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No Charge For Duct Tape! 1990 Yugo Cabrio

Here’s a garage find, an unused 1990 Yugo Cabrio, a rare version of this line of cars. This car is posted on Craigslist with an asking price of $1,150, that’s about 10% of what a similar but perfect, ultra-low-mileage Yugo Cabrio sold for at a Barrett-Jackson auction in 2013! So, there’s hope! No, really. I know that a lot of you (most?) (all?) don’t have room in your heart for the lowly Yugo, but Scott A. does, he sent in this great find; thanks, Scott!

I have hope for this Rodney Dangerfield of a car, what I don’t have hope for is quality and number of photos that the seller provides. This car “is in running condition”, so why not, at the very least, back it out into the beautiful Haines City, Florida sun to take photos? Ugh. These are super rare cars, you’ll have a better chance of seeing a Bugatti Veyron on your trip to the store than you will a Yugo Cabrio. Barn Finds writer, Jamie, wrote about one back in April of 2015 and the price was several times this asking price, in case the nay-sayers are thinking that there’s no market for these things. The company only imported around 75 Cabrio models to the US and, as many of you will point out, not many of them are left because of the poor quality of the cars, in general. This one, however, looks great other than having some duct tape repairs to the cladding, and it appears to need some top repairs. Malcolm Bricklin, of Subaru 360 fame and also his own car, the Bricklin, imported the Yugo with great initial success, at least monetarily, for him..

This storage unit, I mean, this 1990 Yugo Cabrio has been sitting in the seller’s garage for two years. The “engine was refurbished and the car has new wheels and tires”, but as you already probably guessed, there are no engine photos and this is it for photos: three, lone images, none of them that really give a good, overall view of this rare, and pretty nice little car. The unseen and supposedly refurbished engine should be a 1.3L inline-four with a whopping 61 hp, about 6 hp less than the GV Hatchback because the 1990 Cabrio used a carburetor instead of having fuel injection. Did I mention that the title is missing? So, there’s that, too. But, with a potential multi-thousand dollar profit looming once it’s done, what could possibly go wrong?! (crickets). Seriously, I think this would be a nice project for anyone with room in their garage and room in their heart for an interesting and rare little car.

Comments

  1. Avatar Oldog4tz

    Gone in 60 seconds

    Like 0
    • Avatar Duane Boda

      Gone in 60 seconds is about right….that about the time it took to fly off the Mackinaw bridge about 1989 – 90 connecting the upper and lower peninsula of

      Michigan. Without looking it up I can’t recall if the woman drove it off or if it was

      blown off (bit of both?) but thereafter it was renamed here in the UP from a Yugo

      to a You – Went….straight down into the straits of Mackinaw…Spolooosh!

      Like 0
  2. Avatar Adam T45 Staff

    Don’t touch the duct tape….it’s structural!

    Like 2
  3. Avatar EU Broker

    I rented the hardtop version in the early 90’s on a trip to L.A. It was literally the worst car I’ve ever driven. I went through at least 2, possibly 3, of them during my 2 week stay, as they kept breaking down.

    Like 0
  4. Avatar BRAKTRCR

    How do you double the value of a Yugo? Fill the gas tank, or put $5 in the glove box. … ok ok I’ll behave. I had no interest in them but I’m sure there is a loyal following out there

    Like 1
  5. Avatar Mike H

    I would, perhaps, if Neve Campbell came with it.

    Like 0
    • Avatar Mike H

      Or better yet, Kat Dennings.

      Like 0
      • Avatar Joe Nose

        Follow the rabbit!

        Like 0
  6. Avatar Dovi65

    I love it! I get oddball cars as I’m an oddball, too. This little guy would be fun as hell to drive around town [I’m not bold enough to take it hiway!]

    Like 0
  7. Avatar Sonic R

    Rare? and to think I saw TWO Yugo cabrios for sale!

    Like 1
    • Avatar Vas911

      is that a recent photo?

      Like 0
  8. Avatar Fred W.

    This will end up in someone’s extensive collection as it is a piece of history. Well, it’s a piece of something.

    Like 0
    • Avatar Dovi65

      “History”, Fred … just leave it at “history” .. let’s not hurt the little Yugo’s feelings
      LOL
      Someday, I’m gonna start my own Oddball museum .. Yugo, Rambler, Nash … can I say “Geo” here without getting the snot beat outta me?

      Like 0
  9. Avatar nessy

    The first one I saw in person was at the New York Auto Show when they first came out. I remember it so well because the back bumper was slanted. I just touched that bumper and it dropped another inch or two. For real, this is a true story. I always felt the Yugo was kind of a good looking little car in spite of it being a box of cardboard. Remember, the sticker price on the Yugo when new was only 3990 when the average low priced cheap little cars were selling for 8000. Does anyone here remember the first TV ad for the Yugo? It showed a red Yugo with a nerd type guy jumping up in front of the car while some silly music played and a voice sang, “You Go Crazy For A Yugo!” While a big 3990 price flashed on the TV screen. To be honest? I would not mind having a Yugo in my collection.

    Like 0
  10. Avatar Skip

    I had a n ’89 Yugo that I found cheap at a car lot in Odessa in 1992. It ran well, and needless to say, got fantastic gas mileage. The one thing I didn’t like was that it was very rough-riding on the road. Took on a trip to Lubbock from Odessa (130 mi) and that was the roughest damned ride I’ve ever been on. Would you believe, it disappeared, and when it was recovered, there wasn’t much left to recover and that was the end of that story. Maybe the later models drove better!

    Like 0
  11. Avatar Rustytech Member

    The last time I worked on one of these was just before the war broke out in Yugoslavia. The driver had broken a rear trailing arm or something like that. The part had to be ordered and shipped from Yugoslavia. Thirteen months later when I left that garage for greener pastures that Yugoslav was still sitting there waiting for parts. Don’t think the parts availability would be any better today. Nice boat anchor though!

    Like 0
  12. Avatar 68 custom

    when these were new my sister and I were discussing the merits of a cheap new car. I told her I would much rather have a decent used gremlin than a new Yugo, and my choice would still be the same. no thanks!

    Like 0
  13. Avatar Loco Mikado

    The car collecting community much be getting desperate and grasping at straws if a Yugo is considered a collectors car.

    Like 0
  14. Avatar Wd62vette

    We really enjoy our Yugo.The Yugo gets plenty of attention at car shows. I have heard many Yugo story’s.

    Like 0
    • Avatar Ken Carney

      My wife and I almost bought one in’87. That was until we test drove one at Jim Adams Ford over in Lakeland, Fl. The seats were hard as bricks, the tranny wouldn’t stay in gear, and it couldn’t even make it up a small hill without boiling over or using an entire tank of gas. Then there was the price. It started out at $3,990.00, but by the dealer added in
      all his charges, that price ballooned to just over $10,000.00! That was it
      for us, we bought a new Escort.

      Like 0
  15. Avatar Ken Carney

    I’m surprised to see any of these things left here in Polk County Fl. This
    particular car is located about 15 miles from my home here in Winter Haven. While. this one may be unique, I only have to think back and recall
    just how bad these things really were. Since we had no foreign car repair
    shops in Polk county, service was a major issue. If it didn’t say Ford or Chevy on the decklid, no mechanic would touch them with a 10 foot wrench.
    When you needed service, you shipped the car from Winter Haven to Tampa
    or Orlando on the back of a tow truck. The Ford dealer in Lakeland would sell you one, but wouldn’t service it. I also recall first hand seeing dozens of
    brand new Yugos with zero miles on them in junkyards all around the county. Or, they would be sold for as little as $50.00 on buy here pay here
    used car lots that Florida is so famous for. I recall a guy who bought 4 orr his lot on Ave. G NW. in Inwood only to haul them off to haul them off to
    the crusher when he couldn’t even give them away. Folks around here would rather buy a used up 10 or 15 year old American car instead of a zero
    mile Yugo.

    Like 0
    • Avatar Bob Djuric

      Ken, if you can contact me, I purchase this Yugo cabrio and now is in NJ.
      Change 2-3 owners, and lost papers.( title was missing).I talk to original owner who sale this car to person in Florida.I am locking to find location of this photos in FL, as you comment is about 15 miles from your home. Do you have any informations regarding location?
      Thank you
      Bob NJ

      Like 0
  16. Avatar ACZ

    Every collection needs a Yugo. They make a great door stop

    Like 0
    • Avatar Ken Carney

      Right you are man, but after sleeping on it, I had this insane thought about converting one of these into an electric vehicle. After all, if Ed
      China and Mike Brewer could do a conversion on a Maserati Viterbo,
      someone could surely do this to a Yugo GV. Just imagine taking that
      door stop becoming something fun to drive for the first time ever! It
      looks pretty straightforward except for mounting the battery packs.
      Add a solar panel to the roof to trickle charge the car while you drive it
      and you’d have the perfect EV for putt-putting around town, not to mention the comments you’ll get at the next car show. Hmmmm, I might have to try this! What else do I have to do in my retirement
      years.

      Like 0
  17. Avatar Brian M Member

    Never did figure out why they never used the full name for these things:
    Yupush-Yugo. Around ’88 or ’89 we had a student at our real estate school show up one night with a “full dress” one; dingleberry fringe around all of the windows, fuzzy dice and mirror muff, blinking eye-bobbing head dachshund in the rear window, full width mud flap hanging from the rear bumper, fender well lights and dual whip antennae, complete with raccoon tails. He hadn’t found appropriately sized spinner hubcaps yet, but was looking. It drew quite a crowd at break time.

    Like 0
  18. Avatar MikeH

    I’ll have to stick up for the Yugo–a little bit. I drove one in Yugoslavia, never the American version. It wasn’t a bad car, but it wasn’t a good one either. It is really a Fiat 127. Fiat sold the tooling to Zastava as they did all over the communist world. So what they were selling in the US was a car that came out in 1971 [as a Fiat] that was produced in a semi-Communist country. Communist countries have never been known for their quality control. Add to that that it was a high maintenance car [and Americans are not known for maintaining their cars, especially those buying on the price point] and you have a recipe for disaster. Probably if you didn’t mind fooling around with it on weekends–tightening loose nuts, replacing things that fell off, etc, it would be a decent car. The Yugoslavians bought lots of them. Of course, that was all they could get.

    Like 0
  19. Avatar Bob

    I would love to buy this car. I have many parts for it. If anyone has any info on where the car is today that would be great, I don’t see it on craigslist anymore

    Email me at bobdjuric@yahoo.com

    Like 0
  20. Avatar Rustytech Member

    Ken They couldn’t give them away, cause 1. They broke something daily. 2. There was literally NO parts availability. 3. Your point, you couldn’t get a mechanic that was in his right mind to work on them, I worked in a shop with 13 techs, and I was the only one who would touch them. ( I guess I wasn’t in my right mind ).

    Like 0
  21. Avatar Mitch Member

    In 1992 I helped a dealer friend drive 2 cars to the Manheim auction in Newburg, NY to be sold. After selling the cars, he went somewhere looking for a ride back to Brooklyn and I wandered around the sale with his bidder badge. The very last car in the entire auction was an “89 Yugo with only 5000 miles on it, white. The auctioneer started at $1500 and went down to $300 and was about to pass it when I raised my hand for the $300. no one else countered an i was sure it wouldnt be sold to me, but it was. I drove the car for 3 years, my little kids loved the car, I could park it anywhere, it used no gas. One day a college kid offered me $1300 for it and I sold it. i was sad to see it go and I have nothing but nice things to say about the little car I never expected to own.

    Like 1
  22. Avatar djkenny

    This thing will cost much time and life energy to make acceptable. Not worth the possible $5000 it “might” be worth after all that time and energy, and $ (you might spend half that, IF you do the work yourself), to get to that point. Finding parts, finding CONVERTIBLE parts? Forget. It.

    Get a quality clean no Rust Rabbit GTI to fix up. You might even want to keep it.

    Like 0
  23. Avatar Edis

    I would like to have one and give it to my dad, my dad bought one in europe, brand new but its called yugo 55, didnt have it to long but tells me stories how i loved going for rides in that crappie car. We lost the car when wor started in Balkans. Now in Michigan i am trying to hunt down one or two yugos for sale.

    Like 0

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