We’ve all heard them, the endless jokes about Yugos: “How do you double the value of a Yugo? Fill it with gas (if it will still hold liquid).” And, “Why don’t Yugos sustain much damage in a front-end collision? The tow truck takes the impact.” This 1988 Yugo GV has been in storage for 20 years and it’s listed on eBay in Mobridge, South Dakota. The seller has it listed with a $2,500 buy it now price and that’s no joke.
The Yugo was known as Zastava Koral in its home country of Yugoslavia. Although, they had pride in the fact that they were exported as the Yugo and a good portion of them were reportedly badged as Yugo in their home country during the golden years, 1988 to 1991. Those are supposedly the best years for quality control for the company. After that, communism was spiraling into the ground and quality control was also spiraling into the ground. Not to mention a civil war was breaking out and parts were coming from both Slovenia and Croatia. You can see the problem. They were imported to the US between 1985 and 1992 and a car like this 1988 model is supposedly one of the “good” ones from the golden era.
These cars were, as you can see, styled after Fiat designs in Italy and they came in several variations of GV, or Good Value, for the US market: GV, GV Plus, GVC, GVX, GVS, etc. Malcolm Bricklin sort of slipped under the radar to seal a deal to import the Yugo to the US and they had to remedy hundreds of issues to be allowed to enter the US market. This example “Has been sitting in storage INSIDE for over 20 years”, but unfortunately ” Car does not run, although all parts are in place and is capable of running, needs carb cleaning.”
There are no engine photos which is shocking (cough), but this car has a 1.1L inline-four with around 55 hp and a top speed of just over 80 mph. This is the only interior photo, too. I know. They say that it was “put away in running condition so it does not need much to get running.” Have any of you owned a Yugo?
Leaving this wide open for Yugo jokes, some are great.( I suspect made up by the same folks that brought us blond jokes) You know, I’d buy this just BECAUSE it’s a Yugo. With the exception of some AMC cars, I think the Yugo was more well known than most cars for it’s oddness. I don’t think the Yugo was near as bad as some make it out to be. Remember the movie “Drowning Mona”? The whole town drove Yugo’s.
Howard, have you ever had one or even driven one?
Good luck getting parts
It is a Fiat, parts are easy, even in the states
Howard A. Yes they’re as bad as people say. They would literally fall a part going down the road if you got them to start. Lost bumper going over speed bump. Completely rusted out within 3 years. Buy oil by the gallons at gas station. Used oil a dollar a gallon. Gas attendant saved it for us.
I don’t know. Lots of cars literally fell apart, GM’s losing back bumpers, rusted frames and what vintage Chevy DIDN’T use oil.Most Asian cars rotted out in 3 years, as well, and running drain oil in any car isn’t good. Like most econoboxes, people treated them terribly, trying to make them do something they weren’t intended to do, or running them on drain oil because they were just “wheels ’til they puked”. It’s what killed most small cars, no matter what make. Europeans probably LTAO, “stupid American’s, no experience with small cars whatsoever”.
That’s true .. if you treat a car with care, and not ‘drive it like it’s stolen’ it will hold up. Not forever, but it will serve you well. When Kia first arrived here, they were documented reports of pieces breaking off while being driven. Daihatsu wasn’t much better.
HA! The bumpers! I didn’t realize it was a thing. When I was a kid some neighbors down the street had a red one. I remember watching it go over a rough manhole cover and then run over its own front bumper, right in front of my house. Both axles – crunch-crunch! I’ll never get that image out of my head. Their son strapped the dead bumper to his bike and rode around for a few hours proud as could be.
I’m not going in that! Yugo
I continue to be amazed at what vintage car/truck comes up for sale after being ‘lost’ in storage for ages. Seeing this little jewel pop up here gives me hope that there’s a Yugo convertible waiting for me to bring it home.
Yeah, I know what you’re thinking . “a Yugo???, Why??” I’m just that kinda oddball guy. Every car needs love!
My Yugo story.
Living in DFW metro in the late ’80’s. Driving a 1978 3/4 ton Chevy P/U as my daily driver at the time. Pulled out of an intersection and was T-boned on the driver’s side door by, you guessed it, a Yugo. After I got over the shock, I got out the passenger side and went around to look at the damage and talk to the Yugo’s driver (a teenager). The Yugo was totaled. Nothing, and I mean nothing salvageable in front of the doors. He said that his brakes had failed. I have to admit that I briefly wondered if he piled into me on purpose to force “daddy” to buy him a more “acceptable” car. Oh, and the damage to my truck? A crease at bumper level across the bottom of the door. Door still worked fine.
Know how the Yugo got it’s name? Two mechanics test-driving the prototype when it konked out on the back stretch of the track. Driver says to his pal: “Why don’t YUGO for help? I wait here.” “No!” Says the co-driver. “YUGO!” And so now you know!
A Fiat without the reliability…
When Yugo was ending its sales in the US, a dealer in Henderson Nevada bought all the parts he cold from various Yugo dealers across the country.
He wanted to corner the market and be the only one selling parts for the car.
I am not sure if that decision was a good one or a bad one.
You might be able to look it up. I can’t remember the name of his dealership, though.
Edit: It looks like his name was Ben Stepman. He died in 1999, but I bet there are still some parts available.
I never understood. What did people expect from a car built in a communist country? They took a relatively good car (Fiat 127) and turned it into junk. Not trying to be political but they just did not have the experience to compete in the open market. Kudos to them for trying. Too bad to didn’t work. MHO.
I don’t know, there are still thousands of Ladas, Volgas and Moskvitches running around Cuba right now.
Fiats were incredible rustbuckets, but at least they would get you from point A to B for a few years. I can’t imagine something worse.
I am sorry I couldn’t pass up the chance to remember the old Yugo jokes.
Yu-go “Beep, Beep, Crunch!”
“Optimist” defined: A Yugo owner with a radar detector
Why do Yugo owners never carry a map?
It’ll never get far enough to get lost!
Yu*go (yoo-go)
n. 1) Small, economical, Yugoslavian-built automobile.
2) 4×4 hood ornament.
adj. 1) What dosen’t happen when you press the accelerator.
Q. How do you double the value of a Yugo?
A. Fill the tank with gas! (If it can still hold liquid.)
A. If not, put a gallon of milk in the back seat.
Q. What comes with every Yugo User’s Manual?
A. The bus schedule.
What do Yugos have in common with Ferarris?
– A Ferarri can go from 0 to 60 in 4 seconds.
– A Yugo can go from 0 to 4 in 60 seconds.
Actually, a Yugo CAN accelerate as fast as a Ferarri,
…if you give it a fast enough running start, so it clears the cliff’s edge…
Q. How do you fix a broken Yugo?
A. 1) Lift off the radiator cap and drive brand-new one underneath radiator cap.
(30-mile/3-day warranty included!)
A man entered an auto parts store…
Man: “I need a windshield wiper blade for a Yugo.”
Clerk: “Well, only if you throw $20 into the trade.”
I once bought a Yugo with a tow package.
…It was in the front.
Q. Why does a Yugo have rear a window defroster?
A. To keep your hands warm as you push it.
Q. What do you call a Yugo at the top of a big hill?
A. A miracle!
Yugos are now much safer and come standard with an air bag.
When you sense an impending accident, start blowing *real fast*
How do you make a Yugo go faster?
A towtruck.
What do you call the shock absorbers inside a Yugo?
Passengers.
Two guys in a Yugo were arrested last night in Oakland following
a push-by shooting incident.
The new Yugo has an air bag. When you sense an impending accident,
start pumping real fast.
How can you get a Yugo to do 60 miles an hour?
Push it over a cliff.
A man walks into an auto parts store and says,
“I’ll take a gas cap for a Yugo”
“Sounds like a fair trade”, says the couter worker.
Why don’t Yugo’s sustain much damage in a front-end collision?
The tow truck takes the impact.
What do you call a Yugo with a flat tire?
Totaled.
What do you call a Yugo with brakes?
Customized
How do you make a Yugo go faster downhill?
Turn off the engine.
How do you improve the appearance of a Yugo?
Park it in a junk yard!!!!!!
You go. Car stays.
What do you call a Yugo in the fast lane of a highway?
A miracle!
or Roadkill
Some used car dealers might try to reduce the miles on the odometer to make a car seem worth more money.
With a Yugo, they add miles to try and convince you it really will go that far!
Despite their small size, Yugos are actually designed for five people;
1 person sits in the driver’s seat, and the other four would get out and push.
A thief caused $39.95 damage to a Yugo.
He broke in and stole “The Club” off the steering wheel.
Did you hear about the Yugo/pedestrian accident?
…Poor Yugo.
“You know what they do with junked Yugo’s don’t you?
They recycle them into tin cans.”
What’s the difference between a Yugo and the principal’s office?
A. It’s less embarrassing if your friends see you leaving the principal’s office.
What do you call a Yugo with twin exhausts?
A wheelbarrow
What is the Yugo owner’s most ardent wish?
To buy a car.
Really? You remember all these jokes? Are you in Henderson, Nevada with a parts stash? LOL
What do you call a 4 door Yugo? A WEGO!
I was in the Army when these came out, and yes they were as bad as their reputation suggest. Several soldier’s at Fort Hood took advantage of the $3,995.00 price. One female called hers a You stay. I friend bought one, all the control handles, door handles, and window cranks broke because they solid (and thin) plastic.
On cold nights (below 50 degrees) he had to wrap the engine with an Army wool blanket to keep it warm enough to start the next morning, he tried putting a trouble light under the hood for heat, but the First Sergeant put a stop to that saying that we didn’t have enough outlets for every Yugo and he didn’t want to encourage more soldier’s to buy more of them.
At 7,000 miles my friends transmission siezed up on long trip (450 miles) and wasn’t covered by the warranty because it was driven at high speeds (70 mph). So yes they were pure junk. They may be a novelty now, as long as you don’t expect to drive it.
I remember the Volvo dealer in Hawaii was selling them new. (Or trying to). When they got down to the last dozen they had a promotion to liquidate them. It was a buy one -get one free. Buy any new Volvo and get a new Yugo for free. It still took months for them to get rid of them. I always thought they were kinda cute and simple.
No matter which way you slice it, the Yugo was a pretty terrible car. My old roommate had a choice.. for the same money he could have bought a used Corolla or a new Yugo, he chose the Yugo and regretted from the first week he owned it.
A member of the Yugo Owners Club got an invite for their Annual Dinner,which read ‘7.30 for Midnight’.
Years ago in a previous life I had a raggedy towtruck that I made a few extra dollars by collecting donated cars from peoples back yards and hauling off to the local junkyards in suburban Baltimore. I had at the time a relatively new Yugoslav (and this approx summer of ‘93) and the yard didn’t wanna even take it. Even though I had a title, they still wouldn’t budge. Instead I was able to negotiate a $35.00 credit merchandise credit in exchange for not having to drag the car all over the area. Those were the days.
I managed the used car reconditioning department for a large Chevy dealer that also sold Yugos for awhile. I dreaded seeing them traded back in on a real car. Window cranks broke, speaker grills fell off, and the locks would always need to be re-keyed. These were cars with under 15,000 miles. Often well under.
The joke at the dealership was that the engine rebuild kit was a rubber band in a blister pack. I had numerous friends ask me if I thought they should buy one given the cheap price. I always replied to use the same money to buy a used car with a small V8 like a Cutlass. It would last much longer
Brad, I had the same job at a Chevy dealer. Somebody traded in a Yugo that had a couple hundred miles on it.
I couldn’t get the key out of the ignition.
I had to go to the Yugo dealer and get a new ignition to replace it.
Warranty, what warranty?
Best years for quality control? You’re funny.. I’d look like George Clooney if I lost fifty pounds and had a different face.
The ad said “ran when parked”. Don’t believe it! Most did not run and if they did the parts would fall off when you drove them down the road. This car is NOT worth $2500. It is only worth the scrap value of the metal less the towing cost. The buyer should ask the seller to pay him $100 to haul it away.
He meant “ran away when parked”, meaning that the owner parked it and ran away……..
You often read on BF that someone got a “good one” among all of the bad ones.
I take it from these comments that no one got a good Yugo – ever.
This 2 Yugos is over 60 years old(green 1985 euro and 1990cabrio).On white cabrio in 28 years I spend $100.00 for water pamp.
I remember first hearing of the Yugo. While I liked its styling, I thought it was better looking (at the time) than the VW Golf and Jetta, and its simplicity in its mechanics, someone with mechanical expertise could work on it should something fall apart, I was told that its quality control was iffy, at best.
Give it to Tanner Foust
Someone that lived about a mile from me in Columbus, Ohio had taken 2 Yugos and put them together in the fashion of a limo. He called it the Y’all Go. As the Volvo dealer in Hawaii doing a buy one get one free deal with the last of their Yugos, Ricart Ford would give a new Yugo to anyone that bought a new Ford pickup.
Two good one’s!
Enzo,
Please don’t take all the frivolity at Yugo’s expense to heart – including my own contribution. You have to admit that based on the preponderance of evidence, the manufacturer had massive problems. Personally, I’m thrilled that yours have provided you with years of service. May you have many more years of use from them.
Best wishes,
I think that this car has drawn the most comments of any thing I’ve seen (yet) on barnfinds.com
I have a friend with one and was just on a local tv spot this summer at a car show with it. He can get the parts easily if he needs them, which he probably does!
He probably has 30 spare parts cars in the back yard that he paid $100 for.
My wife and I were newly married in 1984 and in 1986 needed to replace our worn out VW Beetle. These YUGOS had come out a year earlier and the local Volvo Dealer owned the rights to sell it in Chattanooga. At that time neither of us had even started college and the $3,995.00 price tag was appealing to a young couple not making much money. We had three major engine related oil leaks causing our car to be out of commission and at the dealership for more than 30 days. We had to borrow a family member’s car. We certainly knew nothing about the State of TN Lemon Law passed in 1984 until I was talking with a female friend who worked for a very prominent and successful and expensive attorney and mentioned the car issue. She told me we had legal rights and long story short thanks our friend mentioning the situation to the attorney he decided to make an example out of the dealership under the TN Lemon Law Statute. His make them pay attitude toward the dealership always led me to believe that this was in some way personal and his chance to settle the score with the dealership who did him wrong at some point. He represented us for $200 and in the end, we were reimbursed for every cent we paid with the loan being paid off in full. I will say when the YUGO was brand new it ran and shifted great, was very quiet with the windows up and we never had one part fall off the car.
A friend used to race these and he is very adept about repairing them. Another friend worked with a woman who went to test drive a Yugo, the delighted salesmen were so eager to help. After going through three cars that did not start, one of the Yugos finally burped to life. She drove it out of the dealer lot for the ill fated test drive where the gearshift came off in her hand and the car died. She handed the keys to salesman and said: “I think I’ll go look at a Toyota.”
I’m somewhat surprised that nobody mentioned the Yugo
that went off the Mackinaw bridge. Straight into the drink
on Lake Michigan side (as I recall) 🤔 So it became Uwent
and from that height and speed the lady didn’t survive 😑
Someone I knew had a Hugo (it was not me – honest!) What I remember past the 0-60 in ten minutes was the non-UV resistant plastic interior parts….. literally was so brittle it would crack off at the touch! Dash, door panels, pillars, etc.
This was one crap vehicle by any standard! As the old saying goes “you get what you pay for”.
During its heyday I used to pass a large Yugo dealership going t work. What I remember most was when they went out of business, there was a line of new Hugo’s in the back lot left to rot; apparently could not offload as they would not run! They sat for years until the building was fitted for another business.
Does anyone remember the SCCA spec autocross class that Yugo and SCCA put together around 1989-1990 or so? They’d bring a display of the cars to big events nationwide and the idea was drivers would all run a spec Yugo to find the “best driver” of a given event. I think the year end prize for winning the championship was a free Yugo or maybe it was just free use of one for a year, I cannot recall. We all thought it was pretty hilarious even if it was genius marketing.
I also recall someone building one to race in the Firestone Firehawk series. I cannot imagine how cheated up that thing had to be to race in the Touring class against cars like CRX’s, MR2’s, Peugeot 505 Turbo, Mazda 626 Turbo. Heck, there were even factory supported Chevy Sprint Turbo’s in that class that we all thought were bonkers, but a Yugo????
We all have to admit that if we saw one at a Cars & Coffee that was in good condition, ran and drove we’d have to look closely at the silly thing. Kind of like gawking at a train crash….. :)
Little Bro bought one new. Blew an engine, but his maintenance was so anal on it they couldn’t deny him a replacement engine. Always dealer serviced, on time every time. Extended warranty.
He and his then wife drove it from Tucson to Newport Oregon, LA and back. No problems.
She got it in the divorce settlement.
I really liked that particular wife, too.
I drove a tow truck in the late ’80’s / early ’90’s. One of the dealers we serviced sold them new and used. Man, they kept up busy, busy, busy!!!! I felt sorry for the poor fools who bought one and didn’t read the fine print of the warranty. They split the service bill 50/50, but charged double for labor and parts…. lol I’d tow the same car 3-4 times a week sometimes.
Word has it that the factory workers would intentionally install stuff wrong because they would repair the local cars after work. A buddy’s sister bought one, and she gave it to him at 2 years old with 25K on it. Clutch was slipping, windshield cracked, seats falling apart, exhaust shot, bad front end, bad tires, and nearly nonexistent brakes. What a POS!!!
I would call the white car above a poor man’s vw rabbit. They do look similar! Right?
I would try to fit ROUND headlites just for the heck of it.
If you ordered 1 of these new, stripped, & never drove it in the rain(no rust)
& did not abuse it, keep an eye out for/tighten loose nuts & do maintainance
faithfully, how much could go wrong with this car? The early vega has got to be a lot worse! Right? I think the yugo looks a lot better than the chevy spark & toyota yaris, tho not as cute as the fiat 500, but at least the yugo has a lot more room inside than the 500. I think it’s almost as cute as the ’78 ford fiesta.
Aloha, Joe! Even cuter than the Fiesta you mentioned could be the Festiva that’s been around since the early 70s, smaller than the 78 Fiesta with the same design, also a Ford product. Not at all fond of them, simply because a friend of mine was killed in a head-on crash in one. I know, hate the other guy that crossed the center line, not the car. Sorry, I digress. Smallest car I’ve had would be my current Honda CR-Z, which I love for many reasons, also a 77 Plymouth Arrow I bought new, had it for a few years till the family outgrew it. So I’m not against small cars.
I seriously wanted one of these, since the electrical problems were mostly either bad connections or lousy copies of Marelli components, and the mechanical problems ran along the same lines. Though lots of people think they were based on the Fiat 127, they were really a 128 sectioned crosswise, something under a foot removed from the wheelbase. So the engine was a Yugoslav-built version of the 128’s nice Lampredi-designed SOHC four, and the rest of the mechanicals followed suit … and since at the time I had a 128 whose structural damage from an earlier collision had finally taken over, but whose mechanicals were otherwise sound (including the larger 1.3 liter engine), I figured I’d have a winner here. The very pretty Yugo I’d been looking at, alas, got sold half an hour before I came for it. Who knows – I might still be driving it. Of course then I’d have missed out on a bunch of Alfas …
My wife and I drove, I think it was a ’87 Yugo for several years. Lent it to a friend and the timing belt broke. Never fixed it, eventually had it towed to the junkyard.
I really like the car. Drove it a lot while we had it. Both in Colorado and Nevada. On the road and some off road. It had more ground clearance than most small pickups.
I miss it for puttering around town and some light off roading.
Don’t waste your time on Yugos. You want to restore or drive weird cars? Buy a 1969 Suburu two-door. Fifty miles a gallon, a whopping 350cc engine, a fender you could pop in and out with your hand and not leave wrinkles, there’s a classic for you. Original cost, $1,350. Some dealers dumped them at cost for $850. NEW. That’s how my dad got his. You should see the van version Subaru did that year. Looks like a half-scale VW van. The coupe looked like a VW bug in the same scale.
@ RobertM: The only thing my Subaru 360 (van,not sedan) had going for it was build quality. As an object it was solid and reasonably attractive. In motion, OTOH, it was downright dangerous at any speed beyond a walking pace; any corner taken quickly would cause the outboard front wheel to try flopping inward to full lock, and the front door’s habit of popping open at such times only added to the fun.
I have never driven a Yugo, though I would like to: the car it was adapted from, the Fiat 128, was an excellent handler at any speed, and gave a good, stable ride on any surface. It was amazingly good on snow and ice as well.
I recently started getting into all the fiats after years of being into old vw’s. For some reason now every fiat model I see looks really interesting where in the past I never noticed
Top Speed of 80? With only a bump in timing and a 2″ S.S.exhaust my 88 GV would max out @114mph, and that was with taller 175/ 70 13 tires on it. (I assume that would net a few more mph than it registered ) A cheap casket, I referred it as
Thx M. Fulmer Bham usa