Jump to content

Yugo


Buick35

Recommended Posts

On ‎7‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 8:51 PM, 32tatra said:

But this time she was driving a  blue Yugo convertible with a license plate that read " YUGO GIRL".  I saw that and said to myself, we need more girls like that!!!     

Probably because "GOGO GIRL" was already taken!!

 

Craig

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember a friend calling these "40,000 mile cars" - after that you junked them. It was a time when there were a raft of rice burners (Honda, Subaru,..) with 360cc engines (some kind of tax break) that gave a number a start made possible by the US government (remember a FIAT 124 sedan I drove that would buzz you to death over 60 mph but at 55 it was fine). Also we had the CitiCar made here in Sebring. Only car that failed a brake test by wrapping the caliper around the wheel.

 

And then there was the Renault Encore. Only rent car I returned because it overheated before I left the airport. (I like small cars particularly as rentals, had a lot of Hertz Pintos, but returned an Aztek because it was raining and you could not see out the back (no rear wiper)).

 

Finally don't forget Team Go: Hego, Mego, twins Wego. & sister Shego

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎7‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 5:36 PM, jeff_a said:

Now eligible for Hershey with the last coming out about 1992. The Yugo was a vastly superior car to a 1968 Subaru 360. Trying to say something nice...

 

The Subaru below was f/s @$3,900 on BringATrailer a few years ago. A former 360 owner quipped that you got the performance you'd expect from a 25 h.p. motor, but the dirt bike soundtrack almost made up for it.

 

1969 Subaru 360 Sedan

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Malcolm Bricklin was behind BOTH the importing of Subarus and Yugos!  

 

 

Ralph Nader never wrote a book about A car! It's been 53 years since the book was published, did anyone ever READ the book? It was aimed at the entire automotive  industry. ONLY chapter one cited the Corvair. And of course the NHSTA (a government agency that Ralph's campaign helped establish) published it's report in June of 1972 that exonerated the handling of the Corvair. ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/5/2018 at 8:22 AM, Steve Moskowitz said:

Gosh I hate to bring this up but alas, despite the bit of fun being a DeLorean dealer I also took a gamble on Yugo.  Sold a boat load of them.  ...

 

 Thanks for that info. I had never considered the lack of spare parts on the fall of the government.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...

After a complete search on internet on Yugo I find it sad and totally disagree with all the negativity!!  I had 2 when they were almost new and had very few to no problems.  There bad reputation is undeserved as they were built with a specific purpose and most of the problem came in when the public expected far too much from a car that was priced less than half of average.  Driven with some basic care, not raced, and realizing they were only meant to go so fast and they were great.  I am now stirring up memories and have 3 to include a like new 88 gvx. Currently totally restoring 88gv. A common sense car for comment men designed for a pupose

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah. They were the cheapest car in America during those years, but FAR from the worst. It was 1987! Apparently most of the people dissing them Online either weren't old enough to remember, or have forgotten what average cars were like in those days.

 

It's just a license built FIAT, 127 body on 128 mechanicals as I recall. I worked on a few of them back when they were almost new. I never thought they were bad cars.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/10/2018 at 11:44 AM, padgett said:

I remember a friend calling these "40,000 mile cars" - after that you junked them. It was a time when there were a raft of rice burners (Honda, Subaru,..) with 360cc engines (some kind of tax break) that gave a number a start made possible by the US government (remember a FIAT 124 sedan I drove that would buzz you to death over 60 mph but at 55 it was fine). Also we had the CitiCar made here in Sebring. Only car that failed a brake test by wrapping the caliper around the wheel.

 

And then there was the Renault Encore. Only rent car I returned because it overheated before I left the airport. (I like small cars particularly as rentals, had a lot of Hertz Pintos, but returned an Aztek because it was raining and you could not see out the back (no rear wiper)).

 

Finally don't forget Team Go: Hego, Mego, twins Wego. & sister Shego

Reminds me of the Less family, Help, Hap, Use and their sister Hope.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎7‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 2:36 PM, jeff_a said:

Now eligible for Hershey with the last coming out about 1992. The Yugo was a vastly superior car to a 1968 Subaru 360. Trying to say something nice...

 

The Subaru below was f/s @$3,900 on BringATrailer a few years ago. A former 360 owner quipped that you got the performance you'd expect from a 25 h.p. motor, but the dirt bike soundtrack almost made up for it.

 

1969 Subaru 360 Sedan

HA,,,

I bought one of these brand new in about 1968.

$999.00, The dealer would paint it any color you wanted for another hundred.

I crashed mine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/16/2018 at 12:05 AM, Frank DuVal said:

Malcolm Bricklin was behind BOTH the importing of Subarus and Yugos!  

 

 

Ralph Nader never wrote a book about A car! It's been 53 years since the book was published, did anyone ever READ the book? It was aimed at the entire automotive  industry. ONLY chapter one cited the Corvair. And of course the NHSTA (a government agency that Ralph's campaign helped establish) published it's report in June of 1972 that exonerated the handling of the Corvair. ?

I may be the only person who read Unsafe At Any Speed all the way through. In fact I read it twice. What a load of bull. Not many people know it was based on reading through GM's archives of complaints resolved and defective cars recalled and fixed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I  have a copy (found on the cheap book table at K-Mart) and have always thought he stared out to rail about the Volkswagon but found a safer target. Was not unusual, I recall Unca Tom doing a stoppie in a transaxle Tempest with both rear wheels tucked. He also does not mention that GM fixed the problem for the '64 model with a kludge and the 65's had a full IRS. Nader's book was published in 1965.

ps Guess I am number 2. For reading I prefer Stroker Ace.

 

nader.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I read it several times over the years. That's why I know ONLY the first chapter is about the Corvair.

 

Ralph was against all cars! 😉

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎6‎/‎29‎/‎2019 at 8:16 AM, padgett said:

I  have a copy (found on the cheap book table at K-Mart) and have always thought he stared out to rail about the Volkswagon but found a safer target. He also does not mention that GM fixed the problem for the '64 model with a kludge and the 65's had a full IRS.

 

 

I recall reading about the 1964 fix in Unsafe at Any Speed.  The book reported prior to 1964, EMPi, an aftermarket supplier, sold them. 

 

Craig

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I worked in a garage in the 80s we had a customer who commuted 150 miles a day in a Renault Alliance. Ran up over 300,000km (200,000 miles) in a few years. I couldn't believe it, but that car was serviced by the book. He came in every 3 or 4 weeks for an oil change or some other service. We had other customers who were meticulous this way and they also ran up incredible mileages without a breakdown or major repair. Usually Japanese or American cars. One customer with a Lincoln put nearly 500,000 miles on it, things were wearing out that never wear out like ignition switch or light switch. Another was given an old Toyota by a neighbor, had us fix it up and drove it for years including a coast to coast trip across Canada and up into Alaska. I guess any make can do it if you take care of it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/28/2019 at 9:28 AM, JACK M said:

HA,,,

I bought one of these brand new in about 1968.

$999.00, The dealer would paint it any color you wanted for another hundred.

I crashed mine.

 

That's funny.... just the thought of that thing getting up to crash speed 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, 30DodgePanel said:

 

That's funny.... just the thought of that thing getting up to crash speed 

 

Fell asleep (if you want to call it that) at the wheel.

Ran into the back of a parked milk truck.

I was about 19 and WAY stupid by todays standards. This was before MADD.

I had a 25 mile each way commute and figured the thing would pay for itself in time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In 1968 my dad bought me a 1960 Renault Daulphine for $50. The guy he got it from had traded a shotgun for it. I kept going through clutches. I was driving from northern to southern Illinois one weekend with my cousin and the temperature gauge started reading danger. I got it back home and took it to a mechanic who said there was a hole burned through the top of the piston. He got it running just good enough for me to sell it. I think I sold it for $200 to my cousins friend. I found out a guy in one of my high school classes said he had a 59 and wanted to race me but that was after I sold it. I kinda wish I had that car now. Greg.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Buick35 said:

To Jack,ever hear of DAMM? Drunks against mad mothers?

 

I think most everyone has wondered how we ever made it this far.

I'm glad I got over all that,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
On 6/27/2019 at 8:04 PM, Bloo said:

Yeah. They were the cheapest car in America during those years, but FAR from the worst. It was 1987! Apparently most of the people dissing them Online either weren't old enough to remember, or have forgotten what average cars were like in those days.

 

It's just a license built FIAT, 127 body on 128 mechanicals as I recall. I worked on a few of them back when they were almost new. I never thought they were bad cars.

The same could also be said about the Lada when it was sold in Canada from 1978 to 1995.   And the Yugo was marketed in the US from 1985 to 1991.

 

If each car had THAT bad of a reputation, they would not have lasted for that many years on the market.  In Yugo's case, it was the fall of the government, and subsequent bombing of the factory that put an end to the Yugo in North America.

 

Craig

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think what earned Yugo and Renault a bad rap was the same type of engineering used in both.

 

Not bad, by any means, but mediocre fit and finish, coupled with light duty engineering designed for less harsh drivers and climate.

 

What sold as a car to be relied upon for years and taken care of in Europe was sold as a cheap and disposable item in the USA, mostly down to demographics. 

 

Buy it, drive it daily until something breaks that costs more to fix than the car is worth, due to the dealers pulling out of the country. A 2 week lead time on a part in Europe would have been an inconvenient situation. At the time, in Yugoslavia that was still likely the case and seen as normal, to be expected. In the meantine just walk.

But, with people relying on their vehicle in America, 2 weeks to get a part in is a disasterous situation, so any failure of any vehicle is seen as a tragic situation and means to complain bitterly about the car/marque. Doesn't matter that you didn't look after the thing, just put gas in it and drove it like it was a Cadillac...

 

I've got a Renault GTA parked out back of my garage. It's a lightweight, nimble design with a good coefficient of drag meaning that 98 hp is actually quite sprightly. However, the one main flaw it has is a misunderstanding of the way it would be used in America. Again, home market it would have been a high power sports coupé with a torquey 2.0 liter engine. Here, it was a cheap weekend toy, and when the cambelt invariably perished at 40,000 miles afyer the 32,000 mile change was ignored- and took pistons and valves with it, the car was junk. Had Renault made the design non-interference a lot more of the cars would be on the road today but that killed them and firmly cemented their reputation.

 

Yugo seemed to end up the same way but more people remember them, mostly as the butt of jokes- much as Skoda, Vaz and a number of former Eastern-bloc marques churning out badly made, well engineered cars, or in the case of Lada, Vaz etc a 30 year-old Fiat design built with worn out tooling.

 

Bad cars? No, not for the price. Good cars? Not really, but you get what you pay for. 

 

Phil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I read something about the Yugo production some time ago, may have been in a Hemmings publication, but they talked about the deplorable conditions of the factory. And low moral amongst the workers. Im sure those guys were just putting in their hours with no sense of pride. 

 

On a side note, theres a movie 'Drowning Mona', dark comedy, pretty good. The entire town in upstate NY was a test bed for the Yugo and nearly everyone was driving one, including the police chief.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

At a used car lot on the edge of town
A liberal guy and a liberal gal
Buy a Yugo
And they drive with pride

Cause if there's one thing that this world needs
It's environmental friends who'll take the lead
In a Yugo

They say, "people don't you understand
Those suburbans are ruining the land"
But they'll wish they had a full size van one day
They point fingers at you and me
They say we're too blind to see
But do we simply use our heads
And choose another way?

 

As those small wheels turn
Fifty miles to the gallon
And their knees on their chest
They're gonna save enough gas
For all of the rest
In a Yugo

Then one day on the interstate
They suddenly lose control
They swerve to miss a baby duck
They're squashed beneath a produce truck
But they drove with pride...

And as the crowds drive past a little flat car
You know they saved a lot of gas
But they didn't get far
In a Yugo

And as they're trapped inside
At a used car lot on the other side of town
A liberal guy and a liberal gal
Buy a Yugo....

And they drive with pride...

 

Oh, yeah, brought to you by:

IMG_0674.JPG.3cdcf05813301e6dd2ccbb068a917386.JPG

Edited by 60FlatTop (see edit history)
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, PhilAndrews said:

I think what earned Yugo and Renault a bad rap was the same type of engineering used in both.

 

Not bad, by any means, but mediocre fit and finish, coupled with light duty engineering designed for less harsh drivers and climate.

 

What sold as a car to be relied upon for years and taken care of in Europe was sold as a cheap and disposable item in the USA, mostly down to demographics. 

 

Buy it, drive it daily until something breaks that costs more to fix than the car is worth, due to the dealers pulling out of the country. A 2 week lead time on a part in Europe would have been an inconvenient situation. At the time, in Yugoslavia that was still likely the case and seen as normal, to be expected. In the meantine just walk.

But, with people relying on their vehicle in America, 2 weeks to get a part in is a disasterous situation, so any failure of any vehicle is seen as a tragic situation and means to complain bitterly about the car/marque. Doesn't matter that you didn't look after the thing, just put gas in it and drove it like it was a Cadillac...

 

I've got a Renault GTA parked out back of my garage. It's a lightweight, nimble design with a good coefficient of drag meaning that 98 hp is actually quite sprightly. However, the one main flaw it has is a misunderstanding of the way it would be used in America. Again, home market it would have been a high power sports coupé with a torquey 2.0 liter engine. Here, it was a cheap weekend toy, and when the cambelt invariably perished at 40,000 miles afyer the 32,000 mile change was ignored- and took pistons and valves with it, the car was junk. Had Renault made the design non-interference a lot more of the cars would be on the road today but that killed them and firmly cemented their reputation.

 

Yugo seemed to end up the same way but more people remember them, mostly as the butt of jokes- much as Skoda, Vaz and a number of former Eastern-bloc marques churning out badly made, well engineered cars, or in the case of Lada, Vaz etc a 30 year-old Fiat design built with worn out tooling.

 

Bad cars? No, not for the price. Good cars? Not really, but you get what you pay for. 

 

Phil

Had a Renault in the late 90s. What a piece of junk. The car had a plastic radiator. Several issues with car, so I went to the dealer who originally sold the car to my mother in law and asked if it was worth fixing. He admitted the car was poorly engineered and advised getting what I could for it and move on. I called the car "Run? No"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, kingrudy said:

Had a Renault in the late 90s. What a piece of junk. The car had a plastic radiator. Several issues with car, so I went to the dealer who originally sold the car to my mother in law and asked if it was worth fixing. He admitted the car was poorly engineered and advised getting what I could for it and move on. I called the car "Run? No"

Once they'd bolted on an automatic transmission, air conditioner, power everything and all the fuel injection computer, coupled with emissions equipment, the poor little pushrod 1.4 was so over-stressed they'd either pop the radiator, head gasket or cook the block and crack it between cylinders 2 and 3. 

To run a small lightweight car built in the fifties, sure. 

To accommodate American roads (long inclines in hot weather, traffic) needed a much larger engine, something the Régie decided they weren't going to do. The 2.5 liter V6 would've been a good choice but it was already being slammed by the press after being fitted to the Delorean DMC-12.

 

Without all the frills and frippery they were capable cars but once that was added on, coupled with a disinterested workforce at AMC they weren't really a good car for this country. Funny though, they did well in Brazil.

 

Phil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, PhilAndrews said:

Once they'd bolted on an automatic transmission, air conditioner, power everything and all the fuel injection computer, coupled with emissions equipment, the poor little pushrod 1.4 was so over-stressed they'd either pop the radiator, head gasket or cook the block and crack it between cylinders 2 and 3. 

To run a small lightweight car built in the fifties, sure. 

To accommodate American roads (long inclines in hot weather, traffic) needed a much larger engine, something the Régie decided they weren't going to do. The 2.5 liter V6 would've been a good choice but it was already being slammed by the press after being fitted to the Delorean DMC-12.

One would have think Regie would have applied what knowledge they learned about engines after winning Formula One Championships with the Williams-Renault race car!!

 

Craig

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There have been two Yugos for sale in the Rhinebeck car corral in the past 6 years. Both were in pretty good shape, and one of them was spotted driving around the streets of town after the show.  Edit: this is the one I saw driving.

Yugo-vi.jpg

Edited by Billy Kingsley (see edit history)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...