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The Yugo is a subcompact car made by the Zastava automobile works in Kragujevac, Serbia and Montenegro, 40 miles south of Belgrade.

Between 1986 and 1991, while former Yugoslavia still existed, it was also exported to the American market.

The car's design was very similar to the Fiat 128, a popular model of the early 1970s, and was the product of a long-standing working agreement between Zastava and Fiat, a major Italian car maker.

Zastava still sells cars in many countries of Europe under both the Zastava and Yugo brand names. The Yugo models have included Yugo 45, Yugo 55, Yugo 65, Yugo Koral, Yugo Tempo, Yugo Cabrio, etc. Zastava has produced over 750,000 Yugo cars since the introduction of the series in 1980. Their Florida line of cars also evolved from the Yugo design.

History

Introduced in the summer of 1986 at a price of $3,990, it was by far the lowest-priced new car available in the USA at the time, and it sold very well at first. However, it soon developed a notorious reputation (that was not necissarily true) for being unreliable, and sales declined rapidly. In 1991, Zastava withdrew the car from the U.S. market when severe restrictions were placed on trade with Yugoslavia because of the human-rights violations of its then-current government.

Three models of Yugo were sold in the United States: the basic GV model, a hatchback version, and the Cabrio, a convertible. All shared a high-compression 67 horsepower (50 kW) engine designed by Fiat, which required the use of a high-grade motor oil designed for motorcycles to run properly. The failure of many Yugo owners to use the proper oil was one of very few of the Yugo's problems.

In the United States, Yugo developed a reputation as being very unreliable and dangerous. This belief, however, was quite inaccurate as it had passed (and is still passing) quality checks upon import into other countries. When it first appeared in the American market, it sold so well that GM and Hyundai declared it as a major threat, and started marketing campaigns to make the public think that this car was a waste and could not compare with their exponentially higher priced colleagues. False and wildly unlikely stories such as "it was so fragile that a pencil could be used to puncture the hull" started to appear.

A curious quality is that the Yugo, despite its reputation, is often described by owners as a very reliable car. Some individual Yugos appear to work fine while others are dogged by problems, suggesting that the Yugo's problems were caused not by design flaws but by poor quality control.

In a nutshell, the Yugo could be compared to many Eastern bloc products which were inexpensive to build.

Although the butt of many jokes even today, the Yugo, like other cars of the Communist era such as the Lada and East German Trabant, is a popular collectors' item.

The Yugo in Fiction

The Yugo's reputation as a lemon has survived in fiction long after the cars were still sold in the United States. It has appeared in the following works:

• Dar Dar (of the fictional band Crucifixion Junkies) - Florida Roadkill
• Inspector Gadget - Inspector Gadget (movie)
• Sgt Joe Friday - Dragnet (the comedy movie)
• Kate Malone - Catalyst
• The entire town of Verplanck, New York - Drowning Mona
• Poster in the movie Bow Finger

External links

• Zastava corporate site
• Yugo resources on the Web
• http://dmoz.org/Recreation/Autos/Makes_and_Models/Yugo/

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