We Drove the Worst Reviewed Car of All Time
2024 ж. 14 Мам.
1 527 389 Рет қаралды
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The Yugo is often described as the worst car of all time, but is it really?
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My uncle had one when I was a kid, living in rural Serbia in the 90's meant that this one Yugo basically kept 50-100 people and their homes provided with goods from the town. Flour, fruits and vegetables, sunflower oil - all of that in a Yugo, the little car that could. Hell, craziest memory was him transporting a couple of sheep in the back seat. I remember vividly how badly the car smelled, he just left it in his garage for a couple of weeks (garage was more akin to a shed) with windows down and the smell faded away. He also transported a fuckton of raspberries in baskets on top of the car, he had that extra thingy for transporting goods. Good stuff.
druze gde si ti ziveo leba ti hehehe vrh neke planine
@@muckiprovokator8496 u Vukovom Tršiću druže. 👍
ahahah. Top. Koja prica 😄
Didn't he pull out the rear seat prior to transporting the sheep? I transported a calf in my Datsun like that and my Mom and I did the same with a Dodge Colt. We pulled out the rear seat before hand, like four nuts, and then scooped out the poop with a shovel before putting the seat back in. Poor life is interesting that's for sure.
@@Parents_of_Twins i don't remember whether he did, but seeing a couple of sheep going "beeee" from a really small Yugo and my uncle in the front seat smiling like he had life all sorted out is a core memory. Poor life is interesting, that's a pretty good way of putting it. Cheers
There were TWO kinds of Yugos. Ones that fell apart and broke down all the time and ones that were of superior quality and rarely ever broke down. There was NO, "In Between". I owned one that practically never failed me, ever.
I had Yugo 45... Reliable, little one it was, tough as nut and with 0 big issues
I did as well! Never knew they were poorly reviewed. Great mpg, cheap, was a blast back in the day!
this thing much better than that vietnamese vf8 shit they drove earlier
Our was in the 1st category (those that love to be at the repairman's garage more then they love road), but I know a couple of Yugo owners who had no big issues (small issues were easily fixable at home anyway).
right, the difference was certainly down to some crews were better at building parts/assembly than others. If you got one inside the tolerances of the FIAT pattern car, you essentially have a FIAT. if not, well, you have this.
Yugo got my mama through an old school “the woman has nothing when she leaves” divorce. It was the only vehicle she could afford. Got her to work and back, and got us to school and the sitter. I cant speak an ill word about it.
as opposed to today "women get everything and more when she leaves" :)
@@yngfljm2277 thats why you gotta be careful. make sure you find the right person..not all are bad 🙏
@@yngfljm2277 thats not even true lol
@@sebastiangorka200 many such cases
@@yngfljm2277They get 50% of each other's property, assuming no prenups. Most women unfortunately don't have a dollar to their name. And that's exactly why it's fair that they get 50% plus child support if there are children. But they also are obligated to find jobs by the court in most cases.
Well maintained Yugo’s were generally reliable cars. I usually see beaters in all these videos. The shift linkage was a common issue that was easily resolved with a couple bolts added to that problem and significantly improved shift feel. The 1.3L drivetrain in the later Yugo’s was highly superior in power and performance as well.
I’m building a 1.3L with ITB’s and 12.5:1 compression. These things like to rev like crazy
Something else about American Yugo was that the cars were rushed unlike the ones made for Yugoslavia. The orders for the US were bigger so big they had to double the total factory production every year making the quantity control abysmal, after a few years it got better but by then demand in the US was low.
I think the only Yugo that I've seen here that was maintained came from jalopnik.
Not as much reliable as easy to fix on the go, and it has to be said that most breakdowns were not drive-impeding. :) Heating, windows, various small bits... but the engine, suspension, brakes and other critical stuff was reliable enough for the short routes needed on the home roads.
@@FilipCordas Malcolm Bricklin, who bought them for export to The U.S. was selling them so cheaply over here that the Serbian factory was barely making a profit. It's a miracle that any of them were road worthy in The U.S.
This was my first car. I bought it for $175 in 1992. 😂 Everyone at school loved that car, too. I was a legend.
At that time you could point to the prestige of the Yugo having appeared in the 'Dragnet' movie with Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks driving it
really?! damn.. I mean I would be jealous as well ngl
I'm from Serbia (ex-YU). My father bought one in 1992, almost new. It was somewhere around 4000 DEM (DEM - German Marks, I don't know exactly how much that would be in dollars, probably about 3000-3500. Back then it was several average yearly salaries, so a huge money for the time). It was our family's first car so we loved it, but honestly it was junk, it spent more time at a repair shop than on the road, but at least parts were cheep and everyone could fix it. He got rid of it as soon as he could, then he got VW Golf 2, and lived happily ever after. In the early 2000s when I was in a high school, many of my friends had Yugos. You could have one for couple hundred DEM and many people bought them specifically for the teenage kinds to practice driving (not me, I drove dad's Golf, lol). Today they are quite a rare sight even here.
You played Dungeons and Dragons didn't you?
@eriklarson9137 Not directly. I hung out with folks who did. I was a comic book nerd. 🤓
i love how someone managed to take care of the car for 30 years and donut fucks it up in ten minutes
So true
By not driving it 😂😂😂😂
Excellent point!
Can agree with this statement.
@@killerdeamonkingI have a better way of making your comment with much less effort. Errrr drrrrrr
Here are some Yugo jokes, they are originaly in Serbo-Croatian, so i hope it doesent get lost in translation: -Why does a Yugo have a rear view defroster ? Because yo dont get cold hands in the winter when you push it. -Yugo is a 5 person car, 1 drives, the other 4 push it. -What do you call a Yugo with a flat tire ? Totalled. -How do you increase the value of a Yugo when you sell it ? Leave a full tank of gas. -Whats a difference between a Yugo sport and a regular ? The sport ones driver is wearing Nikes. -How does a Yugo go faster up a hill ? You kick out the passengers. -What do you call a Yugo on top of a hill ? A miracle. -What is a difference between a Yugo and a police station ? You are less ashamed of exiting a police station.
To adapt a line said about the (even worse) Trabant, the next model year Yugo will have dual exhaust pipes. It will make a fine wheelbarrow.
whats a yugo + a hyundai? a yu-dai!!! (you die)
What do you call a Lada/Skoda/Yugo at the top of a hill? "A Miracle" What do you call a Lada/Skoda/Yugo at the bottom of a hill? "Typical" What do you call a Lada/Skoda/Yugo halfway up a hill? "Hopeful"
im from the usa. that joke about the rear window defroster would work for the car brand Ford lol
Some of these - the rear window heater, the full tank of gas (or 50p in the glove compartment), the top of the hill - are also jokes we used to make about Skodas in the UK in the 80s and early 90s 🙂.
Fun fact: Zastava makes some of the finest AK-47s on the market
look at what other vehicles he makes. that factory is a military technology factory. they have amazing off-road vehicles but unavailable to civilians
A guy goes into an auto parts store and asks "Can I get windshield wipers for my Yugo? The guy thinks for a second and says "That sounds like an even swap"
How are you verified?
This is an under appreciated comment
Auto parts guy got finesed
isn't that a Trabant joke?
@Toydota yeah wtf 😂 are we the only ones questioning this lmao
I’m so proud that you actually reviewed a Yugo. As a Serbian, this warms my heart so much, generations used the Yugo and people loved it. Even today you can see people driving them, and you can buy them for $50 in some cases. Cheers guys!
wish i could find one here in the usa for $50 cause i would drive the snot out of it.
@@killerdeamonking importing one from Serbia should be like $200 bucks if you find a charter flight with enough empty seats hahaha
LMAO , fun fact is i would even pay the $200 provided the car has been taken care of and isn't a rust bucket. Sadly its never that cheap cause there are other fees to pay like paperwork and so on so you would be looking at roughly 400 or more. which at that point isn't worth it. @@MrMartin48705
I’m surprised at this. I thought people told me Yugos are trash, at least in America… how the heck can they sill run in 2023?!
@@yungboicontigo9278 Yugo is badly made, but it was manufactured till 2007. there were even models called EFI60 with 60hp (stated by Zastava). In ex YU countries people still drive them and actualy like them. there is even a racing cup just for Yugo, and all of them are factory sport spec (kind of). Those racing ones are actually quick for what they are. And probably the best one is with 1.3 engine from a Fiat Tipo. Most of us learned to drive on a Yugo and if you can drive a Yugo you can drive anything (because it actually is a shit box from factory but we love them)
I remember when my brother owned and drove a Yugo haha. He modded it to have a motorcycle muffler just to make fun of all the guys who do that shit to compensate for what they don't have, which meant you could hear him coming from a mile away, LITERALLY. It was the funniest and coolest thing to me, because we'd be waiting for him to show up in our house, and you'd know when it was time to finish anything you needed to to get ready, so you could get outside and wait for a few minutes if you wanted to lol. Hell, I remember how excited and giddy I always got whenever I heard it from that mile away, and would sprint around the house yelling "Mario's coming!" Good memories.
I worked for Delta, there was a large YUGO following. They were cheap commuters. One of the guys needed to replace the exhaust. Party date was made. They threw down and old mattress. Pulled the mirror and rolled it on it's side.
Oh u mean roll down the window panel😂..i having brain collision to imagine why they pulled down side mirror like pulling ears😂😂
@@Vongreimbf109i think he meant removed the side mirror from the door, so it didn't get crushed when they rolled the car on to its side
The best bumper sticker I ever saw on a Yugo “If you hit me, we both die.” 😂
Are you sure that wasn't on a Pinto? 😂
@@robertfaulkner7152 I'd bet that sticker was created for Pintos
@@jamescarter3196 Goes to show that memes, like stickers, can be applied widely.
@robertfaulkner7152 or a first gen Fiero?
@@jamescarter3196 it was... There was another bumper sticker back in the day and it said "It takes 1,836 bolts to hold this piece of shit together and takes one loose nut to scatter this all over the freeway" 🤣😂🤣
Day 400 of asking James to do an Up to Speed on his Dad
400 let's gooo
They won't do that lol I know 😢
Day 1 of asking for the same! Come on James, you’re cool, but what about MR. Pumphrey? Lol.
Never forget when our hero was mentioned in a video for a keeps ad 🙏🙏
I'm not sure Malcolm Bricklin should be considered the grandfather of amazing cars.
My dad had an USA market Yugo, but he tuned it, lowered the suspensions, tinted the windows and everything, and it drove up to 180kmh, and also many people had yugos in my country and they had even travelled with them, going to vacations to other countries so the yugos weren't that much of a fail, and as another guy in the comments said, you can fix it yourself on the side of the road😂
Money put yugo 🤔
I'm from former Yugoslavia and this car is known here as the AK-47 of cars. Basically you can abuse it to all hell and it will still work (granted with some DIY repairs). Cheap piece of shit that refused to kick the bucket permanently. It's a magnificent car in a way. I instantly recognized it from the thumbnail and chuckled thinking "yeah, it would be the Yugo alright". Just to highlight the experience of riding a Yugo is, there is a comedic sketch video in Serbian. A hillbilly gets pulled over by police. When they try to measure his alcohol level, he nearly breaks the national record. The cops ask the guy if he is crazy and the guy just shrugs and responds "the car is made by design to be driven drunk, it's too stressful sober". Also the transmission bit, everyone jokes here you didn't need to go to the gym if you drove a Yugo, the transmission was enough of a workout in itself and you needed some serious strength to drive it.
I’m from the Former Yugoslavia and this car got my family through the war, from 1991 all the way until we came to the United States. I will buy this car from you when you are done with your videos. Also, we were never under the influence of the USSR. We were a unique communist country where private companies still existed and social programs worked. We just didn’t know how to get along with each other.
You don't need to bother explaining how things were back then. To the world we will allways be "once communist/socialist==USSR===bad/evil/s***"
Sadly many people these days still cant get along , not much has changed.
Yup
We absolutely were under USSR early in, but Tito said fuck that.
@@T3GMedia sorry brother, we never were. We were basically enemies while we had a king, and Tito took power in 1944. After that, the USSR had a huge issue with our relationship with the western countries. We didn’t get along with them during our growth period.
You guys should come over and drive mine LOL
if it runs that is
Aaay jameskii's here, was just about to mention your Yogo, all I could think of while watching this video was your one LOL
@@PedroF9_ yeah about that...
yes i love you ive seen your videos about it
you go it stays
I love how in the movie Drowning Mona, everyone in that small town drove a Yugo. As my aunt would say, "With a Yugo, You Go nowhere"
Let me explain something, I drove this lemon for 5 years, loved it really, firstly it runs on fumes,0 to 60 eventually, you could drive it with the second gear broken, the users manual came with the bus schedule because it broke like all the time, the back glass had warmers so you can push it in the winter, the car was made to rival wolksvagen golf, which the car failed miserably, but hey after you got to know your yugo you would be able to fix it yourself in no time, mine had a manual switch for the cooler because my thermostat broke and that was fine 😂
In high school, my good friend had one of these in white. One night, when taking a lefthand turn, his entire fuse box fell out from underneath the dashboard. Quality workmanship!
Tebra to se i meni desilo pre 20 godina na ns putu na krivini kod altine samo se ugasio🤣
My first car was a pumpkin orange '76 VW Rabbit with a broken speedo. I got pulled over by a stater on the freeway when I was behind a Yugo. He said he clocked me doing 82 in the 65. I told him that was impossible since I was drafting the Yogo in front of me, and science says there's no way a Yugo could reach that speed so his chrono was wrong. He actually considered this before ticketing me.
Yugo's fuse box is not under the dashboard, it's located in the engine compartment so you're full of s..t
In my friend's Yugo, there was definitely one under the dash. It might have been an aftermarket mod/move. I have no idea. I just know what I saw with my own two eyes. Dick. @iggyiggy9700
That sounds like a British thing ....
I drove Yugo for 7 years with 0.904 L engine ...45hp ....it was always braking down but you can fix it yourself by the road....not like cars this days It was a crappy car but lots of fun. Thank you for this episode , cheers !
Ah yes, little mean 45! Loved mine so damn much!
yes and probably the transmission doesnt cost 12k$ like my pos toyota
@@retrocompaq5212maybe 50$ and couple of beers 🤷🏻♂️
I had it, it was ok
Today cars break down at random then you have to call and pay an dealer road assistant to unlock your car with a single click... f--k modern cars, they can go back to hell where they comes from. I have a Yugo and Sana, nothing wrong with them thanks to proper maintance. If you break you old cars that is on you. And yeah you can repair old cars on your own it's up to you to put effort in but like I said with proper usage and maintance you don't need to repair jack ...
NATO bombed the Yugoslavian factory in the 90s and the Yugo disappeared forever.
Thank God
@@TheMrMarswe need those yugos now more than ever you fool
Yugo is the quintessential DIY mechanic car. It WILL make a handyman of you, believe me😅
True
The yugo had an optional rear defroster which was really good for keeping your hands warm when pushing it
that joke is probably older than you are ;)
Instead of an owner's manual it's got a bus schedule...
You forgot to mention the option of a painted glove box !
Actually it was a standard equipment !!!
As a Serbian, who learnt to drive on this car, all I can say that experience was wery useful. I can basically drive any car after surviving 4 years in it. BTW- floppy transmision is a feature, not a bug. It is part of curriculum for construction workers. When you operate its stick shift like an ace, you also get a licence for all construction machinery handling 😂
I'm from Serbia and I love this car. Never drove it, but my uncle did when I was a kid, we went on so many road trips in this thing, it was awesome. Of course it's not very safe or well built, or comfortable, but it was cheap. And really easy to repair, a lot of people did minor repairs by themselves, and you can still find parts anywhere. If you live in a much richer country, you might not understand, but for us (especially in the 90s) it was a special vehicle, and we're proud of it.
This was a perfect engineering solution for millions of people when there was none. Absolutely agree and a good thing to keep in mind with our first world reviews. ;-)
All of the ex-YU countries loved and still love the YUGO, pozdrav iz Makedonije komshija!
So, you have no actual experience with something...but claim to love it. And you have no actual experience repairing it, nor any real concept of repairs, but you vicariously claim to know about the ease of repairs. That's not how any of this works.
@@rustler08but he had experience with it, just never drove it.
🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶 love serbia
I bought a new blue one with ac in 1988. Never had any problems. Drove it for ten years.
I think each Yugo was story on its own. Mine had problem with gear shifter, the stick was getting stuck. Couldn't change gear. Also was shutting down when it wanted, say on a upward piece of road, which was scary. Windows weren't really air proof. In winter, wind was blowing from multiple sides. Also, had a problem with starting up the engine. It didn't want to start... :) But was fun. Nice video. My father brought it to the junk yard, sadly. I really like the simple design of it, overall. If it had relieable enigine and transmision, and mehcanical parts, it would have been a hit!
Now it needs to be tuned up, and kitted out, and made in to the best little Yugo that ever existed.
I was just saying that, waiting for a #2 episode of them doing just that.
would unironically love that. I'm all about them quirky cars.
To compete with AgingWheels. Donut "Tuned" heavily customized vs Robert's Superstock Yugo.
@@NeojhunAWs Yugo has been sold eons ago.
@@gustiwidyanta5492Because it was built by an asshole.
My grandpa had 3 Yugos at one time. 1 he drove and 2 others for parts. The one he drove from what i remember wasnt horrible. He knew a guy in Florida that had 200k miles on one. I guess you got what you paid for when you bought a Yugo
Just like the machine from Contact: Why buy one when you have have three...for thrice the price?
It wasn’t horrible but you needed 2 cars for parts ? That’s an oxymoron
@@UTP_ENT he was also kind of a car hoarder. He never rly took anything from the other two from what I remember
Only car you'd wind the miles FORWARD before you sold it, to prove it had worked
To be fair, the warm Florida weather probably helped matters a bit. On the other hand, the humidity couldn't have helped.
I've had the displeasure of working on a couple of these fairly extensively. The damned things never wanted to stay running. Between the carb trying desperately to fall out of tune, the fuel tank trying to feed the engine rust, the random electrical ghosts, and the body panels and interior literally falling apart for no reason, these things were a nightmare. 😂
I had one of these in the UK in 1992 while at Uni. The worst part was the conversion to right hand drive, as the wipers were still set up for left hand drive. Otherwise I had no problems with it at all. It would sit on the UK motorway at 75mph quite happily. Also started in any cold weather, with a quick cold start spray into the air intake. Was an awful pea soup green colour though
75mph "quite happily".... 🤣 Yeah... sure it did! Sorry, my VW Passat with a 1.8T goes on the highway "quite happily".... there's no way you weren't revving the nuts off the engine to maintain 75mph. Not even my wife's aunt's SX4 can maintain it's speed on the highway without down shifting.
@@jasono2139what? I'm running 85 mph in a Ford escort with 80 HP, 2700 rpm with no downshift required even up hills. Gonna cry?
@@bldontmatter5319 lies! 🤣 Your Esort doesn't even have the gearing to do 85mph at 2700 rpm!
@@jasono2139, you may know some stuff, but not it all. Yes, it ran happily without being ragged to the limit. took a while to get up to speed, sure, but was nowhere near the red line
@@ChrisBrown-qf5gh I never said it was... but it certainly wasn't cruising along at 2,000 rpm in top gear. Most naturally aspirated 4 cylinders have to run at least 3k to maintain their speed on the highway, if not more.
There is only one thing I need in my life now. A Super Yugo. A Yugo with as many flaws as possible corrected while looking as stock as possible with a 0-60 under 10 seconds.
This is immediately where my mind went to. I'd love to see one of these upgraded.
@@mechanomics2649just search for yugo nürburgring. theres a guy from belgrade that went all out on a yugo
You could probably do that pretty easily, depending on your location. I'm from an ex-yu country and it's pretty common in the racing scene to trick out a yugo for the memes
My father and his friends drove rally modified yugos here in Yugoslavia in the 80s. There was quite a rally scene for yugos, stojadin (zastava 101) and fićo (zastava 750) in yugoslavia. Search for yugo (jugo in serbian) rally, you can find a lot of videos from races.
@@mechanomics2649 if y want , i can send a few links with stock yugos racing , and upgraded one 😅
There used to be a junkyard in Las Vegas with dozens of yugos. Had a friend that was really into them and did a bunch of upgrades since iirc it is Fiat based. He got a parking ticket once and the ticket said "vw of some kind"
This car actually saved a lot of lifes in the early 90´s.
Great video! I like that you went into the history a bit. Even Top Gear when they featured eastern block cars was just like "These thing suck! These are bad! Boo! So bad!". Never went into detail about why they were the way they were.
In the name of all Yugoslavia nostalgics, THANK YOU for this video! You guys in the US could never understand what this car meant for us, but I'm really thankful that you tried to put it into context.
The yugo wasn't a terrible first try. If Yugoslavia had survived, it might have been something to build from.
Funny thing , here in my country (Costa Rica) , we joke around saying that a Yugo is a car that will last you your whole lifetime , cause once you buy it , there's no way anybody else is gonna buy it off from you even if you are selling it cheap 😅. Haven't seen any of those in the past recent years though , no wonder why !
Lol i would of been happy to buy it cheap . Those little cars get good fuel economy. Cars in the USA er just too big and get no more then 32 - 38 mpg . the 90s geo metros that use those same engines the yugo had are getting 54mpg and if you do engine mods and make the car weigh nothing you can get up to 72mpg. The metro has an upgrades transmission of hat the yugo would of had so is pretty reliable. Issue is the frames and bodies rot off of them around here.
I've drive Yugo 55 for 10 years borrowed from my uncle, without single issue, my uncle drove it over 20 years before me without any issue. It was Yugo 55 for USA market but my uncle bought it in Serbia brand new. I have returned it and my brother sold it after few years for like 700USD back in 2014. Technically, car was 35 years old when sold and it was in great condition. Top speed was like 90mhp and it was able to accelerate from 0-60mph in 14 seconds, ofc it was have 5 gears transmission installed as an additional accessory when bought brand new :D The one and only issue it have, it was braking disc and pads replacement once at while like every 5 years, just make sure to have fresh oil, fuel filters, oil filters, air filters, belts and everything connected for an regular small service after 10000 miles and you're good to go :D
I attended a consumer survey back when the Yugo first came out. We didn’t drive the cars but examined them in detail. Two things that stuck in my mind were the runs in the paint and the seats that seemed to be made out of cheap terrycloth beach towels. I did use some of the money from this gig to buy a copy of the very first issue of Automobile Magazine. I wish I still had that mag…
I had a 1989 Yugo!!!! Honestly, back in the 90's got 75 mpg, was like a sardine can, mine was rally blue. Best $1500 I ever spent. Only ever had to replace the starter and a rim, which was hard to find and only a 12" or 13" rim that I found at a wrecking yard. Glad you reviewed it!
They should have leaned into the mpg in their advertising because I remember seeing ads but not any focus on that, even though I do remember Honda touting 39 mpg for their little buggy-type Civics around that time.
@@jamescarter3196 I agree, but this was when regular unleaded was only $.99 a gallon and I live in SF bay area. Except for the miniscule size and cheap fabrication of the body, literally a door+ the panel was about only a couple inches thick, always felt quite precarious driving it, especially at high speeds. Given my youth, the fact that I could buy a relatively new car for so little, it wasn't my biggest regret in terms of a car purchase. I upgraded to a Ford Escort. Both were manual transmission, but the Escort didn't get nearly the mpg of the Yugo, though idr off hand what it was. I was surprised how far I could drive on $5 in gas, I'll never forget...
Having had a 900cc Fiat 127 and loved it's 'thrashability' I bought a brand new Yugo in 1984, here in the UK they were doing a killer deal where you could part exchange ANY car and get £1200 off of the price meaning the car cost me about £2400 on the road with a 3 year warranty, it was great and came with body coloured bumpers, spoiler, sunroof, alloy wheels and it looked really sporty (it was 1984) I loved it until one day on a 3 lane highway i was in the middle lane doing about 70, I had to do a real emergency stop, the thing did a 180 in the blink of an eye, we didn't hit anything but ended up looking at the front of the car behind. I took it to the dealer who took it for a test...he came back white as a sheet and took the car in for repair, apparently there was a master cylinder fault and it had no rear brakes at all, sadly after hitting a kerb in the ice and snow the car was bent out of shape and 'mysteriously' caught fire later that evening. there ended my Yugo experience but as a thrashable little car it was great and very cheap to run. If you understand the appeal of roaring about in tiny Italian cars then you'd love the Yugo.
This was such a nice comment to read through, I imagined every feeling and emotion you went through over the times for some reason.. hope you now too have a fantastic modern trashable car and are as passionate as you were back then! Take care..
Oh my! One of those “It-nearly-killed-me-but-it’s-a-great-story-now” things. Just watching this video had me in knots when the car died. Certainly didn’t even seem safe to test on the freeway. These guys live on the edge.
@@SmartPracticeSuccess I feel like since we didn't know any better back then, we took it as normal, but looking at it from today's modern safety standards we were risking our lives driving these cheap cars. Does make for a great story though.
In early 1985, I purchased a 1979 Fiat 128 for $1,300. VERY similar to a Yugo. Drove it for 9 years collecting approximately $3,000 from insurance companies whose policy holders ran into it on a regular basis. That thing was a magnet for other cars. Finally, in December 1993, the rear end was "explored" by a 16-year-old driving dad's Ford Explorer. His bumper went right over the Fiat's hefty aluminum bumpers (mounted on shock absorbers) and the trunk became the crumple zone. His insurance company totaled out the car handing me a check for $1,600. If nothing else that "car magnet" was a money maker. By the way, at the time my wife was a waitress at a Minneapolis restaurant that closed at 1:00 a.m. That car NEVER stranded her in the parking lot.
Any car that was engineered in less than optimal conditions and allowed the average person a new found sense of freedom is in my opinion a success. If you look at the cars of Formula Easter and other various former Soviet Bloc countries they made something out of nothing which is quite impressive.
I remember seeing a modded Yugo with a tube frame, tubbed rear slicks, a NOS'd 351 and a BIG shiny wing. Years later I still lol at the thought of it.
I saw one prepped for rallying in the early 90's on display in my local mall, for some reason. All my friend wanted the Countaches they saw on the posters. I wanted that Yugo.
Wait, I think I saw that myself at some point. Like in a magazine. I'm pretty sure that's what I saw cause my brain got all tingly when you said NOS and BIG shiny wing.
Sounds like a High Low challenge series to me. Except it's Low and Ridiculously Low
i can't even imagine the amount of time and effort that went into making that car. still the thought of that is hilarious
had a guy local to me with a tubbed, winged yugo with a roller 406 chevy in it. stoplight to stoplight you didnt wanna mess with it.
When you learn to drive on a Yugo, you can drive anything afterwards. I learned when I was 7-8 I think. Good times, man
Balkan guy here and you'd be surprised how many Yugos are still on the roads over here even today. Throughout all of former Yugoslavia people still drive them and they are sturdy and reliable. It's still a bad poor person's car and a sign of how poor our societies are today, but this car is a memory for many of our parents and grandparents and heck, even us born in the 90s.
I had one for awhile in Croatia. It was shit, however, parts cost less than beer and you could work on them pretty drunk. Super simple to figure out and quickly figure it out. This one does seem to be rougher shape. In total over two years i was only into it like$400 Cad.
Justin is slowly becoming my favorite presenter on Donut the dude is hilarious.
For sure!
They're all good, to be honest =)
@@fridaycaliforniaa236fair play
Its a tough call they are all hilarious
@@fridaycaliforniaa236 I didn't say the others weren't, just saying he's becoming "MY" favorite
You guys should do a Yugo build. Engine swap, transmission, suspension etc.
Second.
i genuinely thought this is in their plan for the car. lol...
tbh I'd like to see some engineering improvements for the dash and crumple zones, but would that even be a Yugo at that point?
@@edherdman9973 The Yugo of Theseus?
Would love to see an LS swapped Yugo.
It’s first year in America, sold more than the Volkswagen Bug did. America wanted a small cheap car to drive. Bill Clinton bombed the factory. I met a few mechanics from Greece, they said the Yogo was extremely popular at the time overseas. I had one, no issues. A truck hit me in the rear. The insurance company totaled it.
Very funny review. I did actually test-drive a brand new one in the 80's. The plus point was it made the Lada and Skoda(with rear engine) look really good. I did not buy one
Funny thing about the Yugo is that I take it to car shows and it gets more attention than any Ferrari or Lambo 🤣 EVERYONE wants to sit in it.
Because of Pinafarina design.
Well, Lamborghini and Ferrari are usually the first thing that comes to mind for fancy supercars, the Yugo ain't fancy, but I'd assume seeing one that runs properly is probably more interesting. There's over a 35% chance that if you talk to someone that has money, they have a Lamborghini, Ferrari, BMW, or Mercedes-Benz
@@MarkoCiric I mean, it's not ugly. Certainly a pretty little box and I love those alloys, they're gorgeous.
If you've got a clean one you should take it to Radwood they'd go nuts for it.
HAHA NICE!
My neighbor is a very wealthy men and he still drives the same Yugo I remember him having 25 years ago. It's probably even older than that. Mad respect to the old guy.
I would love to see the inside of his house. Probably got the best television from like 1984 and a pop-top VCR. I used to have a neighbor who was like 65 in 1980, and he was active with fixing his house and keeping his yard nice, and the inside of his house looked like a prize gallery from an early-'60s game show.
Yugos have a timeline defined by their civil war. By 1992, they weren't sold in North American markets any more.
They're actually good cars if you properly take care of them. Communist cars are generally very simple so they're a joy to work on them and repair almost anything. I've owned a Dacia 1310 for some years and although some things broke down, I could fix them right on the road (considering I had spare parts in the trunk), so their reliability doesn't stand for their ability to not break down, but the ability to be able to fix it quickly anywhere with simple tools
@@milesromanus7041well but this is not just an average communist country.. Yugoslavia was actually a mixed-economy state
@@jessebrook1688 oh hell nah you didn't just call it civil war 💀
I wonder if they'll bring it back in another episode and beef it up with power Would love to see that Still, glad the ol' Yugo got some attention, great video!
Yugo'N-B- walking when "driving" a yugo! 😂😂😂
One of my best friend's first vehicle was an '87 Yugo', bought in 1992. We once packed it with 4 friends in total and **TRIED** to get the needle to 100mph. It simply would not crack 97mph and it had taken 9 miles on the highway to even reach that. 😂 Good times, right? I also remember when his grandparents bought him a steering wheel lock for it ("The CLUB", remember that one!) and I told him to be careful because someone might break into his car and steal "The CLUB" 😁
I remember the club. A pair of wire cutters and you’d have that off in less than 30 seconds.
Tony, is that you?! 😂
Haha a Mercedes 240d I got last year has a "vehicle equipped with the club" sticker on a window 😂
9 miles to reach 97mph was doable in California freeways before Biden administration.
@@asharista3152 more like during, and likely because of, Governors Dukemajian (and more recently Gov Edmund G Brown's son, Ed Brown Jr), as well as Davis & Co. well after the decade of neglect that followed Reagan moving up into the presidency. I remember how prosperous and optimistic this state was for years up through 1984; the final year that California had actually been a Red State Arnold doesn't count because he was by all intents a Kennedy Democrat running as a Republican. Roads and infrastructure used to be fine enough to crest Grapevine and ride the 99 clear to Sacramento without 34.5 different colors and textures of highway beneath you along the way 😁. As for specifics, that 9 miles (or so) which we attempted the *'Yugo, Gurl! Achievement Unlocked! - (Reach 100 mph)'* was tried on Southbound Hwy 99, in Fresno. It began at Herndon Ave. when we strove toward morphing into the blur of a wailing Banshee, before finally calling it quits around Belmont Ave, just before reaching the scenic skyline of Downtown Fresno. Nobody had to look at the signs really; one could easily rely on the scent aloft in the air to know what part of town you were in.
Great video guys! Always fun to see cars from my country (Serbia). Here's a bit of local insight. Over the years the Yugo has become somewhat of a cultural icon over here, even though up until about 10 years ago you could see them very regularly on the street. Everybody is aware that it's objectively a very limited car to say the least, but on the other hand everybody knew how to work on them a bit or at least knew someone who did, spare parts were everywhere, fuel economy was fantastic, and when not pushed to 60mph 😂 they were very reliable. I completed my driving lessons on a Yugo in 2012 and even had a Yugo for a bit after that. That specimen was completely rusted, couldn't even get it into 5th gear, never drove it above 40mph, and during winter when coming to a stop I'd put in neutral and while breaking would pump the throttle until moving again, just so it wouldn't turn off from the cold. But mine was a truly horrific example, well maintained ones functioned without a hitch even after 35 years. And that's the beauty of it, it was something made here that everyone had the same trouble with, but something everyone was proud of. I have driven many different cars after this Yugo but nothing really captured the effort and connection needed to move a vehicle like the Yugo did. It has a very special place in my heart and thank you again for featuring it Donut. Greeting from Serbia!
Yugo je za yugoslavija nije yugo za srbija
@@dariogrozdanovski236 Nemoj pričati
@@dariogrozdanovski236yugoslavia se raspala pre 30 godina, i podelila se na Srbiju, Bosnu, Crnu Goru i Hrvatsku.
@@dariogrozdanovski236manufactured by Zastava Automobiles (Kragujevac-Serbia). Pozz
Ikona? Nikada, ni na samom pocetku proizvodnje.
When the Yugo was $3990, Hyundai's first car was $4995.
There is also one more Yugo category - extremely tuned Yugo with over 230hp!
In high school, I had a job that, if needed, the boss would let us use his Yugo for local deliveries. I remember having to drive it like a race car just to keep up with traffic. And if you honked the horn a bit too hard, the front of the steering wheel would pop off into your lap. Great memories.
🤣🤣🤣🤣 so true
I absolutely love that during the acceleration test, the speedometer graphic has a broken needle just like the car they are in. Props to the editor of this video.
Great video! You probably could have mentioned that some 1980's car dealerships were giving away a new Yugo with the purchase of another new car such as a Cadillac. A BOGO car deal!
"It's a nugget. And I love it!" - Dankpods
Still got my Yugo GVX, and as of this summer it even survived a tornado without a scratch. This car just spites God. It refuses to die. My Yugo is just one that will probably outlive me.
I bought a Yugo GV brand new at a dealership in Marquette, MI practically "giving" them away in 1986. I paid $3200 NEW. Drove it until 1996. It was one of the BEST cars I ever owned (that's not a joke). It had a few quirks like, the TINY brake pads had to be replaced often and it went through a couple starter solenoids, but that was it. Period. Started and ran PERFECTLY every time and got upwards of 40+ MPG. And I absolutely BEAT THE LIVING HELL outta' this car. It took every punch and kept going. EDIT: What I didn't tell you, was that the Dealership was having trouble selling them and that the $3200 got you TWO Yugos. It was "Buy One Get One FREE". I had no use for or ability to keep/sell two Yugos, so I just took the one.
Congrats on getting into motor fest!
you are correct in not trusting the spare in the engine bay , the 2 times ive ever seen a yugo was back when i was a fire fighter and yep both were engine bay fires
The Yugo still has a sick style akin to an older civic. Seems like a great candidate for an engine swap and some other goodies
If you want to die hitting anything above 50 km/h
@@novi7991 *5mph
What's a km?
@@jonanderson4474 this world is doomed
Great, the next lawn mower about to fold like a tin can in a drag race.
You need to engine swap this, new transmission, new suspension, new everything! Make this into a sleeper
Yugo away! FAR AWAY!!! LOL! I appreciate the lemon video fellas! I am especially happy to know y'all made it back safely.
We were a family of four; mom, dad, sis (9), and me (11). Dad bought a Yugo in 1986 and we went from Long Island to Disney World Orlando and back with absolutely no problems...I don't even remember being uncomfortable in the back seat with my sis. A year later we went to Virginia, also from L.I. and back again in the same Yugo.
It's amazing that people lined up to buy Yugo, given the low low price of 4.5K (about $13.2K in today's moolah) and how lumpy Detroit was after the thing called Oil Crisis. And when the car actually came, it completely blown away, not in terms of expectations, but rather the car itself.
I bought a new Ford Escort Pony in 86 for $4800 and it was great. Of course it didn't have air conditioning, power steering, power windows, automatic transmission, etc. In comparison Honda was having engine & transmission failures due to poor meta lurgy and Toyota's Tercel had the worst manual transmission ever made. So the Yugo was so so when compared to the competition as the Japanese competition was in the salvage year in 8 to 10 years...
My old car! Glad Mike let you guys review it 😆The death steer! This car was actually stolen from me and I found it less then a mile away, guess the thieves felt the same way as you guys. When I first got it from this exporter guy in Compton the brakes lit on fire just going around the block. To be fair there was a lot of cobwebs, had to get a bucket of water and splash them down. The other great part of the Yugo is the burnt cotton candy interior smell!
Zastava makes some pretty cool stuff, don't let the Yugo fool you.
I went to a junkyard and said "I'd like a gas cap for my Yugo." Guy replied "That seems like a fair trade."
Im glad you really brought up that it was NEVER made to be sold here in the US for US roads, but was important for the country. A lot of highways didn't have speed limits much higher than 50mph back then, and only super highways. Its also a really old car trying to compare to modern cars
A high school friend of mine, shout out to Tami S, had a blue Yugo. It was the worst! It had room for three in the back, but the bumper would drag on the ground if you put anybody bigger than a five year old back there. She was driving one day, and the shifter came right out. No noise or nothing. She looked at me like "what do I do?" That car got us all around town though, God bless it.
Your mom had room for three in the back.
what ive seen is that american yugos are generally worse quality than domestic ones. i live in belgrade and practically every 2nd car is a yugo, all look shiny and have yet to see one thats destroyed or broken down. and sometimes see abandoned ones that look like rally cars or racers
Could you guys please do an Up to Speed on the Subaru Justy you mentioned at 10:19? I’ve been waiting so long and you finally mentioned it. On top of being the last carbureted vehicle sold in the US it’s probably one of the rarest vehicles in America now and I’d love to see what you guys at Donut could dig up on it.
I actually had the same thing that happened to you happen in my Yugo with the transmission linkage breaking. I was able to crawl under the car and fix it with a paper clip and never had a problem again lol.
I owned Yugo 55A. It was a fun car to own. Never knew what could happen, but easy to repair. Going up hill was always a challenge, had to make sure you use the right gear well in advance. Golf Gen 1 and 2 were made in Yugoslavia too.
Only some, not all of Golf 1/2 were made in Yugoslavia, the ones made in Yu had TAS badge.
Also, many Opel models were made in YU... IDA-Opel Kikinda factory.
My Yugo/Croat grandfather had a Yugo and my (Dutch) father can only tell the funniest of stories about it. That tiny car got my family sometimes 5 adults at the same times up and down steep mountain inclines, with my grandfather sweating profusely behind the steering wheel with a wet towel around his neck as AC. That car was as hard working as the person behind the wheel. Nedostaješ mi nonno
I had this car back in Germany, and I bought it very cheaply. It served me and later my nephew for 6 years. It was fast and had a very low fuel consumption. It is one of the cheapest cars to maintain.
Thank you guys for putting this car in context. Sure, it's got a lot of problems, but it is an important example of car culture from the Cold War era.
I wouldn't use the word important if the car had never existed, nobody would care.
@@mexicanspecalways gotta be a guy like you in the comments.
A guy like what? Somebody that tells the truth? Don't try to make this car into something it is not or never was.@@wade7959
@@mexicanspecif it didn't exist then there's nothing to remember. Fuck kind of comment is that?
It really isn't a difficult comment to understand. The Yugo has made no impact on car culture of any kind. Do you understand now?@@Chocolatepain
We used to say the electric defroster element on the back window was to keep your hands warm while pushing it.
"Put it in 'H'!" 😂
would love to see you guys make a sleeper build in the yugo.
Kudos to the whole Donut squad on the continual improvement of the quality of your videos. From the video production to the on screen guys, I'm sure your channel will be studied in the future on how to build a brand and develop a team.
@@notfiveoI mean I'm from an Ex-Yu country but I can't imagine why someone would want to win a Yugo 😂. I mean it was a utilitarian car guy, literally made so everyone could buy one and drive it, rich people didn't drive Yugo they drove a Mercedes.
As a guy born in Yugoslavia, i'd like to say thank you for reviewing this monstrosity
Guys, nice concepted video. Yet as a Zastava historian and owner of 1979 model 101, I must point out that if you had a better maintained Yugo, you would be able to see the true side of Yugo. Second point is your comment on Yugoslavia workers position and production conditions. Zastava had a special line for producing Yugo America. Workers were paid good and the line itself was excellent. We were not land of communism, but land of Tito's socialism - completely different concept. As for performances - your Yugo has two barrel Weber carb, if you have checked it out and perhaps disconect emmission control systems it would be roarring. Also, the wheels on it have large tyres - Yugo is designed for 145/80/ R 13 (european radial) tyres. If you put larger wheel, engine can't compensate. So it was not the best car, true that, but far from the worst.
Are you telling me, that the Yugo is slower, than a TRABANT.
it would be interesting to see comparison of few '80 cars in the same state of neglection and lack of maintenance. I think that yugo will score the same as others. and I can't comprehend how did you expected different outcome with that type of driving
yeah. I can admit that the car quality isn't great and the owner of this specific model may not be able to maintain it well, but come on, this car looks like someone pulled out out of a junkyard last week. It's basically impossible to make a review of a 30 years old car model based on one unit that look especially poorly maintained. I do have to say they pointed out a few time that the car target market was different and that it's and old car, but they simply should have asked or looked for at least a second car.
Gonna be difficult. Take the Chevette. Half of them were recalled and the other half dissolved in the rain
Not really, I own two completely neglegted OEM 1985 golf and 1986 Jetta which are far more reliable than newer cars I have.
I had an 87 Yugo for 10 years...NEVER broke down. Great little car IF you took care of it. Definately not fast but neither were the Ford Escorts and Chevettes of the same era...in fact my mom had an 85 Escort and it was a DOG compared to the Yugo.
There was no escort, that could be slower than yugo, it's only your imagination
@@MrKleru😂😂 You have no freaking clue, our 87 Ford Escort was a Diesel and it was slower then dog shit, my Yugo was running circles around it. That’s no imagination, that’s reality.
@MrKleru He refers to the European Escort not the American.
@u Or was there? My dad had a 1981 Ford Escort, and the rated 0-60 was 14.8 seconds, which in fact was slower than the rated 14.0 seconds for a Yugo. And instead of the common "smog controlled carbuertor" setup where the carb was tuned a little lean, then some "smog parts" would pull fuel when they thought they should for mileage or emissions reasons; instead, these carbs defaulted VERY lean and the smog parts would *add* fuel when they thought they should. Which basically never happened so the car was in a near-stalling bogged down condition in all driving conditions. The early 1980s "depth of the Malaise era" Escorts were awful.
You should do a comparison of the Yugo with the 1991 Niki (Polish Fiat 126). That makes the Yugo look luxurious.
Very few small, cheap, family cars of the Yugo design era had plastic bits covering the cabin gubbins... at least in Europe. It may have been different in the decadent USA, but the Yugo interior is pretty much par for the course it was playing on.
I wouldn't say the Yugo interior is worse than the American made economy cars of the time, certainly better than like a late 70s Camaro. I'd also say the build quality is leaps and bounds better than other cars I've worked on, it's by no stretch of the definition good, but British-made cars like a DeLorean or Reliant make it look like it has Japanese build quality.
@@EdwardM104 Eh, I'd say the Robin is well built and reliable. Just uber-cheap.
The Datsun Sunny 1200, that was an incredible car, that redefined what 15,000 would get you. No dangling wires in that one and perfect build quality. And 20 years before stuff like the Yugo, Panda and Robin.
It looks like it could be a pretty sick car, with a ton of mods.
@RByrne you are correct, it was very popular for mods, and you could fit FIAT engine into it without much hustle. I saw guys with heavily moded Yugo's beating in drag race other guys with much more expensive cars.
I would love to see and engine swap, upgraded breaks, exhaust and suspension upgrades done on the Hugo.
My mom had an old beetle in the 80s and she told me the throttle linkage would regularly detach. The fix was simple enough but it reminded me of your shifter situation
My mates mum had one We were poor, people thought she was doing well because she had a car. We went all over in it, she used to take us to the coast, to ice skating, football, anywhere. It sometimes struggled to start and didn't like the winter. Not fast, stylish or reliable but it gave us so much freedom. I loved that car, it was shit, but it was awesome.
5:27 - it's not a Piaggio "Ape", it's the "Apé", or Ap-ey (notice the accent over the "e/é").