When I first started dating my wife in 1992, she owned a Yugo. She didn’t tell me for 6 months because she was too embarrassed. She purchased it in 1991 for $500.00 and sold it in 1994 for $750.00. We never had any issues with it.

I bought my new Yugo in 1986, from Bryan Pontiac in Fayetteville North Carolina. I loved it. I drove to many US States in that car. Ultimately, after about 4 years it threw a rod and died. I was not disappointed one bit. My Yugo had a personalized license plate that read “YUGONE”. When it died it had over 275,000 miles.

I owned one in the 80’s for several years and that little car dramatically made my life a lot better those years! It was practically brand new, really reliable, great gas mileage and incredibly cheap to buy. I put a ton of miles on it and it never let me down. I know people make fun of them but I have nothing but good memories of my Yugo 🤙

I'm 48 and grew up in former Yugoslavia...While I was a kid, my father had ZASTAVA 101, my first car was a YUGO 45 and later my Dad bought a YUGO FLORIDA (very decent car at those times, actually), so this video brought back quite some memories 😁

I actually daily drive my 1987 Yugo here in Detroit, in the good weather. It's in decent condition. I absolutely love it and don't think I'll ever sell it.

I remember being jealous of the US spec Yugos. The 'Yugo Amerika' model was unattainable and luxurious, and we were so proud to be exporting a car to America.

It's so unfair that the YUGO was the butt of so many jokes, and here's another one! "When you get into a crash, You- Go!" Had one, been there, done that! Hope you like the pale gray plastic interior! On the other hand, I only paid $500 for it and I sold it again for the same money! Good resale value!

As a proud owner of a Yugo convertible, thank you for this vid, shows the true story of these lovely little vehicles. Mines a bit of a later model, specifically a prototype for a Yugo Ciao Convertible from 2003. but the point stands, over the last 20 years, first my mother and now me have gotten around 220k km out of the beauty with any engine issues yet to happen. Granted, I did do a full refurbishing and full maintenence on it a few years ago, she was getting there in age, but hey, most modern cars are made to run for 5-10 years, shes allowed to get a facelift after nearly 20!

From a Serbian perspective, this is by far the best and most detailed story of Yugo on UKposts. Cheers and keep up the good work!

We grew up poor in a large apartment complex. Most of us took the bus, and a few families had old jalopies. Then one day in 1985 one of the other kids proudly announced that her mom had just bought a brand new car. Not only that, it was an import and one of the first sold in the US. We all dashed to the parking lot and gawked at the shiny new Yugo, fresh from the dealership.

I still have my 1988 Yugo GVX that runs and drives great. No mechanical problems in years. It now has 66000 miles on the odometer and everything works well. Even the A/C.

I grew up in Croatia during the 80s. I remember the "Stojadin". You can actually still rarely spot one on the road here and there today.

We use to say "sometimes Yugo, sometimes you don't".

Yugo 55 was my first car. A lot of beautiful memories are attached to Yugo, so it will always be in my heart. Greetings from Slovenija, ex republic of Jugoslavija.

I have an uncle who won one of these in a raffle, he looked at it and asked if he could switch it for the second prize instead ( washer/dryer ). The washer/dryer lasted for a little over 20 years.

Great in depth story and history lesson. Keep up the great work. This channel is much more than only about cars.

Cheap common cars are much more rememberable than rare exotics. Great doc once again.

I was a proud owner of a “ticket me red” Yugo GV back in the late ‘80’s early ‘90’s. She was a fun little car, but as many who owned them know the materials that were used were not “automotive grade” in the least. Knowing this going in, I was especially careful with it. My brother and I even changed out it’s timing belt when due. Kept up on oil changes. Rolled the manual windows down when hot as the horrible dealer installed AC never worked. Rocked out to the tape eating cassette deck and dreamed of having cruise control whenever “racing” at 56 miles per hour on the freeway. The engine finally went kaput at 107,000 miles. That’s right. I got over 100K miles on my little Yugo! Once I even got a speeding ticket in it! Granted I was going downhill where the cop was positioned to nab speeders. I remember the judge smiling at me in court when I fought the ticket on the grounds it was a freakin’ Yugo therefore I couldn’t have been “speeding”. Lost that of course. Fast forward a few years and I ended up selling it to a collector for $500 cash. Complete with its blown engine. He was excited to get it. Showed up with a flatbed and hauled it off, title in hand. Thanks for this video. Obviously it dredged up some memories!! 😀

Great little documentary, true facts and nicely spoken. Thank you for not saying bad words and think positive of the car, many people drive them still like you mentioned. It was a great little cheap car. Greetings from Novi Sad.

The first car I ever drove was a yugo, we picked it up at an auction as a laugh when I was a teen, we became quite fond of it and was a bit sad when we sold it on

There's still a place in the West for an inexpensive, basic car.

My first car was a Yugo, and no that wasn't that long ago. It was in 2017. It's still a very common car here in Serbia. Parts are cheap. I actually loved my Yugo. Since then I've had 5 cars, from Nissan, to Opels, and by far my Yugo had the fewer issue of the bunch. It's not a great car, but it's not a bad one either .

Thank you for the video on Zastava car.

I just have to say that you are doing an excellent job. Very interesting and high quality content. I enjoy your videos. Thank you for that and greetings from Serbia.

Finally we get the full Yugo story! Thank you. Greetings from Serbia!

I currently own five of these in Ohio. One is still in great condition. This car is a great example of "prejudice prior to investigation".

I remember hearing when I was younger of a Yugo that was blown off the Mackinaw Bridge in Michigan during high winds.

This is a great chanel, very well researched and we are very lucky for the effort.

A mechanic friend of mine used to have a couple of these. He swore by them (not at them), and used to say they would last forever if you changed the oil on schedule and the timing belt every 30,000 miles. Most of the Yugos that died in the US seized up or broke a timing belt and wrecked the engine.

I had one brand new in 1982 and it was a very good little car. It coped excellently with a foot of snow when many other cars couldn't even get out of their driveways.

I worked at a Pontiac Dealership in Syracuse NY that sold Yugos. By the time I got there they weren't allowed to sell their leftover stock. That sucked as I wanted the GT. The running joke here was, "Yugo: You go as far as they go, then you walk." If maintained by their manual, yes, they would last a long time. I had one customer that was in his Yugo when he and his girlfriend were hit by a Semi truck. They got out relatively unscathed and attribute that to the car. They came to our dealership because he really wanted another. I felt bad we couldn't sell him one.

We had a Yugo for several years. It took our family on many holidays, we loved it.

Errata: The restyled Yugo was sold briefly in the former Yugoslavia in the 2000s (I said it wasn't sold). The Yugo was sold as the Innocenti Koral, not the Innocenti Mini. Tito's name was "Josip Broz". His nickname was Tito.

I was in Louisville Kentucky delivering an auto auction purchase to a dealer’s lot. My crew was late picking me up, so the dealer and I started talking. He grew up in Yugoslavia. I asked him about the Yugos, and his face lit up. While attending college, he was part of a group of engineering students that helped design the Yugo.

Thanks for all these interesting informations!

GREAT VIDEO, YOU DONE YOUR RESEARCH AND PUT A LOT OF WORK INTO THIS VIDIO, IT WAS COOL! THANKS!

“Why did the Yugo suddenly disappear?” History buffs: _Sweating nervously_

I was coming to mock this car, but I see how much it meant to so many of the commenters and I respect that so I'll give it a miss.

Very informative! Thank you!

This is a great video. Very good job.

My family owned a 1985 Zastava 101 GTL55 and we had it for 16 years. It never let us down. Ok, the quality was never too high but I believe British cars rusted far worse than Zastavas. We simply loved our "Stojadin" and still have very fond memories of it to this day. We treated it as a family member and I even celebrated its birthdays as a kid.😂😍

Wow!! My mother worked on designing the Yugo interior. I knew Bricklin...mom worked for him when they imported the Yugo. You still went super deep with info I have never heard. Fantastic job!! 👏☺️

Owned several including a 1.3 513gl that went like stuff. With my family, I also drove from Wales to Portugal in a 45 that I paid almost nothing for. Totally reliable, very thrashable and it used no water and no oil during the month's holiday.

In the mid 1980s I worked for an ad agency that was pitching for the US Yugo advertising campaign. Their slogan: "The little bear that gets you there." They didn't get the account.

I served in The Former Yugoslavia during the early 90's and these where the posh car, not quite the Yugoslavian built Golf but Zatstava cars where everywhere. To be honest, they worked better in the Balkans than here, they worked great in the extreme cold and rough road conditions up to maybe 50mph, after that you would be safer driving through one of the many minefields!! Peace Charlie 🇬🇧

The Yugo will always have a special place in my heart. I learned to drive a manual transmission in one when I was 13. My older sister had one and taught me how to drive it.

I had a 1976 Zastava 1100 in Poland. I bought it in 2001 as my first car. It was not the polish P model. Later on I bought and a Mediteran. I loved it, broke every time I drove it. Learnt pretty much everything needed to drive a car as a young driver - you broke it, you fix it (+make sure nobody knows).

Finally smone on YT who knows what he is talking about. This is precious.

You can still find Yugo in many countries in the Balkan, hell few of my neighbors still drive these beasts, which proves the point that every car if maintained correctly can have a long lasting live. Funny story: a few months ago there was a very big snowstorm in my city, my peugeot and my girlfriend vauxhall were ill equipped but the few Yugos blazed through the snow like it wasn't even there.

Gotta love them, "yugo here yugo there but you never go that fast". The best part about them was if you got stuck you could just get out and drag it out of the ditch or whatever it was. They were really light. I had one and it was actually quite reliable and a great commuter. Thing cost me like $250 in the 90's, never broke down on me once, sold it to a friend would still has it. :)

Thank you sir for telling that it isn't bad car ever, that deserve a litle respect. Good you tube clip. 👍

Great content. Subscribed 👍

Had two for my daughter's. 1987 and 1988. Both got them through high school and college. Very little issues.

That's quite a detailed account of the company. You must have invested days of research into it. Even I as a native of Yugoslavia did not know many of the things you mentioned. Here in Serbia you can still get a "decent" Yugo for about 200 euros and yes, it HAS served many people in good stead for years, at least those who maintained it. Yes, it's had its flaws but is far from the worst car in history.

Appreciate this excellent history of the Yugo. If you can believe it I drove one as a company car.in 89.I did not own a car but had a motorcycle at the time. This thing was so close to the road sometimes I felt like it was like riding my motorcycle with a shell

Astonishing quick review of a thing that we thought we know

another well made historic video. Well done mate. We had 5 Yugos over the years and they were doing exactly what customer should expect from them. Ofc you cant compare them with BMWs of their time as they were made for be cheapest and most simple entry level vehicles on a market. And what you said on video is very very true: they started breakind down for real because they were destroyed by owners who treated them badly while stroking their "cadillac" in dry gareage. We maintained them as any other car and never ever had issues. Regards from former Yugoslavia.

Thank you for this video. Greetings from a ex-yu country Croatia.

The Zastava Yugo 55 was also sold in the UK through Yugo UK dealerships as well as the 45 and Sana models.

Friend of mine had a Yugo in the late 80’s. I drove it a few times and aside from being underpowered, the main thing I recall is that the radio cut out whenever you put it in reverse.

I live in Macedonia, we still have Yugos on the streets, I actually learned to drive in one. We owned a 101 before the Yugo. They were simple cars, but they were ok, nothing like western or Asian cars, but not that terrible. They were easy to work on and spare parts could be found everywhere and were cheap. People did modify them a lot, used Fiat engines and parts and got very descent power outputs. There is a race series with Yugos and is fun to watch. There were general quality issues with Zastava cars, but the thing was that it varied. Some cars were great and had descent performance, and other cars with the same spec were less powerful and poorly made. So it was down to luck what you got.

My first car was a Yugo - well, bought for my use by my parents when I was 15 back in 1991. Used it for about a year till we moved to Hawaii. My sister made the joke of "You go, but the car doesn't." For the most part, that little car was pretty reliable, and as a challenge we actually had as many as 9 people (all of us teenagers) in it - and yes, drove it. It was also how I learned to drive stick shift, something I still use today.

"The smaller engine (the 848cc, zastava) was abandoned, as the engine was too weak". Do you think?? It's a friggin' motorcycle engine, size🤭. I just learned last week, about The Brickland, and how IT, went under. This probably, all ties in. Truth is, the Yugo was deprived of exact engineering, manufacturing. My neighbor next door had one, and when it broke down, it sat in the driveway for YEARS, as no parts were available. The joke went, if you got a Yugo, Yugo nowhere😄!!! Thank you for covering the history, and demise of this not 'forgotten' about, little auto👍!!

It didn’t really dissapear in Serbia, and I still have some great memories of me playing in my fathers Yugo Tempo! Lovely car!

I have owned 2 Yugos, a GV and a GVX if I remember correctly.. Loved them both. They were great little dirt road runners. If you took a corner too sharp and tipped it over it only took 2 strong guys to pop it back on its wheels and keep going. "Plucky" is actually a really good description for the car. If they were still available I'd buy another no worries.

Few will truly understand the off-road capabilities of this awesome machine.

I remember comedian’s joking on this 🎉. My favorite was : Friends don’t let friends drive Yugos:)

I had a chance to drive a Yugo Florida/Sana - apart from cheap plastics on the dashboard, it was not far off from e.g. a Citroen ZX of the time. They did get the exports going to various western EU countries but then the war ended it all.

I remember my dad got one of these as a courtesy car whilst his Saab was in the garage. Sitting in it, I felt a bit like in a box of Tic Tacs, with the same amount of rattles and possibly even less safety. It's a cute little thing though, despite its flaws. If I got the opportunity to buy one now, I'd snap it up!

Who else remembers Dan Akroyd driving a Yugo in the 1980s "Dragnet" movie?

In the Dragnet movie, 1987, starring Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd, the two detectives are punished for breaking their squad car by being assigned a Yugo. The Yugo is then flipped over by a bad guy who lifts it by its bumper lol

Yugo was an interesting car. I almost bought a used one. It was quite like my VW Rabbit. It had the coolest toolkit that included every light bulb and the tools needed to do just about any repair on the roadside. This particular car had structural damage so I passed on it, but I did get to drive it for a few days and actually liked the car.

I lived and worked in Kragujevac in the 1980's for Yugo GB i think this is a good video of the history. I really enjoyed my time in Serbia and would love to return one day.

I live in the u.s. and one of the bar owners in my town drives a Yugo frequently. It's the only one I've seen in years. Cool little car.

me as a owner of a 101 GTL 55, 620 and 435AK loved your video!

Wow, this is fantastic (as usual, so why am I surprised?)! I remember the hype regarding US introduction in 1985, but it seemed synonymous with "joke" from the get go. Considering this car was introduced in the booming mid-1980s and gasoline prices were nowhere near the forecasted "$5 a gallon" mark, the entry-level end of the market (and actually even below because under $4,000 for a new car was outrageous at the time), economy cars were looked down on. The mindset of the times was similar in Europe: good times and no cares, and the most popular cars here were imports particularly. And I think the car's origins may have worked against it. I knew enough that Yugoslavia was not hardline Russia or East Germany, but it was still behind the iron curtain; remember, this was the Reagan years and many had the attitude "better dead than red". And even if a potential buyer wasn't familiar with the history or politics of Yugoslavia, it wasn't a country known for its automobile industry, or indeed any industry really. This video is fantastic as I didn't follow its eventual demise, but of course I remember the civil war in Yugoslavia. I feel I got a very comprehensive explanation of the car, its development, and demise; I despise videos that have clickbait titles like "Yugo was the Worst Car of All Time". I found this video to be very sensible in a history of the car.

Yugo and JAT were admirable and unforgettable....greetings from 🇬🇷

My friends in Liverpool said the Yugo factory was built on top of a hill so no one could bring one back.

Neighbor bought a Yugo, we asked what the lines in the rear window were for. He said it was for a rear window heater - to keep his hands warm while he was pushing it.

I bought one of these for my daughter. Nothing fell off of it unlike the rear axle that fell off one of my Rolls Royces

Always liked the shape of the Yugo 45A & 55A. Ran one for 18 months, and as you say, maintained correctly, it was a reliable car that was easy to work on. It never let me down.

had one and Loved it.. as I live in Pa. where we get a lot of snow.. this thing was a beast in the snow.. and gave great gas Mileage, I owned a Repair Garage and often used it to push non running cars into the garage, even used it on weekends to push start 800-1000 HP Sprint Cars .. kept it well maintained and abused it at the same time.. Never had a Issue with it.. and the best part was the shifter was a lot like stirring soup so nobody ever wanted to borrow it..even seasoned standard shift drivers had problems finding the correct gears.. I had zero problems.. :)

The Yugo is remarkably similar to the Lada Neva (a 4-wheel-drive vehicle) - and other VAZ cars manufactured in Russia - especially the spare-tire over the engine and the transverse brace to support it. I "owned" a 2002 Neva, (it belonged to my son in Russia), and I helped maintain it whenever I was there. My opinion of the Neva was that it was a phenomenally engineered car. It was deliberately designed to be repairable and was originally designed to meet the needs of people in Siberia where many farmers and such were miles away from the nearest anything - so you could rebuild and repair just about any part with the tools and equipment a farmer in the middle of nowhere would be expected to have. Along with easy serviceability, it was a full-time 4wd vehicle that had a double gear-box with two levers. One was the standard 4-speed manual transmission and the second was a special transfer case that had two levers that allowed a super-low gear ratio and the ability to lock-up the transfer case for all four wheels when the transfer case was in low gear, so that no wheel would ever spin. (And you could just about pull stumps with it given enough traction.) For the period of time I drove my son's Neva, it was a *BEAST* and could go anywhere you wanted it to. I kept a tow strap in it and periodically pulled Toyota Rav-4s, Range Rovers and other fancy cars out of ditches and snow-banks. It was truly a beast car that was designed for rough service in out of the way places. The problem with the Neva wasn't the engineering - it was the slap-dash production that was insanely flimsied to reduce its price - though replacement parts were/are cheap and plentiful. It's important to note that the engineering was so well done that Chevrolet licensed a version of the Neva, (the Chevrolet Neva which is still sold in Russia), that was what the original car *should* have been, had the production been done right. As far as I know, it's still being manufactured and sold today and given the chance, I'd buy one in a heartbeat. I also owned a US version 1990 Hyundai Excel 3-door hatchback and - properly maintained, which is the key word here - you couldn't kill it. I drove that car everywhere and eventually sold it years later with 160,000 miles on the clock.

I remember selling Yugo at a Ford dealership in 1980. The coolest thing was the car would go with just the starter/no engine.

Zastava remains the only volume producer of a close derivative of the Mauser 98 rifle action so even if they don't make cars anymore they've got my thumbs up!

Ageing Wheels would love this. He still has a Yugo, albeit a heavily modified one....

I'm surprised the tidbit about the Yugo that the wind picked up and tossed off the Mackinac bridge into Lake Superior did not end up in this story.

Looked a lot like a Dodge Omni. I had a used Omni, had to go through the hatchback and could not change the radio stations but it was cheap and I loved the three speed stick.

The treatment of YUGO in the US was a shame really. Too nany forgot the old adage"you get what younpay for and in the late 80's the price of of a YUGO was less than that of a top of the line riding lawnmower!People and the press focused on whatbit was not rather than what it was!

My best friend was over the service department at Bryan Pontiac Cadillac Honda Yugo in Fayetteville NC and they were the first to install an A/C on a Yugo... Not even the factory had done it...

Super video.

5:42 looking at the competition then, it was a beauty!

Yugo marketing department: "He go, I go, YUGO!"

I worked on one of these back in 1990, it had transmission problems, what I liked about it, is the fact how much like a motorcycle the engine and transmission are, decent design!👍

I remember all the hype associated with their arrival in 1985-86 but by the mid-nineties you had better chance of seeing one in a junkyard than on the road. They're still around though; I saw one PA, a couple years ago. It definitely had quality issues but you really can't dismiss any car that has been running that long.

Thank you so much,making a video on such a legend here in Serbia

Hubnut has a Yugo Sana, non runner at the moment but hopefully it will live again. Quite rare I believe.

Nice, in-depth video. One of the guys at work had one. The main problem with it was the body hardware. One of the outer door handles broke, couldn't lock it, and some of the interior levers/tabs on control fell off. The main mechanical problem was getting a new starter. Poor guy got teased something fierce about it. "I go, we go, you don't go, Bob." Lastly, a young gal had a yellow one with vanity license plates, "WEGO"!

Bought a Yugo in 1988, Loved that car, small, cheap and solid in the snow

Great video, hello from ex-Yu Bosnia and Herzegowina 🇧🇦