- The Yugo is coming back! Maybe. Eventually. Probably not to America, though.
- Progress so far includes trademark rights and sketches of what a modern Yugo hatchback might look like.
- Keeping the price low will again be the goal, and underpinnings are likely to be sourced from another manufacturer.
Did the Yugo stick around long enough to go from being the butt of jokes to laughing together with its detractors? At least a few did, judging from the way low-mileage examples of these little underpowered cars fetch far more at auction than they cost new off the showroom floor. The Yugo was unapologetically inexpensive, a double-edged sword, and while it actually sold pretty well, by 1992 it was gone from the U.S. market. But get your punchlines ready, because the Yugo could be coming back.
Properly, the original car’s full name was the Zastava Yugo GV, Zastava being an automaker with a long history in the former Yugoslavia. GV was meant to stand for Good Value, and at $3990 to start with a $389 destination charge, the Yugo was at least the least expensive car you could buy. Looking around at the average price of new cars these days, perhaps a little of that cheap and cheerful spirit wouldn’t go amiss.
University Professor Doctor Aleksandar Bjelić certainly seems to think so, as he is the driving force behind the potential resurrection of Yugo. As first reported by The Autopian, he has acquired the rights and trademarks to the Yugo brand. Bjelić lives in Germany but has Serbian roots, and he recently hired Darko Marčeta, a Serbian designer, to sketch out what a new Yugo might look like.
Details are slim, as development is still very much in the concept phase. However, the plan is to reveal a running prototype at the Belgrade Expo in 2027, and a model of the car at the end of this year. The original Yugo was based heavily on the Fiat 127, and Bjelić has indicated that this new car will have underpinnings sourced from another, as-yet-unnamed manufacturer.
The obvious choice would be Fiat again, as the former Yugo factory did in fact build the late Fiat 500L. Low price will again be the goal here, so a new Yugo is likely to get a small combustion engine rather than an EV skateboard platform.
As to whether thrifty U.S. buyers will be able to once again park something unintentionally hilarious in their driveways, that’s unlikely. The Yugo’s reputation was badly damaged by quality issues when it was new, and while there’s certainly a cult following for them, there’s probably not a business case to sell them to the general public.
In Eastern Europe, however, the Yugo (called the Koral there) was really quite popular, closing out its production run with a respectable 800,000 cars built. A Serbian-built rival to something such as the Dacia Sandero could be quite successful, especially to those who remember the Zastava nameplate more fondly.
To burnish this image, one of Yugo’s first PR stunts is going to be driving several classic Zastava models from Kragujevac in Serbia all the way to Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The 6300-mile route is basically the same followed by a group of five Zastava 101s that performed the trek in 1975, as a showcase for durability. If the modern expedition can pull it off, it’ll be a shot in the arm for brand credibility.
Meanwhile, the Nissan Versa is currently the least expensive new car sold in the United States. It comes standard with a five-speed manual transmission for just $18,330. Adjusted for inflation, the original Yugo’s price tag is only slightly more than half that price. Then again, nobody jokes about why the Versa has a rear window heater (for the Yugo, it was to keep your hands warm while you push).
Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels.
Source: Motor - aranddriver.com
