Torchinsky makes a very good point, the Yugo becomes even more modern for it's time when you take into consideration the fact that by 1987 it was already a 10 year old design. And when compared to the shitboxes made and sold in the US back in 1977, the Yugo becomes a forward looking innovation. Yeah, they're built out of poor quality materials, especially the interior and the fit and finish is sub-par because, well communism. It's quite possible actually, that the US Export version of the Yugo is the best car made by communism during the cold war. And, ultimately what rectifies the Yugo is it's price; it was cheap as hell. And not manufactured by a company that should've or even could've known or done better. And taking into consideration that there are still examples that work and run today despite nearly complete lack of maintenance over a thirty year life span, it can't be as shitty of a car as many like to contend it is. Far from the worst, or even worst built cars in the world. It's not great either by any stretch of the imagination either, but for what it is; a small licences built Yugoslavian version of an Italian city-car made near the end of the cold-war, it is actually an OK car. And an OK vehicle, for what it is. Ps. Both the owner and you guys are totally insane for driving on those grinding tires. You could've easily become a soccer ball for all the SUV's (the drivers of which can barely see you) about three to four times the Yugo's weight had you had a blow out. Which isn't far off with those fenders borrowing into the sidewall like that. Well, at least you were only a danger to yourselves. Still, recklessly negligent to drive like that on public roads.
@@draskoist naravno rodjo da radi ,ja imam jugo koral 55 iz '91 i 201000 predjenih km bez ikakvog rada motora ili karoserije uz redovnu zamenu ulja ,kaiseva i ostalih radnji na njemu samom .
I have found that the worst cars in the world are usually the most boring. Ones that just have no personality, and love it or hate it the Yugo certainly has personality.
I just love the external design of Yugo. My dad use to own cherry colored one and it was like a pet to us. We all drove newer and better cars but Yugo parked in our driveway was always the sweetest sight. So sad dad let go of it .
Just bought one. Sat in a field for 20 years, cleaned the carb a little, put a new battery in it and it fired right up. 20 year old gas and oil. Did very basic maintenance and will be driving it to NYC, about 500 miles this month. Wish me luck!
I can't believe what I'm reading. 20 years in a field and you're going to drive it. 500 miles? Are you serious. Have you made sure of its structural integrity.?I speak from very personal experience using vehicles for parts that had sit in a field for that long. I use the motor out of one which was a 1980s Chev truck that at that point had the engine in it out of a Pontiac GTO. Believe it or not. She'd sit in a field for about 20 years. Part of the carburetor was broken and we still managed to get it to run and move within seconds of starting the vehicle. The exhaust system blew off completely, just behind the manifolds and fell on the floor. Only one wheel would turn out 0f 4 and it had nothing even remotely resembling breaks other than the factory wheels wouldn't turn anymore. Staring was almost nonexistent. Large portions of the body immediately began to rattle and falloff and basically fly everywhere's there was just so much rot on the main body of that truck. It wasn't even funny. From what I know of the yougo they like to rust at a accelerated rate. That is the one thing that concerns me greatly is the rust factor. Second thing that concerns me. For your safety is the condition of the brakes. Bear in mind I use the motor out of that truck replaced the carburetor with a carburetor that was still in the box and replaced all the gaskets spark plugs, plug wires and so forth as well as the fluids I'm also a little bit concerned about your fuel pump situation and what kind of condition your spark plug wires are probably going to be in. I want to express none of this has anything to do with the car being a yougo. In fact, I'd be even more concerned depending on what vehicle it was there are other vehicles that rust a lot worse depending on certain factors. I don't know if you've left by now for your trip, but hopefully the least of your problems would be breaking down along the way I'm more concerned about you becoming some truckers belt buckle because of something like a aging ball joint or crystallized brake pads
It basically boils down to what Clarkson said about bad cars in his DVD. The worst cars are those who fail to deliver or completely disappoint in their class and tend to be quite more expensive than a Yugo. Yugo was a cheap car meant for basic transportation and maintenance and the fact that people drive it 30+ years later shows that it isn't that bad.
Nah that means that it basically meets expectations which were very low. Its still a trash car. Not a car you hate unless it was your only car and you relied on it, then you'd learn to hate it.
Viktor Dimitrovski And today, literally the tallest people in the world are from Yugoslav lands (Dinarian Alps). Taller than the Dutch. Oh, and Slovenes are third.
@@borismarkov1141 No, we must use every opportunity to show americans that stupidity and lack of education can't be used as a basis for jokes, because that just makes them look stupid rather than making the joke funny. Unfortunately, they don't seem to realize that, so they keep doing it.
@@aleksandarmiloeski7637 Talking out of my ass because I can't be arsed to fish for deacade-old statistics, but I'd say the average height of those regions probably hasn't changed that drastically in the last 40 years.
I had a GVX I drove for 85000 miles....the neighbor who bought it drive it another 80000, and she sold it to someone be who continued to drive it. It's how you took care of them...that made them last if you wanted them to last.
those 1300 EFI engines in Yugo, have records on passing one million kilometers, as vehicles in police and fire departments and taxis. extremly tough engines and reliable.
of course it isn't,but the media killed it. yugo was my first car and i will always remember it. yugo was my best and worst car i ever had,but it was so cheap and simple and funny it just brings smile on my face,rather than an angry grin. for instance any IDIOT can change something like a fuel pump,which costed like 5 bucks (original magneti marelli) and could be swapped in like 2 minutes right on the spot. it was noisy,smelly,unsafe but it was also red and i banged my first chicks in it so i love it.
@@JackDanielsCHS08rear seat did not could be tilted forward, or removed completely, leaving a clean flat carpeted rear. That's what the bolts and hinges are for . 1) remove the bolts 2) take out the rear seat
Ultra cheap is an understatement. It was 3999, like what did they expect? To get a car with premium buld quality, leather interior and an AC, that goes from 0 to 60 in 5s or less? :D
If the motoring media admitted a Yugo contained 95% the DNA of expensive cars, everyone would own one, dealerships would die and the system would break down. We should support the status anxious in their anxiety, tell them to keep making the payments, so there's more cars like the Yugo for the rest of us.
Until recently (8-10 years ago) this car was driven on almost every license test... If you manage to drive without mistakes on Yugo, you were a real chauffeur!
Vozio sam yugo 45 4 godine uz sitna održavanja jeftine dijelove samo je išao ima i gorijih od yuga . Npr moskvić ,trabant, Škoda 105 l ,tavria, vartburg,. Polonez , zastava 1500 ,zaporožac , Fiat 126p i našlo bi se još njih . Pozdrav iz Hrvatske !
@@goodpljeska2168 Again, false. I've seen them myself in Spain, very long ago. I could even get to see a Yugo Florida, which somehow looked like a copy of the Citroën ZX.
The countries that exported the most are Yugo, America, Britain and Egypt. They even sold in Australia We are talking here in the ordinary Yugo. Florida is the second model of Zastava factory (later changed its name to Yugo car factory).
Yugo.. pretty nostalgic, I learned how to drive in that thing, and the few different Yugos I tried all had very different brake sensitivity - horrible thing for a beginner. Funny enough, what they did have in common is the key: you could open different Yugos with the one key you had. People would go into someone elses car by accident, or to play a prank on them :)
yugos can be sold for 300 dollars in serbia, pistons cost 40 dollars per piece, headgaskets cost 20 dollars, you can piss in the fuel tank and itll run
Compared to cars of similar size from that era the Yugo werent that bad. afaik it's a Fiat design. They were economic, easy to maintain and fix, spare parts were cheap. Build quality was perhaps not equal to Toyota or Mercedes, but certainly on par with similar Fiat models. If you want crap cars from eastern europe take a look at the all plastic 2 stroke Trabant from DDR.
I rented one of these in Yugoslavia in 1988/9 and for the time it was ok. It was based on the Fiat 127 and the handling was quite nervous but it was also quite fun.
We had a 1987 Yugo 45A (America) producing 45hp. It had a 4 cyl carbureted engine with less than 1L displacement (.903 cm3). That car was used for everything, and a lot of times was used as a pick up truck. Hauling firewood, heavy steel pieces for my dad's business, etc. It was also used on mountain and dirt roads, driving over curbs, pot holes and what not. What I don't understand is how people can call it a bad car? Chose any western car and treat it like the Yugos are treated, and then tell me how long they will last. Also, a Yugo Cabrio (convertible) had the most sophisticated roof for that time. Both electric and hydraulic. If, for some reason, the electric motor didn't work, you were still able to open/close the roof manually. It also had a real glass back window, unlike some other cars that had some plexiglass that turned yellow over the years. Take a look at the Golf Cabrio of that era (3-4 times more expensive). When it drove on the highway, its roof looked like a bubble. Terrible.
It's because Americans are used to expensive cars and they didnt take car of YUGOs because of lack of service branches and will. It sold 800.000 times so it must have done at least something right and it did. It was cheap, but had all the basics.
@@Mastakilla91 True. But not only Americans. Basically everyone, including the Serbs in Serbia. If they had a better car than Yugo, then Yugo was garbage. Never mind they paid 3-4 times more for their car and never abused it as they'd abuse a Yugo. That's the difference. Cheers.
@@markonissweatshop1364 You have to abuse Yugo most of the times (after some time) because it won't accept gentle input. The shifter is the first to go. Then, if you have strong winters, it won't start easy during winter time (joke: rear back window heaters are for your hands, so they don't freeze while you push the Yugo), window handles and door locks break way too easy etc. You can see this in other cars as well, but Yugo was sold to over 2 million Yugoslavians initially and twice as much during the next 10 years. So naturaly a lot of people were making jokes. We drive these cars even today. You get one for 300€ and drive it until registration expires. Sell it for 200€...So, even back in say, 1999, we were driving Yugos that were over 10 years old. Of course they were all broken all over... :) But they did run, get you places etc.
@@Ludak021 It wouldn't accept gentle input because it was previously abused, lol. Shifters were easily adjusted with one or two bolts underneath. At least that's what my dad told me, as I was a kid then. I agree with the infamous door and window handles/cranks. They did break. I don't recall ours having much trouble starting in the winter, but since I lived in the building, I've heard many neighbours having problems starting their cars in the morning (other makes and models too). My dad bought a 1987 model in 1993 with not many km's on it. Before it got into my dad's hands, it was NEVER abused, and it showed. It looked and drove brand new. I learned driving on that car (besides other things we won't mention here, lol) and I dearly miss it. Even though, I kind of hated it back then...
hahaha I love your positive attitude, yugo was an ok, cheap city car. We have many jokes about it here in Serbia. Also imagine the other versions, US export one is the most powerful, 65hp. There were also Yugo 45 and 55. Thank you for the funny and overall positive review :)
5:37, dash moving like that means someone tangled with it, maybe has to do something with those custom buttons added but out from factoru no, it didnt move like that. Edit: 5:45, no not factory bolts.
My grandparents got a Yugoslavia spec Yugo Koral 55 bought brand new in 1992. It was used as car for everything, had it's own trailer that they sold a while ago, over the years rust has been eating some parts of the car. Due to recent changes in registration laws in Serbia, it's not road legal. My grandpa would like to restore it, I would rather use the body, get rid of rust, swap its original 1.1L I4 for a 1.6L Fiat 95hp I4 and turn it into a rally/slalom racing car. While the grandma is still on her "yOu wIlL nEvEr FiX iT" phrase. I've got 200€ saved atm, untill summer I should have 300€ so we will see what will happen. All in all, stock and cared for Yugo is a great little daily driver that's economic, reliable and easy to fix
@-T-X-M- 25 godina je rintao, ali ima još snage u njemu mogu da vidim. Ako budem imao sreće možda uradim oba tipa, pa kad zatreba jedno samo izmenim delove za priliku
I can tell you what problems we had when we owned this car: the car wouldn't start when it was cold sometimes, when it rained severely the car would have electrical problems, the door handles snapped so you opened the window to open the door from the outside, dinars (Yugoslavian and now only Serbian coins) could open the trunk, it smelled of gasoline inside and was the worst in the summer (you smelled like gasoline after riding in this car), it would get nice and foggy inside when raining so every good Yugo owner had chamois leather to wipe the windshield, we also had a rust problem cause a garage was a luxury. On the other hand it had thin wheels so it was rather good in the snow and the suspension was just made for shitty roads, it would warm you pretty good in the winter time (and in the summer time), and lastly it was a car and it could go places. I loved that car like no other.
Zastava cars were bashed in the media for politic reasons. It was a great seller and the opposition payed the media to bash it in the ground. Plus the wars didn't helped much either. NATO floored all the factories with the ground (among other things such as hospitals, schools, orphanages, basically random civilian targets since they couldn't do much damage the clever Serbian army.) If you really want to know the shittiest cars in the world are polonezi which are cars made in Poland, basically parts were falling off of it the moment you started driving it and it drove by itself no matter where you steer mostly it went into a first pole or ditch. It was that bad. You had to be a suicide masochist to love those type of cars. For me personally the Zastava Florida (Sana) was back then a true modern affordable easy to maintain and beautiful car. Too bad the company was destroyed they had lots of great concepts which later ended up in Germany most of the Zastava designers also work there today for Mercedes, Audi and BMW.
@@strah62 you guys are using any oportunity for political crap and blaming NATO for all your problems. Grew up. The thruth is Yugo and stojadin were among the worst cars ever produced. Period. There is not a single engineer from former so-called Yugoslavija working on development in any of mentioned factories, perhaps only on assembly line. And about Polonez this I agree, it was same crap as Yugo.
That is because you don't know worse cars. Trabant was way worse, some may argue is a much older design. First generation Seat Ibiza, was twice more expensive and not significantly better in any way than the Yugo. It was just a decent car for the money. They sold it new back then for the price you pay for the floor mats or tinted window option of a new car now.
My dad back in Yugoslavia got his hands on an American Export Yugo haha, it had neck rest and an electric antenna :D And that was seen as some "luxury"
My father once managed to pull 140km/h out of his old yugo. His description of the experiance was that it was shakeing so hard that he was fearing that it would start to disasemble around him like in cartoons.
It is basically an Autobianchi A112 from 1969 of which the Fiat 127 was derived. I once had an Autobianchi A112 base of 1970 that succumbed to rust after 15 years. Not bad and it was technically still very good with no major repairs in all those years. The A112 was produced until 1987-ish I think. 18 years. Not bad either. There were more derivatives from the Autobianchi. The Yugo 45, the Fiat Panda first gen and the Seat Marabella (and as said the Fiat 127). I crossed all over Europe with the A112. Even to the North Cape in Norway and the Alps in Austria. No big problems. I still long for the A112 Abarth. But I have no garage and a lot of other priorities.
My first car. Boy it was fun :) Yugo 45 from 1989. Many miles driven in one year. But it was awful, transmission was very bad, stearing also. But I learned how to fix problems that car had in basically every situation easily. :D
5 лет назад
It was my first car and it was decent at the time. It's kind of unfair to test drive it now, 30 years later. That car wasnt built to last a lifetime but you could drive it 10-15 years with not much issue. And, btw.. you dont just put wider tires on a car, that's just dumb
You tip the rear backrest forward then the whole seat rolls forward giving a flat floor the door lock buttons are left over stock period Fiat, I'm showing my age . That door card material looks like they now use it in i3s.
You should have seen when my friends mom used to pick us up from the club back in former Yugoslavia. 6 of us in there some of my friends were over 6ft tall.
Good video :D Am I wrong, or you can actually hear the tyres scraping the metal the whole time?? :D Reeeealy bad decision to put these on :D Hint: The rear bench does work, you just need to fold the top part down first, don't tug the seat itself. Side note: We actually have some of the world's tallest people here in the ex-Yugoslavia region. And I guess everybody's been on Yugo's rear bench at least once in their lifetime :D
You can find these in great condition for under 300€ in Serbia... It's not a typo, every 10 year old can probably buy this with their birthday money. Those 57 horses will take you to the moon and back and you're going to love every second of it!
Something that happened maybe you go the most dealers car in the world is what happened back in 1987. A woman drove a blue you go across the Mackinac Bridge Michigan USA. The Yugo went over the bridge. Source:Detroit Free Press& MLive Took Michigan State Police eight days to find her in the water under the bridge her hands are still in the steering steering wheel
I agree...many cars of the 1980s were worse..this car got a bad rap mostly from the auto rags who crucified it due to silly fit and finish issues. Meanwhile, most of those top rated 80s civics, corollas ,and sentras which cost over twice a much, have long since crumbled to dust. Even the Hyundais of that era got more respect. I havent seen a Yugo on the street in awhile, but its the same for its contemporaries as well. That said.....even the Yugo doesnt have as bad a rap as the American cars of that era. Ironically, nearly the only 80s cars left on the road (at least here in the Northeast) are those American cars everyone talks so much shit about. Funny, isnt it? The top rated Japanese cars are the ones that DIDN'T withstand the test of time. Basically Only German and American cars from the 1970s and 1980s lasted. And apparently the occasional Yugo....
Had one as a teenager. Parents got it for me as a birthday gift.....i cried.......parents thought it was tears of happiness, it was tears of fear! Ended up having alot of fun with the car and alot of memories. Hell i got laid in the front passenger seat....blew the engine parents made me put a new engine in, blew it again 6 months later. Got grounded everytime a part broke. I had shitty parents.
My granpa had one wich he had bought brand new. 260k and some change been reliable since day one. He was left stranded only once and that was because of a flat tire. I don't know why people hated theese cars so much... What did people expect from a 3995$ brand spankin new car
Guys this was a family car to about 10 years ago. I could a total engine overhall with brand new parts for 100 bucks and it would go another 100,000 miles (yes miles!). You could buy parts in a tobacco store. You could tune it for 200-300 bucks and double the horse power by installing a Lancia 1.6 100+ bhp engine. Swap the Lancia brakes and you got yourself a pocket rocket
My grandfather bought it in 1982 ,my father 1987 and finally they bought me my first car in 1989..off course Yugo haha...so almost off my car memories and trips from 80s childhood are from Yugo ... But we had one that was not Yugo but from same factory
as a eastern european, yes, there was no 150 hp cars for sale im afraid :) only soviet cars like volgas and zils had that power but you could not buy them
My first car, YUGO 45 model 1990, had it from '91 to '95. Four cylinders engine with 903 ccm delivers 45 hp. Sooo much fun, so easy to drive. Loved that sound.
Oh and one funfact: the GV plus model that's been used in this video is one of the better equipped version of whole production line. It comes with a back seat seat belts 🤤 i think i've never seen one before. Now lemme tell you a short story 'bout Yugo! Yugo was an a important part of our lives in Yugoslavia. It was considered as a "national car" and it was very affordable. We used to travel with him for over 30000km per year with out any big breakdowns. Yes - it was shitty interior and stuff but at least the engine was reliable and if you took a ONE regular car service per year, you had no problems afterwards. This little car was concessor of a Fiat 650 who was also considered as a national car but it was, waih a sec - an even smaller & cheapet car. When we was bored for some reason as a kids, we sometime used to do a complete repair of an engine that Fiat 650 had. And 650 stands for ccm (!?!). Yes, it was THAT small family car which was akso a car for about 20-30k km per year. Hope you enjoyed this story. Be well. Stay safe. Keep the distance. Greets from 🇷🇸 Serbia 🤘🙋🏼♂️
@@newjoflo6916 Correct, but I can still see it is a miserable, ugly, Nazi shitbox. If you want a classic economy car, you could get a Ford Falcon, Chevrolet Corvair, Fiat 500, etc. You don't need to indulge Hitler's ghost.
@@newjoflo6916 Not every German car is a Nazi car. Mercedes and BMW are not Nazis, they are just normal car companies in Germany. But, VW was founded by the Nazis before World War II. In 1945, the Nazi's lost control over Germany, so they just began making cars instead. In short, institutionally VW is a surviving component of the Nazi government of Germany.
I seem to be watching a lot of videos lately about weird cars my grandfather owned. He had a Yugo around my HS / college days. And kind of like Jason here, I didn't think it was that bad. One year I went with him and his wife to VA Beach, pretty much serving as the chauffeur for the trip. 400 miles each way in the Yugo. And it performed just fine, really. It was also the weekend Bill Elliot won the race that made him "Million Dollar Bill" - I remember us watching the race in the hotel.
I remember Consumer Reports tested a Yugo. Parts falling off a brand new example. The unusually sarcastic commentary was summarized by stating the Yugo was better off squeezed into a glass of iced tea than driving down the road.
My parents are from the Old Yugoslavia I really now appreciate the old Eastern European cars , they never exported here to Australia I think the only one was the Lada 4wd drive in the early 90’s.
You all say that the design is kinda cool for the time of the era, but you may not know that this same design, with minor changes, was produced from 1977 all the way until 2008, (yes, when ford fiesta 7th generation came out). They produced the same car under several different names like: Yugo 45, 55, GV, Zastava Koral 45/55, Koral In, Ciao, Tempo ect... The same design, same engine, and same poor material, and assembly quality stays until the factory finally went bankrupt.
Yugo not safe? For your information, sir, i survived a serious crash in a Yugo. I was sitting behind the driver, and when the other guy hit us, the force of the impact sent my head towards the rear window. However, since it was made of plexiglass held together by a plastic hinge, the entire window popped out so i only ended up with a bruise. 100% safe. In all seriousness now, i would have ended up bloody or dead if that window was made of actual glass that was more expensive.
Haha, funny video. I grew up with tons of Yugos around... They were considered low-cost utilitarian "you get even more than you paid for, but that isn't much" car. People actually did races with these cars, it was a lot of fun. The only mistake that you made: Yugoslavia was full of very tall people. One of my neighbours was a basketball player (Nakić for those of you remembering those times), way over 2m high and he actually drove Fiat Polski. Please do look up Fiat Polski. Also known as the "tetrapack" and as "peglica" ( "little smooting iron"). Let this sink in for a moment... He actually took out the front seat and sat on the back seat while driving. Watching him fold in and out of this car was hylarious.
Never knew that this car was so good. Our first family car, 1993 Polo 1.0 had 45hp and was basically the exact same design, just a bit better materials, just a bit. This was an awesome video!