great Value. Now, the seller of this ’87 Yugo thinks it’s a great investment, as a rare and collectible car from a country that no longer exists! Let’s check it out here on eBay out of South Bend, Washington, and see what an investment of $1,714 (as of this writing) will net you.
Well, for one thing, you’ll get about twelve different shades of brown for the price of one, and a commendably clean and intact Yugo interior. I like the console that’s designed with a bunch of different rectangular openings and impressions, just for visual interest. “Everything works” is usually an impressive statement for a vintage car, but in this case, there are so few things to not work that it fails to overwhelm. Certainly, this interior is so much nicer—in condition, anyway—than you’d expect that the ragged holes in the door panels where the radio speakers should be are somehow reassuring.
I kid but, if you’re going to pass your car off as a showpiece, it’d be worth it to replace those speakers, and you’re going to need cleaner carpets than this. I know a great foaming cleaner that’ll get those stains right out. That seems to be true of the cabin overall—it’s just a deep clean away from being almost as good as claimed. Makes you wonder why the seller didn’t bother.
If the interior is a little sparse, things are considerably more jam-packed under the hood, showing off the packaging brilliance of this Fiat-based design. The 1,100-cc, 55-horsepower inline four nestles snugly between the front wheel wells, cooled by the wee radiator and shielded by the spare tire, which is said to be the original. While I quibble that the cleanliness might not totally jibe with the seller’s grandiose description, there’s no disputing this car’s perversely impressive originality. Notice that the underhood labels are all fully intact.
Yugos have always been interesting, for better or for worse, and a well-preserved example like this is increasingly interesting as fewer and fewer of these little cars, originally priced low enough that they could be viewed as throwaway cars from day one, survive. Nearly 50,000 Yugos found American homes in 1987, and I’ll bet very, very few of those cars were treated like valuable investments. Here’s one of those lucky few; anybody feeling bullish about it?
Yeah… now you mention it… you get the idea the guy inspecting the various bits & pieces as they came in for assembly said “close enough” a lot. Something a bit unsettling about so many different shades.
Knew a major in the Guard who lost his Yugo I believe to a flood in maybe ’95 or ’96. He’d have been all over this one.
A few years ago, I brought my nice ’75 BMW 2002 to the great Arthritis Foundation car show in Dublin, Ohio, just north of Columbus. It’s a great show and I’ve attended it for years. It’s a huge show, with every make and model represented, both foreign and domestic. I was directed to a “remote” spot in a parking lot where the BMWs were to be displayed.
Us BMWs were placed next to, of all marques, the Yugo. To the dismay of we 3 BMWs, the local Yugo club brought 10…yes, count ’em 10 cars! Sedans, convertibles, blue, red, tan, everything. It was humiliating. It almost made we want a Yugo, then I came to my senses and drove off in my 2002.
Ooo…the convertibles were actually built by Karmann… extraordinarily rare!
A second well-kept Yugo surfacing in as many days? Wow. I wouldn’t mind collecting a few of these. Just because of their notoriety. Swap in a Powerstroke diesel donated from an F350 LOL
I’ve been on the prowl for a Yugo drop top for a few years now. Gotta be a few stashed in barns somewhere in this country!
There are actually at least ten Yugo’s existing that were able to meet at the same place/time?
Plenty of Abarth parts to make it go faster…..Had one in my area set up for SCCA racing…..don’t remember what class….was fast
After about a month of ownership you will be able to use the car in a…push by shooting.
I’m sorry. The word investment should never be used with a Yugo.
A contradiction of terms if I ever heard one. I can remember when car dealer wouldn’t even take these in trade because they weren’t worth anything; just like the first `87 Hyundai Excels. Nobody wanted them due to crap quality & no resale value. IMHO, that still holds true for Yugos; sure the car is 31 years old, but it’s still crap.
Let go of my Yugo ..
No thanks I rather just have it crushed into a recycling metal cube..
This was a horrible car …it broke and failed miserably…
what do you call a 4 door Yugo??? ……………….Wego
My God! These were worthless pieces of junk when new; I’m sure 30 years of Winters hasn’t improved them. They were a very poorly manufactured licensed FIAT. Made on worn out machinery in a Soviet factory. The only redeeming feature was that they were so cheap that you could break them (and often did) so frequently, and repair them so cheaply that they worked as a bargain-basement get-about. As long as you didn’t HAVE to get there today. Not worth the scrap value in my opinion, as the steel was so poor.
I might point out that the Yugo (nee Zastava Koral) was built in Kragujevac, Serbia during Yugoslavia times. A country that was never part of the Soviet Union. Also, it was a fairly new factory with equipment purchased from Italy in the early 80s. Also, they didn’t break when actually maintained by a caring owner. The FIAT 126 drivetrain that powered them was rock solid and was even in the FIAT X1/9.
Hi Wolfgang, I stand corrected on the Soviet bit. However, reliable they were not, however well maintained. At least by 1980’s standards they could not keep up with the mileages and speeds required in modern traffic, at least in the UK where I lived.
A friend had one and it was barely adequate. He also rented one on a Greek island and rolled it during an exuberant night of excesses! He and his friends beat it straight with hammers and ran after returning it! I wonder if they noticed? :-)
It was FIAT 127 drivetrain, not 126. Otherwise correct.
If I remember correctly, one of the major flaws of this car was that the camshaft wasn’t properly heat treated, and so would wear out quickly, meaning you lost more and more power as the miles crept up. It made if I remember correctly about sixty horsepower when new, so any lost horsepower was noticed.
Investment grade? hahahahahah.you guys are killing me!
Wait…what? Investment you say? My
late wife and I looked at these when
new. Never have I ever seen a car with
such a terrible build quality as the Yugo
GV. Upon entering the test car, the first
thing I noticed was a large wad of wiring
hanging down from under the dashboard.
That unnerved me somewhat but not as
much as the transmission constantly
popping out of gear when my wife shifted
through the gears while driving it. The
seats were hard as brick vats, and the
suspension wasn’t much better. That
damned thing rode hard enough to jar
the fillings out of your teeth! The coup
de gras came when I watched the gas
gauge steadily moving towards the
Empty mark as the car labored to pull
itself up a small hill not far from the
dealership we’d gotten it from. And,
there was the price–which started at
$3,990 for the GV shown here. I can’t
begin to tell you how shocked I was
when the salesman told us that the
price for that POS had climbed to over
$7,950?!! For that?!! He then proceeded
to tell us that the company considered
things like backup lights, turn signals,
4-way flashers, and interior lights to
be options instead of standard equipment. Shoot, they were even
charging $500 to hook up an AM
radio!! That’s when I’d had enough and
told the salesman that we weren’t
interested in buying something that
awful and that he should refund our
$20 test drive fee, and give my wife her
driver’s license back before I re-arranged
his face. Found out later that the Ford
dealer (Jim Adams Ford, Lakeland, Fl.)
refused to service the cars even though
a warranty was included in the purchase
price. Nice try pal! Not worth $1,500.
Most I’d pay is $250–and that’s being
generous! Investment my a$$!! You’ll
have it a good long time.
Note, to save time, read comments from the last Yugo post, and no, Miguel, I never drove one. On the other hand, compared to the $25K dollar welding cart, this is a steal. Probably not too many rusty Yugo’s, they probably didn’t run long enough. In my quirky Colorado town, where you never know what you’ll see in the Walmart parking lot, I’d love to have this. Be a great way to meet people. :)
I remember these when they came out new and the laughter people got who bought them. Most who did needed cheap transportation and good gas mileage because they were broke financially. My sister drove a long way to work and looked at one but decided on a Ford Fiesta instead, I still laughed at her but she got the last laugh when she drove it for over a 100K miles with no problems and great gas mileage. IMHO the bidding as of now is about 2K too much even for cheap transportation.
A rolling Kalashnikov..how ’bout that!
Hmm, while fairly cheaply made, Kalashnikov’s (were) are fairly rugged and reliable, Yugo’s, not so much.
All this needs is an infinite playlist.
Looks like the owner has wired up a block of C4 for additional boost.
I hope this is not a trend.
Yugos would show up back in the day with 3000 miles and less all in that low mileage range at car dealer auction.There were plenty of them and they would fetch 400 to 500 dollars.No one would touch them as they would break down left and right.The ultimate piece of garbage.One of the worst cars built
Hyundai’s were the same in those days . I bought and sold many Excel’s . Never touched a Yugo . Thank God !
DO I HAVE TO GO, NO YOU GO did he say he’d go ,,, no you go,,, my mom wont go,,, no you go … johnny can go,,, no you go…should i stay or should i go,,, no you go…..
Kenneth I thought they were selling for around 4k. When these came to town a dealer got a shipment of them, they were ugly, slow, unreliable, boxy, extremely poor handling and the brakes sucked. Of course I had to test drive one and it was everything that I expected! OMG that vehicle rewrote the book on BAD CARS!
The words investment and Yugo in the same sentence, wouldn’t that be an oxymoron?
Unfortunately, a woman was driving her Yugo across the Mackinaw Bridge between the two Michigan peninsulas and the wind blew her off. RIP
Never drive it in winter, there’s no rear window heater to keep your hands warm while you push it,
Malcolm Bricklin has a lot to answer for… ;-)
If a worse car was ever produced and sold I don’t know what it is. I suspect the new owner will show it but it he’s smart he’ll trailer it. These things were junk from the factory. Every trip was an adventure as to whether you’d get back home. (my neighbor had one (new) for about 2 years before he had it towed away.
I worked for an automotive market research firm in 1984. One of our products was a syndicated quality tracking study conducted on behalf of most of the OEM’s. We measured owner-reported problems at 3 months and 1, 3 and 5 years of ownership. I remember looking at the data in 1985 and being struck by the fact that a 3 year old entry level Toyota was twice as reliable as a new Yugo. That study ran for about 20 years and I don’t think any car ever approached its record for problems.
I happen to have an original sales flyer from Yugo USA in my hand. List price $3990 plus $299 transportation plus $99 dealer prep. 4 colors including metallic blue or gold at no addional charge! Electric rear window defroster was included as well as washer and wiper. Subject car has no rear wiper. Maybe they ran out.
4 145SR13 steel belted Tiger brand tires plus a full size spare. Rear seats folded giving 27.5 cu ft of storage. Only 9 cu ft with rear seat up. O-50 mph stated as 10.6 seconds but I don’t believe it. Weight listed as 1832 # Highway MPG listed as 31 and city 25 with an 8.45 gal tank.
I knew someone with an adult lady friend who drove a Yugo. It was the only fully detailed Yugo I ever saw. It ran no better.
I admit it. I bought one of these. Owned it for two months when a Subaru ran a red light and I t-boned it. The Yugo behaved like a little sherman tank and totalled the Subaru (everyone was fine.) the Yugo had a Smashed grill and bumper, but the dealer had no parts because the distribution network hadn’t been set up yet, so the insurance company had to total it. There was no market value so they just paid me what I paid for it. Lol
https://view.yahoo.com/show/saturday-night-live/clip/40035139/adobe
i’ll just leave this here.
Great clip, when SNL was actually funny and not political.
I bought the exact twin to this one. I was at the Manheim auction in Newburg, NY waiting for paperwork and hanging out in the lanes. The last car in one lane cam in and it was this car. 2 years old and 13,000 miles. The auctioneer went down to $300 for an opening bid, no takers so I raised my hand. Got it. Loved the little car, had it about a year when someone offered $1500 for it.
Yeah, that Kavanaugh thing with Matt Damon wasn’t funny at all. Wait, it was actually side-splitting hilarious!
I went to an auction in NY and saw a Yugo with 30 miles on it sell for $400. Guess I should have bought it.
Our 1986 Yugo GV is a fun to take to car cruises and shows. 18000 original miles. We love it!
I have no dog in this fight….I neither love or hate Yugos….but I will say this: A few years back a friend of mine bought one of these things to take to local car shows and cheese people off. Wouldn’t you know it, people at the shows were all over his Yugo! That little bugger got more attention than I could ever have imagined, and more than a lot of the guys with cars sporting 6 figure restoration jobs.
Would I ever want to drive one regularly? No, (besides I’ve heard that’s not possible anyway), but maybe….just maybe….I might buy one and take it to shows, too.
I had two. Both white as this example. One with a blown engine and a wrecked one with a good engine. Switched out the engine and drove it for many years. Got tired of it, sold it and the new owner drove it also for many years. Did good in the snow and on ice. As some have said, the plastic parts do have a tendency to have a short life span. Mine did jump time occasionally and had to get out the timing light to reset. A local salvage yard had 6 at one time for parts but people weren’t coming in for parts, they were coming in to scrap their Yugo!
Really? You guys are going to tell me that a Yugo (now) running and moderately restored would not get more looks than any $100K sportster available today?… Let me know where i can pick one up and run down to the local cigar lounge. My jag friends would love it.