Zastava Yugo
Zastava | |
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North American variant of the Yugo
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Yugo | |
Production period: | 1981-2008 |
Class : | Microcar |
Body versions : | Station wagon , convertible |
Engines: |
Otto engines : 0.9–1.3 liters (29–48 kW) |
Length: | 3485 mm |
Width: | 1548 mm |
Height: | 1390 mm |
Wheelbase : | 2150 mm |
Empty weight : | 825-920 kg |
The Yugo (also: Jugo ) is a small car from the former Yugoslav and later Serbian automobile manufacturer Zastava . It was produced under various names from 1981 to 2008. It was the only Eastern European car that was successfully exported to the USA for several years.
history
The Yugo was the company's first in-house design, which had previously manufactured Fiat models under license. It was introduced to the public in 1981 as the Zastava Yugo 45 . The brand name stood for Yugoslavia, the number for the engine power of 45 hp. The technology was largely based on that of the Fiat 127 introduced in 1971 . The success of the model led to the development of the larger Yugo Florida . With the introduction of the Florida, the brand name Zastava was dispensed with. The Zastava Yugo 45 was henceforth offered as Yugo Koral .
From 1986 the car was exported to the USA as Yugo America . The importer was Malcolm Bricklin , who previously operated the Bricklin Vehicle Corporation and imported the Subaru 360 to the USA. The Yugo sold well there, primarily due to its low price of 3990 US dollars.
During the phase of success, which was also reflected in a convertible version of the Yugo, the Yugo was also offered in Germany . In the early 1990s, the 65 EFI model was equipped with electronic intake manifold injection from Bosch ; the engine, originally from Fiat , was redesigned by Porsche . After the outbreak of war in former Yugoslavia and the trade embargo against the rest of Yugoslavia formed from Serbia and Montenegro , the Yugo came to a temporary end and exports had to be stopped. On April 9, 1999, the production facilities in the Serbian town of Kragujevac were almost completely destroyed during the NATO air strikes in the context of the Kosovo war .
Although production was resumed after the reconstruction, the capacities no longer reached the original level. Before the war, 200,000 cars were manufactured annually, now only between 10,000 and 20,000 units could be manufactured. Meanwhile, the technology of the Yugo was also out of date. The models again offered under the name Zastava therefore no longer played a role on the world market and were only sold in significant numbers outside of Serbia in Macedonia , Egypt , Greece and Lebanon .
In 2002, Peugeot offered to take over the majority stake in the company, but the workforce refused. In 2005 negotiations were held with other automobile manufacturers, including Opel and Volkswagen . An agreement was finally signed with Fiat to license the Punto at the Kragujevac plant. Most recently, the Yugo was offered as "Koral In L" with a 1.1-liter engine from PSA . The last Yugo rolled off the production line on November 20, 2008, as Fiat discontinued the outdated old Zastava models. The brand name Zastava was also given up in this context and the plant was instead modernized and converted for the construction of the Fiat 500L .
Cult status
In the English-speaking world, especially in the USA , the “Yugo” is a classic example of a small, cheap, and poor quality car. In this role he has become a cult object that has found widespread response in popular culture . So there are a multitude of yugo jokes. An example: “I have also said for years that the car is named because 'Yugo, but it doesn't'” - Yugo sounds similar to you go , hence: “I've been saying for years that the car is called that because ' You go (have to run), but it doesn't work '”. Or also: "Yugo nowhere" ("You're not going anywhere"), also a play on words that also reflects the vehicle's lack of reliability.
Movies
The reputation of the yugo was also used as a stylistic device in US film productions. In the 1987 film Sloppy Bulls Don't Bite with Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks , two police officers are given a Yugo as a company car. When it was taken over, it was ironically recognized as the culmination of “Serbian-Croatian technology”. In the 1994 film, The Crow starring Brandon Lee , a stolen Ford Thunderbird is chased in a Yugo. In the 1995 movie Die Hard Now, starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson , a yugo is also used for a chase. The car is short-circuited with the blade of a pocket knife and quickly replaced by a Mercedes-Benz from the W 126 series . In 1996, The Mad Professor with Eddie Murphy , Professor Sherman Klump mentions wanting to use his company's money to buy a Yugo instead of a sports car. In Bowfinger's big 1999 number with Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy, the main character is working on a documentary about the Yugo. In the feature film Der Fall Mona from 2000, almost the entire population of the municipality of Verplanck, part of Cortlandt , drives a Yugo. In the opening scene, Bette Midler dies in a Yugo because its brakes fail. In the film, the residents of Verplanck were inexpensively equipped with Yugos by Zastava in 1985 in order to test the suitability of the vehicle for everyday use before its market launch in the USA in 1986. In the animated film Cars 2 , various Yugos (called Hugos in the film) appear as part of a group of losers and outsiders, which in addition to Yugos consists of AMC Pacers and AMC Gremlins , who also have an image as loser cars in the USA. In Nick and Norah - One Night's Soundtrack , Nick, played by Michael Cera , drives a Yugo. He notes that it is 'probably the last Yugo in the country'. The car has appeared in a number of other films.
watch TV
In The Simpsons (Season 4, Episode 9), Homer Simpson takes test drives with a Yugo, referred to as a car from a country that "no longer exists." With Malcolm in the middle of it all , Malcolm's headmaster drives a Yugo that is in very bad shape. In My Name Is Earl (season 1, episode 15), a man intends to poison himself from the exhaust fumes in a yugo. On an episode of the humorous auto show Top Gear , Jeremy Clarkson drives a Yugo and describes his performance as "so bad that wild animals overtake you". He eventually destroys it by shooting a tank at it.
music
The US punk group Left Wing Fascists released the song I drive a Yugo on their album A Mother's Nightmare . In Breakdown by Relient K , Larry says he's driving a Yugo. The band Zabranjeno pušenje from Sarajevo has set a monument to the Yugo in the song YUGO45 . In the music video for The Day That Never Comes by Metallica a defective Yugo blocked a military vehicle on a desert road. In the music video for Das geht ab! from Frauenarzt and Manny Marc the main characters drive a white Yugo convertible. The Viennese rapper Jugo Ürdens released the song of the same name on his debut album YUGO , an ironic hymn for the small car.
literature
In "Needful Things" ( in a small town ) and "The Stand" ( The Stand - The Stand ) intends Stephen King of Yugo.
Model variants
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literature
- Jason Vuic: The Yugo. The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History . Macmillan, New York 2010, ISBN 978-1-4299-4539-4 .
Web links
- Page no longer available , search in web archives: website about the Zastava Yugo (German) ) (
- Zastava Yugo Page (English)
- Sean Braswell: Did Yo Mama Drive a Yugo? In: ozy.com . OZY Media, August 17, 2015, accessed May 26, 2016.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marina Maksimovic: End of an Era: The last "Yugo" rolls off the tape . In: Deutsche Welle . November 20, 2008.
- ↑ Yugo in Movies and TV Series , Internet Movie Cars Database
- ↑ Mr. Plow . In: simpsonspedia.net
- ^ Top Gear - Zastava Yugo 45 - Jeremy Blows Up Car. Retrieved July 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Ten portions of extra kitsch: The Viennese rapper Jugo Ürdens. August 4, 2018, accessed April 20, 2019 .
Zastava , a subsidiary of the Fiat Group , timeline 1955-2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Type | 1950 | 1960 | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | 2000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | |
Microcar | 600 | 750 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
850 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Small car | Yugo 45/55/60 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Compact class | 101 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Yugo Florida | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Middle class | 1300 / 1500 |