Saw a Yugo Today

[01rangerxl]

Originally Posted By: 05LGTLtd
Then there was the Danny deVito film where every one in the town drove yugos... Too lazy to google.


That was Drowning Mona...pretty funny movie. Been a long time since I have seen it.

 

[JetStar]

From Wiki: The Yugo entered the United States by means of Malcolm Bricklin, who wanted to introduce a simple, low-cost car to that market. In total, 141,651 cars were sold in the United States from 1985 to 1992, with the most American units sold in a year peaking at 48,812 in 1987. Sales in 1992 were only 1,412 cars.

Some of you may recall the Bricklin cars around 1974-75.

When these were reasonably new and on the roads around here, it seems the exhaust was about the first noticeable thing to go.

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: 05LGTLtd


Can't remember what the 3cyl Subaru from about the same vintage was called. Was one of the first cvt transmission cars iirc. Pretty sure the Subaru was actually built by a Korean maker and re badged. Haven't seen one of those is at least 15-20 years...


Subaru Justy / Tutto. (hatchback and pseudo-boot body shape, respectively). Might have been called something different in the US though. Some of them were four wheel drive, but not many of those in Taiwan, since there's no snow

To quote a British mechanic who runs a garage here in Taiwan

"The Justy which the Tutto is basically, was a fantastic little car. It had very few faults over the time I used to work on them, and I worked seven years on Subarus and would service Justys which would do well over 150,000 miles and were largely driven by farmers and land owners, so were treated quite harshly. Typical faults over time would be throttle body spindles, which would leak air at around 100,000 miles, rear top suspension mounts, and brake pipe corrosion, but that would be typical on salty British roads at that time anyway. The latter versions had an initial build fault with an overstretched wiring harness which went over the rocker cover to the injectors. The wiring would require lengthening as part of a recall, otherwise it would start breaking connections.

Overall the Justy was a legendary three cylinder mini four wheel drive which would take all the punishment that typical boggy, wet Britain would throw at it. It was always very good in the snow too."

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Originally Posted By: 05LGTLtd
Can't remember what the 3cyl Subaru from about the same vintage was called. Was one of the first cvt transmission cars iirc. Pretty sure the Subaru was actually built by a Korean maker and re badged. Haven't seen one of those is at least 15-20 years... I did see a turbo sprint a few years back. I was like what the heck is that???


Nope. The Justy was indeed a real Japanese Subaru

 

[chrisri]

Originally Posted By: HosteenJorje
I remember Consumer Union saying the Yugo was a waste of raw materials. And they were right.

And CU were quite wright on that. It was utter rubbish in every possible way.

 

[eljefino]

First thing I noticed was the fog lights under the rear bumper added at the 11th hour for export to the US.

The 1991-92 yugos were the "cabriolet" convertible and AFAIK they finally got fuel injection by then.

 

[dlayman]

Originally Posted By: Ducked
Originally Posted By: 05LGTLtd


Can't remember what the 3cyl Subaru from about the same vintage was called. Was one of the first cvt transmission cars iirc. Pretty sure the Subaru was actually built by a Korean maker and re badged. Haven't seen one of those is at least 15-20 years...


Subaru Justy / Tutto. (hatchback and pseudo-boot body shape, respectively). Might have been called something different in the US though. Some of them were four wheel drive, but not many of those in Taiwan, since there's no snow

To quote a British mechanic who runs a garage here in Taiwan

"The Justy which the Tutto is basically, was a fantastic little car. It had very few faults over the time I used to work on them, and I worked seven years on Subarus and would service Justys which would do well over 150,000 miles and were largely driven by farmers and land owners, so were treated quite harshly. Typical faults over time would be throttle body spindles, which would leak air at around 100,000 miles, rear top suspension mounts, and brake pipe corrosion, but that would be typical on salty British roads at that time anyway. The latter versions had an initial build fault with an overstretched wiring harness which went over the rocker cover to the injectors. The wiring would require lengthening as part of a recall, otherwise it would start breaking connections.

Overall the Justy was a legendary three cylinder mini four wheel drive which would take all the punishment that typical boggy, wet Britain would throw at it. It was always very good in the snow too."


Yep it was called the Justy in the US. It was quite a capable car for the price. Great economical, reliable inexpensive transportation with AWD. However, like all Subarus of that area, they had terrible rust problems.

 

[Kira]

The Justy was called the J-10 in Sweden where I drove one 700 miles. No complaints except a harsh ride for the rear seat passenger.

 

[TurboFiat124]

Originally Posted By: 05LGTLtd
Then there was the Danny deVito film where every one in the town drove yugos... Too lazy to google.

Can't remember what the 3cyl Subaru from about the same vintage was called. Was one of the first cvt transmission cars iirc. Pretty sure the Subaru was actually built by a Korean maker and re badged. Haven't seen one of those is at least 15-20 years... I did see a turbo sprint a few years back. I was like what the heck is that???


The movie was called "Drowning Mona" and the Subaru your talking about was called the Justy. The Chevy Spring was a rebadged Suzuki.

 

[TurboFiat124]

The Yugo had it's faults but the thing is I've heard of reliability issues with high end marques but nobody seems to be complaining about those cars. Jaguars, Land Rovers, Volkswagens etc.

For $3000 new, what do you expect? At least with Yugos (if you are mechanically inclined), they are easy to work on and parts are cheap.

If I'm going to pay out the nose for something like a Land Rover, the reliability should be top notch, it should only need fluid and filter changes for 200,000 miles.

 

[DoubleWasp]

For a high-end Marque, making their cars expensive high maintenance nightmares is there way of making sure that bad examples don't hang around, that the pre-owned market belongs to them, and that you have little choice in short order but to buy a new one.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
First thing I noticed was the fog lights under the rear bumper added at the 11th hour for export to the US.

The 1991-92 yugos were the "cabriolet" convertible and AFAIK they finally got fuel injection by then.

You should see how Yugo goes with double Weber carburetor. holy [censored]....

 

[zzyzzx]

Originally Posted By: dlayman
First time I've seen a Yugo in probably 25 years. It actually looked in very good shape. It was going the other way on a residential street, and I was stunned to see the little Y on the hood, and turned my head after it passed (I wasn't driving) and sure enough that's what it was.


Too bad you didn't get a picture of it.

 

[fdcg27]

I saw one on I-71 northbound around ten years ago in one of the colder months.
I don't recall whether he passed us or we passed him but he was not hanging around in the little guy. The car was a nice medium blue and looked really good overall.
I don't think I've seen one on the road since.
We seriously thought about a Yugo back in 1986. We sometimes bought the wine of Yugoslavia (Avia) so why not the car? David E Davis, ex Car&Driver and by then at Automobile put his step-daughter in one and it seemed far from trouble free for a new car.
Probably a very good thing that we put about double the bucks into a Honda Civic Wagon instead.

 

[Hootbro]

I joined the military in the mid 80's and these things were quite popular for cash strapped GI's and first time car buyers. First one I ever seen was in a mall in Hampton Roads, VA. Brand new, looked somewhat decent.

These Yugo's, the first generation Hyundai's and VW's FOX model hit the market at about the same time to battle the sub $6K market. Within two years, all these models showed [censored] construction and shoddy workmanship.

I remember riding in a buddy's YUGO and he told me to watch his "reverse turo" engagement. Puzzled, he would hit the A/C button and it seem to drop power almost in half when engaged. We got a good laugh out of that. Door latch handles and turn stalks also seem to snap like twigs unannounced from what I remember of those. The Hyundai's had carb issues and the FOX's seem to rust sitting at a stop light.

Fun times.

 

[Kamele0N]

Yugo at Nurburgring

He is revving that Lancias engine up to 7500rpms (LCD on dash)