The Life and Death of Yugoslavia’s Car Giant

[@georgegeorgakopoulos5956]

Early 80's Yugo 0.9lit gave the opportunity for many people in Greece to buy their first car. Many of Yugo's, accumulated more than 300000kms in their life.

[@aurelije]

I was surprised to see them in Greece and also IMT tractors from Belgrade. But Greeks in northen Greece have tolled me that they were looking over the border asking themself if they will ever live like people there (in the most poor republic of Yugoslavia). That was a time of military dictatorship in Greece...

[@TheOwlGuy777]

Well, that was being towed by a donkey.

[@DacLMK]

@@aurelije I don't think S.R Macedonia (at the time's name) was the poorest republic. But it was among the poorest and the least developed.

[@aurelije]

@@DacLMK who was poorer? Only Montenegro can be candidate but they got tourism an Macedonia had only their work

[@DacLMK]

@@aurelije Montenegro was poorer than us by slight bit, and the province Kosovo was most definitely poorer than us.

[@CarlJohanLinell]

My aunt and uncle owned a Zastava in the 90s. I remember making bets with my car-nerd friends as a kid that I knew a car brand they didn't and then getting chased off for insisting that Zastava was a real car manufacturer.

[@RT-qd8yl]

My friend has a Zastava rifle 😄

[@JohnnieWalkerGreen]

I learned something new today! My father once owned a Fiat Zastava Truck. Until today, I thought "Zastava" was a Fiat line brand.

[@dzonikg]

@@JohnnieWalkerGreen ITs why when he mention 50 000 employes his calculation is wrong ,50 000 employes was for all Zastava company which inldude Zastava trucks,Zastava Arms and many other stuff like Zastava tourist or Health centar and dealearship around the country .Real number what worked in Zastava cars were much smaller ,like whole town in 1980 had 100 000 people and there were many other companies besides Zastava. .Zastava highest number produced was 230 000 cars in 1990 ,,but also 30 000 truck and vans that year ,

[@Chordonblue]

My father and I owned one. Here's the thing: If you treated it nice (kept the oil changed regularly, tune-ups, etc), they were OK. The thing was, until the parts became scarce, they were cheap and easy to fix yourself... Which you would do fairly often, but most of the time, it was not difficult. I'll tell you this, I never had to replace a clutch cable (Plymouth Horizon) three times or have a pressed cardboard valve blow out antifreeze all over the cabin only 4 months after I purchased the car new (Hyundai Excel). It was a cheap ride for a time when I was broke as hell.

[@doberman921]

​@@JohnnieWalkerGreen It is FIAT..all Yugoslavian car snd trucks are licence.

[@JerryRogich]

It was the only car you could park in the South Bronx and no one would steal it.

[@the_kombinator]

Eh, I'd say Lada, Dacia, and arguably a Hyundai Pony.

[@mirko46381]

That can be false if Bruce Willis passes by 🙂

[@the_kombinator]

@@mirko46381 Yeah but you'd get it back with a gold brick in it.

[@windoak2113]

​@@the_kombinator pone never got sold in the states, that was the exel. Still wouldn't be stolen though.

[@mitk065]

@@the_kombinator Don't forget Moskvitch and Trabant!

[@smnbgn]

My father owned a red Yugo in the first half of the 90s. I don't remember that it ever broke down.

[@NikolaDundjerovic]

for real they are eating govna abt yugo

[@ChuckSwiger]

It did have a rear window defroster to keep your hands warm as you push it down the road.

[@andrzejostrowski5579]

That’s my childhood experience!

[@the_kombinator]

I heard this one in middle school in the 90s lol

[@unchartedexe]

😂

[@restitvtororbis5330]

(Q) What do you call a Yugo driver who says he got a speeding ticket? ... A Liar

[@bobflatman278]

Q: Why did Yugo come with a rear window defroster? A: To keep your hands warm when you're pushing it.😮

[@lakrids-pibe]

I was told many of the same jokes , but about Skoda. How do you tune a Skoda? You double over the rubber band

[@eliotmansfield]

@@lakrids-pibewhy do skodas have heated rear screens? To keep your hands warm when pushing it 😂

[@michaeltb1358]

@@lakrids-pibe What do you call a Skoda with a sun roof? A skip.

[@MrPants-xy6db]

We had similar jokes about Lada, but apply anyway Q: What do you call a Yugo with a spoiler? A: A shopping trolley First prize in the raffle is a Yugo. Second prize is two Yugo's In the UK I remember seeing a few Yugo's with stickers on the rear , next to the name badge: Yugo "Faster than me!"

[@XXx-mk8dk]

One of the reasons why zastava/yugo was popular is thet you could not buy VW golf which was produced in Bosnia. Everybody wanted golf but you couldnt buy it without connections. And you could buy zastava immidietly. A relative bought zastava which lost its weel after 200m from delarship.

[@SaiSS961]

😂😂

[@anthonynicholich9654]

I grew up in Serbia Macva in the 1980s and in 1981 my mom and dad bought a brand new VW Golf 1 1.3 gas so you could buy it if you had the money

[@XXx-mk8dk]

@@anthonynicholich9654 no you could not. Ma father bought first perviously owned golf. The seller took that money and bought brand new for the same money. For second golf he managed to find connections and bougt it new.

[@anthonynicholich9654]

@@XXx-mk8dk So my parents bought a brand new Golf 1 in 1981 from TAS Sarajevo and you're telling me you cannot? I'll bet you you are one of them ignorant arrogant idiots that if I told you I had pancakes for breakfast you would tell me no you didn't? I grew up in that VW GOLF and still have pictures from it

[@jesenjin8467]

It is not for nothing that the song about Yugo said: "Half the relatives came ro congrarulate, the other half couldn't due to envy" (literal translation just for meaning)

[@da1otta]

Ah, such a hit of nostalgia. Thanks for the video. I actually trained on a Yugo. It was a very basic, no frills car but it provided you with mobility. All of Yugoslavia travelled to the seaside in their Yugos, Stojadins and Fićas. Also, parts for Zastava cars were dirt cheap from the used market, so even though the cars broke down a lot, repairs were quick, easy and inexpensive. As for the low income and low productivity of the workers in Zastava, there was a saying in old Yugoslavia, "No matter how little you pay me, I can always work less".

[@stevebabiak6997]

I caught the use of “Stojadin” rather than its formal name “Stojedan” ;)

[@da1otta]

@@stevebabiak6997 Yeah, everybody called it Stojadin.

[@aleksandarrudic3694]

@@da1ottaAnd it was actually quite a good car: it was very underpowered (even compared with Yugo) and it was too easily overheating, but it was more durable and reliable than Yugo, and it lasted longer, there are still a lot of them in driving condition, in rural areas mostly. By the way I flew through a thick brick wall in one, when my best childhood friend, after a few beers and rakijas to many, drove it off a curve and over a ditch going at about 80-100 km/h, straight into a neighbor's house. We all got messed up more or less, but it all ended well.

[@johnkaplun9619]

American Comedian Jon Stewart who had a Yugo as his first car called it 'the most effective form of birth control for a young man in the 90's'

[@carlosgaspar8447]

stewart is a comedian?

[@dzonikg]

My first sex was in Yugo which i stole from my father when i was 16 ,i did not even have license then.I now have expensive cars ,like 2 BMW but i have no sex haha

[@YBM2007]

Followed closely by 'looking like Jon Stewart' in 2nd place

[@robrob9050]

​@@dzonikgMy first kiss was in Yugo 😂

[@jaapaap123]

@@dzonikg figures if you drive a bmw. (or a merc, vw, audi)

[@timhorton698]

That factory in Kragujevac is now producing electric cars. The first electric Fiat panda rolled out 3 days ago

[@JTA1961]

Wonder what they "charge" for it...😅

[@dzonikg]

@@JTA1961 25 000 euros ,20k with subsides

[@stevotravica7125]

​@@JTA1961 normal pandas run on bamboo. Electric pandas run on 3 phase bamboo.

[@explorecriminalminds]

There also going Broke producing the junk electric cars no one wants. Part of the green new scam

[@JTA1961]

@@stevotravica7125 bamboozled

[@cybersrb]

@Asianometry Greetings from Serbia - ex Yugoslavia! Great video! While you are in the neighborhood check out about Galaksija - Yugoslavian computer and maybe idea for a next video history of Yugoslavian computers ;)

[@weedmanwestvancouverbc9266]

My friend bought one overseas but it didnt work at the time. The CPU was bad, but he discovered it was just a copy of a more common one in the west and dropped one in and they got it working

[@AnnatarTheMaia]

You know what? That's a really good idea - the world should know about one of the worst, most rudimentary computers ever built "to protect the domestic electronic industry!" in a time when powerful, extensible, versatile personal computers like the Commodore64 were available. Good thing that most of the country had family working in Austria or Germany and was thus able to get American computers, otherwise they'd all be royally screwed... oh! I'm sorry, was that too "counterrevolutionary", perhaps too much "5th column"?

[@robrob9050]

Exactly dude, interesting topic.

[@ZorkoKnatahobnat-ei6lf]

Iskra was also serious computer factory.

[@inglorion]

The Galaksija was truly a great accomplishment. Low part count and managed to fit BASIC with floating-point support in 4KB ROM.

[@drsunshineaod2023]

I will never not hear "ComEcon" as "Comic-Con".

[@aurelije]

And Yugoslavia was not part of them at all, it was producing parts for Boeing and working on design for Rafale with Frenchman

[@the_kombinator]

I'm the opposite, having learned about comecon before comic-con - therefore, all cosplayers, furries, etc are COMMUNSITS! :P

[@Nphen]

I was wondering what the actual phrase was when I thought I heard "comic con" and it seemed to be referring to some sort of international org. Thank you!

[@the_kombinator]

WTF where's my comment, KZbin?

[@AnnatarTheMaia]

@@the_kombinator they have an AI censorship algorithm in place.

[@djowen5192]

My dad's last car was a Yugo, sort of a baby vomit yellow with a cardboard interior.

[@adamh1228]

classy

[@M167A1]

Showoff

[@5anjuro]

​@PatronaIzyii-b5kIt's a one man show. In his own time, after the day job.

[@mediocreman6323]

What do you mean “last car”??? Was he so disappointed by the car that he gave up driving altogether, or did he end his life in a car accident?

[@Zen-sx5io]

​@@mediocreman6323 This got dark real quick.

[@joshuaupham5993]

I still own mine, a 1988 YUGO GVL. I bought it second hand back in 1996. It definitely turns heads. 😅

[@madddog7]

_"It definitely turns heads"_ cuz yer pushin' it?

[@SpaceWolf011]

Well, Yugo was definitely not the most complex product Serbia (or Yugoslavia) ever created. The country's industry fared much much better it the military production, where it was an export success and where it's companies made high quality products. The country's aircraft industry was remarkable for a country of that level of development. The 1960es era G-2 Galeb jet trainer was best in class, the later J-22 Orao and G-4 Super Galeb were more advanced technologically and managed to prove themselves as capable and quality airplanes even in the challengeng conditions after yhe country broke apart. And all were of indigenous design (Aeronautical Technical Institute, Belgrade). The M84 tank was quite a bit better than the T72 variants it was based on. The key was quality control and management. The army generals didn't care that much for the social goals and such, they wanted reliable equipment that would get the job done and were prepared to use both the stick and the carrot to get it. That was a key difference, since most of the factories had a military part and it this part there were military quality control personell and they would pull the plug if something was being done incorrectly. As for the Yugo in it's own country it was a bit of a joke too, however, with decent maintenance it was reliable and well loved. The problem of it being so cheap in the US was that it's owners didn't care and it's maintenance was equally cheap. If you change oil regularly, and performed all normal maintenance it can be a reliable little machine.

[@JTA1961]

Could have been...

[@JmKrokY]

Cool

[@dosadnizub]

There is nothing Americans hate more than products described as "little" Ephraim Kishon, when his Broadway play was described as "nice little play"

[@justjoe5373]

Yugoslavia had to gave a capable military because it wasn't in bed with neither the West nor the East. Tito and Stalin kinda had a feud

[@cartmann94]

Funfact: there's a comedy film called "Drowning Mona" from 2000. in the film, The town residents all drive Yugos because they're so poor they can't afford anything else. They also did promotions for the movie with a lot of Yugo car owners in the US and Puerto Rico at the time.

[@BustaHymen]

I love that movie, super screwed. And starring Danny DeVito and Bette Midler! How did that happen

[@the_kombinator]

I've heard of this - I need to watch it now.

[@w0lfgm]

Also in Die Hard III kzbin.info/www/bejne/jn6rgYGeoNWFhZY

[@JohnWilson-wg4gk]

Rona and Phil liked to play Wheel of Fortune...

[@Janezslovenski]

Interesting video, but could've gone into a lot more detail about quality and productivity. I'm from Slovenia and heard a lot from older generations how after buying a Yugo, you usually took it to a mechanic so that he would look over the car if all the bolts were tightened and all the fluids topped up (or there at all). Some got a car with a side window an inch too short with a message written with a sharpie about the salary being too low. I think that sales volumes were limited in each state by Zastava (or maybe the cental govt), so Slovenia as the wealthiest state sometimes ran out of new Zastavas to buy and people had to go physically to Serbia to get them. Some cars were even corroded when sold new as the steel was dumped outside exposed to the elements. Anyway, I hope you make more videos about Yugoslavia, one topic I suggest is "Iskra Delta", a Slovenian computer company. There's a lot of myth building around it nowadays, some say that they helped set up the first version of "the Chinese internet", so take everything you read about it with a grain of salt.

[@dzonikg]

Dobro je Slovenac ,lazi jos malo,prosao sam celu Jugoslaviju i ne secam se da sam ikad video Zastavu sa strane puta pokvarenu ,svi auti do 90tih su rdjali zbog soli na putu zimi ,Ford i OPel su rdjali 5 puta gore od ZAstave,takodje plate su 70tih i 80tih bile odlicne ,ja sam iz Kragujevca i deda mi je tu radio

[@harbl2479]

I am also from Slovenia and my dad once told me that his coworker had to take his new Zastava to the mechanic because of vibrations and that it was discovered that the engine was only held in with one bolt (presumably one engine mount out of three or four) which to me as a kid not knowing about engine mounts and thinking that a heavy engine would need at least a dozen bolts was even more astonishing than it is now 😅 No one here especially liked these cars and other foreign cars were in high demand.

[@Nic_Holas]

fun fact: all Fiat 500L sold in US in the past decade were made in the modernized factory where Yugo was once made, in Kragujevac

[@JTA1961]

That says alot

[@WillN2Go1]

I remember the Yugo, I'm an American. We didn't hate the Yugo, we just knew it was unreliable. Americans also 'liked' Yugoslavia, they were the anti Moscow 'Friendly Communists.' Fiat sold an older design to the Soviet Union. They beefed it up for the harsh winters and renamed it the Lada. They used to sell these in Canada. Kind of popular in Quebec. Read Milovan Djilas, he was Tito's second in command during WWII. Later he disagreed with Tito's repression and was thrown into prison several times. He wrote two amazing books. Wartime -- one of the best autobiographical accounts of the war. Discusses the sheer terror of being shelled by artillery. Searingly honest. Writes that 'we shot them, but we shouldn't have." His biography Tito, honestly portrays the leader, his positive qualities, and his shortcomings that hurt the country. One official propaganda myth was that during WWI Tito had been a pilot in the Serbia air force. In fact he had been a Sargent in the Austro Hungarian Army. I mentioned this once to a woman who'd grown up under Tito. She knew that they'd been told a lot propaganda and lies, knew all about Djilas -- yet she was completely unable to accept Tito's fiction about WWI. (It's not even an important detail, everybody got drafted. My grandfather was in that army.... until he deserted and came to the U.S. A steady diet of propaganda is not easily forgotten, even when you know. ) A neighbor and friend Frank had escaped from Hungary and 'defected' to the United States. One day I asked him how he did it. He said there was a ferry accident, and somehow he used that to swim across the river, saying, "I was in Yugoslavia, a pig country!" Yikes. Yugoslavia allowed defectors to transit through. Later, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the Soviet Union giving up, freeing Eastern Europe I asked him if he happy about it. "Until Hungary gets Ruthenia and ??? back there can never be peace!" And there in 1990 are the roots of WWI. (Those two places are rural counties with tiny populations. Every country in central Europe at some point owned various corners of each other, or the entire country. I have Polish and Ukrainian ancestors who when they left hadn't been countries in almost a century.)

[@patrickroberts296]

Now Serbians hate everything connected to America

[@dankadesign7462]

To summarize your long message Yugoslavia at the time of Marshal Tito were alive was one of most if not most powerful country in Europe.Everything was free for citizens and only country with France and Uk to produce military bombing airplanes that were exported to USA and wirlwide its was the most closest to ideal society in world and following socialism.Who didnt live there cant imagine what is real powerful successful country.America never been that sucesfull they just managed to sell their Hollywood dream which is just illusion.

[@strahinjapetrovic9544]

Just wanted to say hi! I am very impressed with your post!

[@inappropriatejohnson]

Sad about Jawa Motorcycles, though. Made in "Czechoslovakia". Commie bikes were loved, back in the day.

[@rnts08]

I had a Jawa pedal moped in my early teens, it did 70kmh with its 49cc engine, screaming. Beltdrive cvt.

[@weirdshibainu]

CZ, Puch...eastern euro bikes were fantastic

[@jimurrata6785]

​@@weirdshibainu& MZ nee: IFA produced the forerunner of the BSA Bantam/Harley Hummer, the RT125

[@HanSolo__]

@@jimurrata6785 I own two MZs. 1962 ES250 and 1989 ETz251.

[@alexdfla1]

A friend have a cz motorcycle The engine was a copy of a BMW motorcycle.​@@weirdshibainu

[@Akutabai5]

There was an episode of the Simpsons where Homer got a "new" car. He couldn't read the dials and the salesman said something like "do not worry, country doesn't exist anymore". I'm pretty sure the car they were making fun of was the Yugo but I haven't checked

[@eaglevision993]

No I think they referred to the GDR. The car looks like a Trabant.

[@negirno]

Or when the Crusty Clown show had to air some random Eastern-European cartoon due to not having money for _Itchy and Scratchy_

[@eaglevision993]

@@negirno Worker and Parasite is true classic. Endut! Hoch Hech!

[@colombianguy8194]

That's a classic scene! The car had three wheels, Cyrillic letters and a fly as the car symbol 😂😂

[@JohnWilson-wg4gk]

​@@eaglevision993 What the hell was that ?!?

[@Choralone422]

I remember seeing a few Yugo cars in the Midwest US during the 80s. However, none of them lasted very long against the long cold winter and love of rock salt on the roads. Most looked like rusty cheese after only a year or two. Learning more about Zastava it's no wonder the Yugo was the way it was. It's a real shame those in charge were not able to truly get how to manufacture automobiles right even after decades of experience and funding.

[@maksimum018]

In Yugoslavia everything was government owned at the time, once you got a job you couldn't get fired EVER, so there was no incentive to improve anything. And in the 1970's government gave a mandate that you have to employ a set number of people every year (depending on your company size). It didn't matter that you don't need the manpower you had to employ them, that's the reason behind those 3,7 cars per worker in Zastava. And that's the actual reason why every industry in SFRJ failed, instead of investment into R&D you had to pay the workers that you don't need, almost every company had several motels for workers, some where in the mountains, some where at the sea shore and they were a lot cheaper than hotels. It was working well while the west needed Yugoslavia as a middle man to show people in the USSR how life is in the west, they poured money and gave rights to patents in almost any industry but after the Berlin wall fell and USSR collapsed there was no need for a united Yugoslavia so the west stopped giving money and the country imploded. In the early 2000's before Fiat took over there was talk about some car giant from the far east taking over Zastava, their delegation came and toured the factory and said that they would take it over if the state took care of some 20k people that worked in the offices (basically doing nothing). Nothing came of it and the factory was later sold to Fiat (Stelantis) with huge subsidies by the Serbian government. So far since 2009. Fiat has received about 500 million dollars in subsidies, or about 150.000 dollars per worker, that's enough to pay their salary in those 15 years so Fiat is basically just taking the profits and Serbia is taking on debt to pay for those subsidies. Serbia is doing that in almost every industry that's why our foreign debt went from 10 billion in 2009 to 37 billion now.

[@Leeeeegion]

Rock salt probably does twice as much damage to roads and vehicles than any amount of ice would

[@uis246]

It's just salt. All soviet cars should handle winters just fine. If Yugo can handle Murmansk winter, then it damn can handle USA wintoumn. But salt will eat it for sure.

[@alemswazzu]

​@@maksimum018Communism sure was grand.

[@zjanez2868]

​​​@@uis246the thing is yugo wasnt designed for siberia Yugoslavia was in the balkans, which mostly has warm mediteranian weather Also since it was so cheap i doubt anyone did any preventitive maintenance, which just made the issue worse

[@predragmanov6341]

17:30 Comparing wages of the 1980's Yugoslav worker with South Corean, Japanese or the US ones (and calling it a slave labor), they obviously weren't thinking very clearly, or done a proper thorough research. Did South Korea, Japan or the US give free apartments, free healthcare (100% covered, including dentists and hospitals) or free state run schools and universities for their kids? +retirement benefits etc.? And then you can compare the prices and cost of living in 1980's Yugoslavia with those in US, Japan etc.

[@SapereAude1490]

18:55 The first time I hear Asianometry laugh on a video, and it's about how low quality a car is from the country I'm from. xD

[@ekesandras1481]

I know a guy whose family had a car dealership in Southern Austria, directly at the Yugoslav border. He told me that in the late 1980ies, they were stormed by Yugoslavians who came to their shop and bought any car they had on stock. They even didn't much care which model was there, they took whatever they had, as long as it was German or any other Western European brand. Everybody just wanted to get rid of their dinars.

[@justjoe5373]

Not even that, German engineering is a massive buzzword all over the place. You're having second thoughts or are on the fence of buying something? "It's German, it can't be bad"

[@furripupau]

It was a long time ago, but I did get to drive a Yugo GV once. Despite all the jokes, it was literally like driving any other 80's econo car. Really no different from driving a VW Rabbit or a Subaru Justy. The ONE thing that stuck out to me in terms of its "cheapness" was that the seats were upholstered in what felt, and looked like, beach towel material. Everything else was just typical 80s.

[@Dennis-sh8fs]

I drove one a few times also. The seats felt like they were stuffed with little styrofoam pellets, kind of like the cheap stuffed animals you win at a carnival. Also, the gearshift was a cheap hollow piece of plastic and it felt like it was going to snap in half with each gear shift. I’d love to have one today. I saw one for sale about four years ago, if I had somewhere to keep it I would have bought it. I remember they cost $3,990 new.

[@robertkalinic335]

The jokes seem a bit excessive, compared to cars nowadays, you are happy if you can even afford repairs...the manufacturers finding new future ways of screwing you up like bricking your car with the software update doesn't help.

[@fixmehanicar]

So many beautiful memories in and around that car. It truly made me a better man. So glad to see this episode. Keep up the good work.

[@madddog7]

I'm confused?

[@Jupa]

Ahhh… those ‘memories’ 😏

[@stevebabiak6997]

@@madddog7 - look at the username - the guy cut his teeth repairing his very own Yugo is my guess ;)

[@protector1990]

Problem with Yugoslav economy was that it was more focused on providing social peace than being productive. It was kept afloat on foreign loans, generously given by the West during the cold war. Once Yugoslavia was not needed anymore and the loans stopped, everything fell apart almost immediately...

[@JmKrokY]

Yeah

[@williamegler8771]

I owned a 1988 GVX with air conditioning sunroof and AM/FM cassette radio so it was loaded in Yugo terms. It was the first vehicle I ever bought brand new. At the time I was living in Colorado and I lived in Vail but worked in Denver. It was surprisingly reliable over the 40,000 Mi I owned it and the only things that stick in my memory are I had to fill it up every day because of the tiny fuel tank and the heater was like an asthmatic gerbil breathing on your ankle and couldn't melt snow tracked in throughout 100 Mi at highway speeds. I do remember coming out of my apartment at 4:30 in the morning and the temperature was -38 degrees Fahrenheit I didn't think the vehicle was going to start but I pushed in the clutch and it started like a nice spring day in Belgrade. I let it warm up for several minutes and when I backed up I noticed my rearview mirror was missing and when I reached up to turn on the interior light the cover was missing. When I finally got underneath the street light I saw that the rearview mirror the radio knobs the lenses for the interior lights and the heater control knobs were in the footwells of the car. I called the Yugo dealer later that day and was going to make an appointment to have all the knobs in the mirror glued back on where they were supposed to be the dealer was amazed that the vehicle started and he said I was probably one of 35 or 40 people who came out to their car and found all the stuff I described on the floor. Apparently, the glue used to affix the rearview mirror and the knobs and lenses worked fine in a nice Balkan climate but couldn't take the Colorado cold!

[@davidgoldin2577]

Visited Macedonia in the 1990s. Fun seeing a Yugo convertible along with one that has a pickup bed hauling cabbage.

[@lakrids-pibe]

Yugoslavia was also the setting for epic Euro-Westerns such as those about *Winnetou* and his friend *Old Shatterhand* , based on the popular books by Karl May

[@yurialtunin9121]

At 2.27 you have picture that you call "bombing of Belgrade in 1941". In fact it is German City Colon and monument of Friedrich -Wilhelm III

[@stevebabiak6997]

2:27 for those who want to click to that time in the video

[@aleksandarrudic3694]

The monument of Knez Mihajlo in Belgrade's Republic Square at first glance looks almost identical, that's probably why he mixed it up (although it would not be possible to photograph it from that angle)

[@yurialtunin9121]

@@aleksandarrudic3694 Dobro dan, Alexandar and hvala

[@aleksadjokic4115]

Cool video as usual! I have to correct one thing and it may be a topic for a next video, the picture at 14:39 is not a Zastava factory, rather its Elektronska Industrija Nis (Ei Nis ), a very big complex, around 22.000 people worked there, the pictures shows the parking lot, and in the background, the big building with vertical lines is a semiconductor company (Ei PP poluprovodnici). This is a very interesting topic with a sad history, i strongly recommend doing a video on it, if you need any assistance, I would be more then happy to help, I work there, in the image intensifier company (Ei SOVA).

[@jovicadamnjanovic3328]

One time, I drove my Yugo for a couple of months, in summer, with half empty cooling system. Solution? Turn the heater up to the max to take away the heat from the engine. After that, topped up the water in the cooling system and car continued as if nothing happened. Now it has a well deserved retirement at a local sport airfield - to pull back the rope from the glider's catapult. The car is indestructible.

[@filipivkovic7566]

Great insight in to history of the Zastava and Yugoslavia. I am from Serbia and it is really an objective view of the things that happened. I can imagine your knowledge base and depth of research to come up with this kind of information. Great content!

[@markbanash921]

Bricklin also had a manufacturing scandal with New Brunswick over the production of his eponymous car, the Bricklin, in that province. Look it up.

[@weedmanwestvancouverbc9266]

I know a guy in west Vancouver that love those cars being from the East. He had three of them, two he was Scavenging for parts

[@BillLaBrie]

Malcom Bricklin was like the Cosmo Kramer of the automotive world. Just kept coming back with crazier and crazier schemes. Subaru owes him eternal gratitude, however.

[@Gunni1972]

Losing a Bn $ for a company, where the hourly wage is 70 cents? is MASSIVE.

[@tamius-han]

Yugo is short for "You go, but the car doesn't." (Also a quick side note regarding pronunciation: while I really appreciate the effort as the names were considerably less butchered than I'm used to ... as a quick rule of thumb, in languages of former Yugoslavia, 'j' is typically pronounced like 'y' in English, and 'c' usually makes the 'ts' sound rather than 'k').

[@stevebabiak6997]

Wouldn’t ‘c’ be pronounced more like ‘cz’?

[@tamius-han]

@@stevebabiak6997 No. (As far as I'm aware), 'cz' is eastern slavic invention for the 'ch' (/⁠tʃ⁠/ + its variants) sound in English. Southern slavic languages¹ use č for that purpose. (Or ć, I'm actually not sure which of the two is closer). [1] the ones that use latin alphabets, at least

[@JmKrokY]

​@@tamius-hanSlovene and Croatian Kajkavian lack the ć sound.

[@Jeremyho439]

The Hyundai Excel also came into USA at the same time. Now it is the 5th largest automaker.

[@bobroberts2371]

In the day, there was a song to the tune of Sunday, Sunday , I wish I could find the source: Hyundai , Hyundai ( La, La Laa ) And Yugos too Those cheap imports look like doggy doo.

[@rydplrs71]

Without the 10 yr/100,000mi warranty and a commitment to improving quality they would have also failed.

[@JoseLopez-hp5oo]

When you found yourself chocking on oil fumes on the highway...you soon found yourself behind a Hyundai Pony! They have came a long way since then.

[@Jeremyho439]

@@rydplrs71 Why they were so stupid to offer 100000 miles warranty?

[@jimurrata6785]

​@@Jeremyho439Not stupid. Hyundai had a terrible (well deserved) reputation. They made a commitment to improve and warranted their drive line for what was at the time the minimum expected lifespan for a new car.

[@nikolapetrovic4814]

My family owned a Yugo for over 30 years, it still works fine with minimal maintenance. When it finally stops working, we will stop using it because spare parts are impossible to find. For some reason, export versions seem to break down constantly, that wasn't the case for cars intended for domestic use.

[@DacLMK]

My father's second car was a Yugo Koral 45 (his first car was a Renault 4). It was a great car, and I have fond memories of it from my childhood. He sold it in 2005, and bought a Skoda Fabia from my grandpa (to which he drove it until 2021, when he sold it to his friend). Today I still see people driving a Yugo from time to time, and you can even buy one for 100 euros or even less. Greetings from N.Macedonia.

[@dannymac6368]

So here for auto-Asianometry!

[@Kevin_Kennelly]

In the movie Dragnet, Jack Friday (Dan Akroyd) refers to the Yugo as "The cutting edge of Serbo/Croatian technology."

[@rodneydelboy6910]

There is a story about a guy finding a message in a messed up yugo door that said "kakva plata takva vrata" which translates to: the pay is bad so the door is bad. It is maybe a myth but still super funny

[@ljubomirculibrk4097]

Good part of them runed for ower ten years whit good maintanance. Motor whoud last up to 250k if driven carefully. Some are still on the road here in Serbia, those are over 20 years old now and clocking ower 300K

[@wach9191]

Wow Asianometry covering car industry? That's coold, very good video, meaybe you could make more videos about Asian car industry, or soviet, that was abysmal too.

[@dxg999]

Anyone remember the Moonlighting episode where Bruce Willis' character got given a Yugo 45 and had to drive around the place it in?

[@cpt_nordbart]

Ah Bricklin. This guy later created his own car company building the Bricklin SV 1 (safety vehicle) It was more of a worse Delorean. The most interesting thing were the gullwing doors. It didn't sell well either.

[@JeffBilkins]

18:26 This brought back memories, I forgot about the absolutely savage Yugo jokes. In hindsight I think it worked from the 'plucky' factor; like it is not very good but it was cheap, available and if it was your only option you we're glad it was there.

[@AsusMemopad-us5lk]

Exactly how VW gained market share in North America several decades earlier with the Beetle.

[@faulkner146]

There’s a reason I named my Tesla Yugo. It’s always at a Tesla service center. Though now i thinking Yugos are more reliable.

[@aaronbryan5095]

Congrats on buying a crapbox from that certain snake oil salesman

[@faulkner146]

@@aaronbryan5095 lol I actually bought it to prove that the technology isn’t ready to my liberal friends who couldn’t stop talking about how great Tesla was and couldn’t afford one.

[@DioTheGreatOne]

"Electric cars have less moving parts, that means they will be very reliable!" I've heard this statement thousands of times, but reality says otherwise.

[@segarallychampionship702]

@@DioTheGreatOne electric motors are dead simple, the problem is that everything is controlled through software and maybe the crap build quality

[@DioTheGreatOne]

@@segarallychampionship702 That's the problem tho, Electric cars are fully dependent on electronics and software, and electric fails are very common in almost any car, the difference is that in a combustion engine an electric failure could just trigger a "check engine" light in the dashboard while in an electric car that same fail would straight up stop the vehicle from working altogether. In some cases a simple bug in the software is already enough to turn an electric car into a giant paperweight.

[@buzzlightyear3715]

This is the 8th day I have been in Croatia. Came here for my wife's side family wedding. Today is the day. Anyway, all these days here, I did not see a single Yugo. May be they have all turned into dust. There are a few tours (for toursts of course) in Zegrab (capital) featuring Yugo as transportation. There has to be a demand for it. My wife said no to those tours very quickly.

[@gordanbabic8028]

those cars do not age well. and there is also croatian “allergy” in post-war period to anything that we connect with serbia so we retired zastava cars as soon as possibile 😂

[@buzzlightyear3715]

"Allergy". Like the way you put it. Even though the bride and groom have family tie to Seribia, my wife and I stayed far away the war and any politic. The bride is a baskerball player. In a short converation I have been "corrected" that Toni Kukoc is good and Vlade Divac is Serbian. And no one said a word to Vlade Divac, two years ago, when he was quitely visiting Dražen Petrović's grave and statue.

[@MS940]

Visit Bosnia or Serbia and you will find at least few of them. Years ago in Sarajevo I got 4 Yugos in same picture. Despite quality and everything those cars put Yugoslavia on wheels more or less, but long time has past since that.

[@JmKrokY]

I have only seen a Yugo in my hometown in Croatia twice. Mind you, I live in one of the larger urban areas in Croatia.

[@JmKrokY]

​@@gordanbabic8028Depends, some areas of the country don't really mind Serbs.

[@pashapasovski5860]

My father was a director of IMT that built tractors sold all over the World, mostly 3rd World, bigger and more complex than Yugo! Than there was Zmaj Combine tractors that were even more complex, not to mention jet planes built by military!

[@achaycock]

It's a shame that you skipped over the Florida so much. Although much of the running gear was FIAT, the design was specific to Zastava and was fully contemprary when it was launched in the late 1980's. The quality was dreadful and the sanctions pretty much killed its export sales, but skipping over that does leave the impression that Zastava was more primitive than it was. In the early 1990's the Florida (Yugo Sana in the UK) was by far the best looking and handling Eastern European car on the market.

[@danmenes3143]

They employed 1 million people and produced 190,000 cars per year? So each Yugo sold had to support five employee's entire annual salaries? Well, I suppose Zastava had other products, but still, that seems like a bad ratio.

[@Spajkist]

It's said in the video that the car factory had 50,000 employees and a productivity of 3.5 cars per worker

[@danmenes3143]

@@Spajkist Thanks, I missed that.

[@MaximGhost]

Zastava Arms is certainly a well-known brand currently in the weapons community for producing AK-47 clones with much higher quality than the Russians were able to acheive. Though the Zastava variants were a bit heavier due to thicker sheet metal used to press into receivers and removable housing covers, the extremely robust Zastava M70 was especially sought after by militaries and law enforcement agencies in non-NATO nations to attach an under-barrel grenade launcher to. (The law enforcement variants were used for riot-control to launch non-lethal tear gas canisters into crowds.) Before the AK-47 craze caught on in the U.S. as a Soviet-era memorabilia (hence, my own interest) and as a cheap prepper shooter along with cheap Soviet-era vacuum-seeled "spam cans" with 440 rounds of Stalinism in each can which you could in turn buy bundled in pairs by the crate, you could have gotten a brand new Zastava M70 for as low as $400. Now, you would be lucky if you could find one for 3x that price. That's just how "Amerikan Pig Kapitalism" works. 🤑 Here's what ChatGPT says about the relationship between the two OEM subsidiaries ... "Zastava Automobiles and Zastava Arms were subsidiaries of the parent company Zastava. Zastava, originally known as Zavodi Crvena Zastava, was a Serbian company that had various divisions, including those focused on automobiles and arms manufacturing. These subsidiaries operated under the Zastava brand but were distinct entities within the larger corporate structure of Zastava."

[@Miparwo]

Yes.The most common problem in socialism, because they don't have free market prices, is that they manufacture products that are worth less than the cost of production, hence the more they work, the poorer they get.

[@aregularperson7573]

Like guns here in the states you can by a zastava semi auto AK for around 1000 bucks.

[@danmcdonald9117]

We never had Yugo's here in Australia but here are a couple of jokes about a similarly crappy car we did have that would apply to the Yugo: Q: What do you call a Yugo on top of a hill? A:: A miracle! Q: What do you call a Yugo with twin exhaust pipes? A: A wheelbarrow! 🤣😆🤣

[@robinbeckford]

In the early 1980s I worked for the UK importer as a rectification autoelectrician. The number of faults on those vehicles was over the top, considering how simple it was. Some looked like deliberate sabotage, and I got the feeling that a lot of the assembly workers were not a happy lot. It was never going to compete with Japanese or Italian cars of equivalent size.

[@ewerybody]

That chuckle! I'm watching you all your vids and first time I hear you like that! Priceless :D

[@shakalpb1164]

I inherited a 1986 Zastava 101 from my grandfather. The best part of the car is the Fiat engine.

[@UtahBlender]

I remember seeing those cars in print ads back in rural Maine. The $4k price tag was very tempting, but we still drove junkers instead.

[@eusebiosksipolitos2524]

Greetings from Balkans...Thank you for this...

[@ilijapjescic5102]

Изненађен сам избором теме, али још више и самом аналитиком проблема, као и нивоом детаља. Одлично! Ако кад будете у Београду, за овај видео имате од мене пиће (или два :) ). Поздрав

[@sergejbozinovic6096]

Fun video! It would be helpful if there was a list of sources for further reading. I only noticed image credits in the video and nothing in the description

[@zpetar]

How? Why? I'm from Serbia and I'm following this channel for a long time. I would never imagined chanel like this one would make video about ZASTAVA.

[@scottgfx]

When I started college in 1988, there was a guy on campus that had a red Yugo. I rode in it once. My opinion then was that it was like riding in a giant roller-skate. - Dave Letterman on his NBC Late Nite show had joke that went something like… "Yugo has a new model coming out. The 'Yugo Screw Yourself'".

[@typxxilps]

0:32 - the main head lamp on the driver side looks quite yellow or used - from the factory.

[@hamjudo]

I saw a Yugo once with a big spoiler and a large engine air intake scoop on the hood. The scoop didn't go through the hood to the engine. It had normal low speed tires. The interior appeared unmodified. It was just racecar cosplay.

[@jimcurt99]

I have not watched this entire video yet- but you get a like and subscribe because of the opening line alone- it's PERFECT

[@mostwantedmiksa]

My father owned zastava 101 which was bought brand new in 1973 by my grandad. From his stories car was very reliable and didnt break even once. The quality of cars from zastava (as in any automotive company) raised during years. They had best quality around 1980-1989 before state collapsed.

[@EyesOfByes]

1:57 Hey! I've been there!! My profile pic is from that harbour!

[@jakegarvin7634]

4:08 "Oh, you're really wearing that suit?"

[@ManMountainMetals]

Sparkomatic radios were standard in Yugos. They were even branded Yugo on the front. 😂

[@JazzDogTraveler]

I remember a former co-worker who purchased a Yugo G/T. I asked him how it was, as I was interested in a cheap car to drive the 60 mile round trip daily commute. He said, "well, I drove it off the lot and the rear windshield wiper fell off. It's okay now." He kept that car running for years.

[@seeranos]

A worker council without worker ownership is a recipe for dislocation and disinterest in success.

[@brucewilliams6292]

You come up with some great videos. I love your diversity of topics! The jokes were funny!

[@buffgarlichero]

Just a tip: the letter "J" is ALWAYS pronounced as "y", and the letter "c" is ALWAYS pronounced as "ts". There are no exceptions, at least none that I can think of. Good video!

[@richteffekt]

Sorry for not clicking earlier; I loved the other thumbnail. Now I get counted on the wrong side of the test, nooo. 😂 Thanks again for your output, especially shedding light on the best car in the world, a Zastava. Because, of course.

[@petarpopovic3306]

This is an amazingly good video about yugoslavia and zastava . Great work

[@jonathankleinow2073]

Why do Yugos come with rear window defrosters? So your hands won't get cold.

[@shanweeboy]

I remember a story my dad told me about his friend's yugo. He said it broke down at the foot of a driveway and it only took him and 3 other people to physically lift the thing and carry it to the curb next to the driveway so it would stop blocking entry.

[@le0fonzagoric164]

We had Fica 750 for 15 years. My father is 195cm tall. And we went on hollidays, transported house appliances and furniture. Went offroad, travelled 700km in one go. Family of four. Nowdays when I see one I wonder how people were happy, relaxed, unburdened, how little did we have, and how my father could sit and drive this small car, and mother, kids and luggage all fit in and all was fine... ❤😊

[@markgjidoda2745]

My parents left Yugoslavia in 1969. But I used to visit as a child then as a teen, and as an adult. The fič was awesome, it had the roof rack for luggage. I would love to have one and have it fully restored. I saw one on the Jackie Robinson parkway in New York. It looked fantastic.

[@bagusfarisa]

The design is unironically pretty cool

[@john-carl2054]

9:31 looks like the guy tore his sleeves off in preparation for a fight 😂

[@FastJack42]

I remember the name "Zastava" from my childhood. My grandparents drove one in the early 80ies in Poland. And I was today years old when I learned that it was built in Yugoslavia

[@RetroMario]

Yugo was actually very popular in Greece and there are a few still on the road today! I have more Yugo jokes! Why did the Yugo couldn't go at a green light? It stepped on a chewed gum. What's the difference between the Yugo and Yugo GT? The Yugo GT comes with a cigarette lighter. And what's the difference between Yugo GT and Yugo GT Turbo? The cigarette lighter in the latter actually works. Okay I'm editing this to put more context. In Greece there was a subtle push for European cars. The cheaper of those were made from LADA (Russia) and Zastava. Coming for fellow orthodox and socialist (yes back then Greece was more socialist) nations, it was an extra perk. So, there are many of them still roaming the streets because many of the families kept them. That being said, It's almost a family cart-postale of the 80's and 90's: a family with two kids, crammed in a Yugo (or a Lada) filled with stuff - almost like moving the entire house - going to the "Horio" (village of origin of one of the parents) for vacation with the grandparents. Yugos were inexpensive and were getting the job done for young adults and young parents who wanted a cheap car to get around. It had a myriad of problems, sure, but the parts were so primitive, the secondary and third party parts markets were thriving. Some of them were actually made in Greece. So it was inexpensive to fix and the fixes were leaving behind a better car because they ended up fixing what was badly made from the beginning. This is why they still exist in circulation today.

[@jenpsakiscousin4589]

If you go to the balkans you will still see old zastavas and yugos. I was in Nis a few years ago and saw 2 parked together.

[@JTA1961]

They were hoping they'd ... procreate

[@klauszinser]

That was also a good introduction/remembrance of Yugoslavia.

[@100Kakdela]

Awesome, as always. Maybe do a video about Latvian RAF (bus manufacturer) or VEF (electronics), which were quite renowned in the USSR, but quickly collapsed after the breakup of the Union?

[@VedranCro]

Asianometry, Yugo straight to my heart with this video

[@asphalatos1]

Great video, pronunciation is a little bit off, but that’s understandable. Only mistake worth mentioning is it is Fićo, not Fića

[@super_slav91]

The Yugo 45 was not a bad car, the people who bought them were of a demographic that could not afford to maintain a car let alone own own one, if maintained they last forever. Props for pronouncing Slovenia and Slovenians correctly.

[@maksimum018]

I live in Niš (about 150km or 95miles form Kragujevac where Zastava factory actually produces Fiat Panda electric now) and the image at 14:40 is actually a parking lot in front of Ei factory in Niš, it was an electronics company with more than 20k employees. There's an anecdote related to this parking lot and the cars parked there. Since Sofia (capital of Bulgaria) is very close (160km or 100 miles) there was a summit with Bulgarians about some collaboration with Ei and MiN (also a big factory in Niš at the time) and the Bulgarian delegation on their way to Niš passed next to this parking lot, so naturally when they started the talks with Yugoslavian authorities they also wanted to collaborate with the auto industry in Niš. The Yugoslavs had no idea what they were talking about cos there never was an auto industry in Niš, after some explanation they figured out the confusion and had a few laughs. Another joke was: Why does yugo have heaters on the rear windshield? To keep your hands warm while you push it.

[@spacecase13]

In my high school days in the early 1990's a weight training teacher's students lifted his Yugo into a tree.

[@JmKrokY]

I would not say that it was the most complex product made by Yugoslavia, not even the most complex consumer export.

[@StereoBucket]

Random fact. John Romero at some point had a Yugo car.

[@michealoflaherty1265]

"And since making love in the back of a Yugo is a logistical impossibility " Dan Akroyd in the 1987 movie, Dragnet

[@scott72able]

Employed one million people?! Ah, I do not think so.

[@kirkandkaylaglaser2922]

I worked for Midas in Cincinnati in late 80’s. We were getting Yugos in for worn out brake pads/shoes. the cars had 3,000 miles on them and we could not get the parts even from the dealership

[@timothybaker8234]

What do you call a four door Yugo? Wego!

[@theleva7]

There also was a car brand called Wheego. Just as with Yugos, the unspoken part of the name is "...but don't go far"

[@JmKrokY]

Nowadays Croatia (one of the countries of former Yugoslavia) has Rimac, an electric sport car manifacturer, which made cars such as Rimac Nevera.

[@TheOwlGuy777]

Omni Adast printing presses were also made there until the factory was destroyed. They were low cost presses when German equipment was unaffordable. They were extremely Eastern Bloc and crude, but they worked if you made modifications with modern systems.