Yugo – A “National Class” Car

Bob McElroy and Dejan Dramicanin

Yugo production at Zastava

With a license from Fiat and based on the Fiat 128 the first Yugo was built in 1978 by Zastava which is located about 115 miles from Belgrade, Serbia.  In performing research for this article it appears that Zastava  is looking for partners interested in buying or investing in our factory.  The link is the first one to come up if you google Zastava Yugo.  In the event you do not want to buy the company, it is definitely interesting to follow this story as it unfolds for your Automotive Tribune Editor.  The last Yugo was built November 20 2008.

Zastava badging on a Yugo in Belgrade

In November 2008 I took a business trip to Belgrade, Serbia to meet with an engineering company concerning functional and test parameters for an advanced EDR.  It did not take me long to recognize that there were a lot of Yugo cars on the road as I travelled the streets of Belgrade with Mr. Dejan Dramicanin, CEO of Bitgear Design Services.  In fact there were lots of models and I was continually looking for major and minor differences with the various models.  Dejan, knew his Yugo’s and I did ask some challenging, or was that dumb, questions.

Yugo's in the USA looked like this

In the 1980’s Malcolm Bricklin obtained the import franchise for the Yugo and it was not long before dealerships were up and running across the USA.  Malcolm sold his interest in Yugo America in 1989, before things collapsed.  It just so happened that I had a friend who had a dealership.  He ended up in the armored car business after Yugo collapsed, but that is another story.

Intially in the USA we saw the 1100 CC GV (Great Value) for $3,990 and the GVL with a Luxury interior.  Then came the GVX with 1300 CC and the last vehicle for the US was the Cabrio convertible because of political instability in Yugoslavia.  In the period film, Dragnet with Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd ended up driving a Yugo.  The memorable script goes like this:  Joe Friday — After losing the two previous vehicles we had been issued, the only car the department was willing to release to us at this point was an unmarked 1987 Yugo, a Yugoslavian import donated to the department as a test vehicle by the government of that country and reflecting the cutting edge of Serbo-Croatian technology.

Latest Yugo model from the front

Here are some comments from Dejan in Belgrade about the Yugo.  He was kind enough to provide his assessment and insight regarding the car.

Initial versions of Yugohad “single size” (square) light group on rear side (like “Yugo America”), and first improvement was addition of wider light group with rear-driving white light. There we many editions, from initial 900cc 45hp engine, famous 55hp 1116cc engine, 1.3L 65 hp … and also in shape, mostly by adding ridiculous plastic add-ons.  Final version of Yugo had maybe the ugliest aerodynamic kit in the industry (I think it’s sales started from 2002 or so) – so this is quite remarkable itself.

Latest Yugo model from the back

Yugo is definitely car with the character, since you never know how it will act.  Some of them run flawlessly for 150000 miles, some of them die after 10k miles.  Bad quality control, economic sanctions to Serbia during 90-ies, etc … made that each instance of Yugo (actually, the name of the car is Koral for a long time now, which means Coral – most likely because you can cut yourself on low quality plastic parts) has unique spirit.

Last production line Yugo from the front

Basically, as an engineer, I can say that Yugo is a good concept of “national class” car, since it provided that people can afford ride both in good and also in very tough times.  In addition, car is simple, and besides the fact that on average it is not very reliable, on each corner you have services and very very cheap parts. Also, it didn’t have some structural bugs, and to some extent it is not ugly car since it’s design has ambitions according to it’s price.  This makes somehow Yugo’s design to be timeless.

But the thing that I cannot understand is the position of steering wheel. It is almost parallel to the road, something that the body resists to.

Last production line Yugo from the rear

I had opportunity to drive several Yugo’s, first one in my driving classes, but luckily I never owned one.  Driving is specific, you have to keep engine in revving since it has narrow torque window, and you have to shift often – engine is not elastic at all.  Gearbox is unprecise, so the only well defined gear position is third (straight forward). On all Yugo’s you have to repeat clutch to get into second, but it is interesting that it can run into second with lets say 1 miles per hour and engine will not choke (good for classes of driving “use 1st only to start!”)

Thanks Dejan, I will never look at a Yugo in the same way again.  You are definitely right, the Yugo is A “National Class” Car.