(first posted 6/8/2015) When I stumbled across this sunshine yellow Yugo Cabriolet next to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, I didn’t realize I was looking at possibly the rarest car I’ve ever seen, both in terms of original sales volumes and in survival rates.
Just 500 of these little convertibles were manufactured, between 1990 and 1991 (the regular hatch ran from 1985 until 1991). Between 75 and 100 were imported to North America before strife in Yugoslavia resulted in the withdrawal of the Yugo brand from the North American market.
That wasn’t the only surprising fact I would learn upon researching this little convertible. These featured an electro-hydraulic top with fully retracting quarter windows and even a heated, glass (not plastic!) rear window. To keep your hands warm while pushing it, perhaps, to borrow an oft-repeated joke.
Of course, with such old mechanicals (the Fiat 127 donor car first launched in 1971), one would expect the Yugo to be at least somewhat reliable. However, complaints were legion about the little car’s tendency towards breakdowns. They also had a deserved reputation for being outdated and often poorly assembled with cheap materials.
And yet, despite its vintage and its quality, this Yugo Cabriolet I spotted is quite a cute little number. Shale gray upholstery with red piping was available, thus making for an airy cabin even with the roof up.
Still, a convertible is generally a compromise and the Yugo Cabriolet represented even more of one. While the top-of-the-line hatchback had a fuel-injected four, the Cabrio models relied on a 1.3 SOHC four with a two-barrel carburetor and only 61hp and 68 ft-lbs of torque.
To add insult to injury, you paid a hefty premium for letting the sun shine in: $8,900 was the list price, while a hatchback retailed for $4,435. Yes, it was the cheapest convertible on sale, but a Geo Metro convertible was only around $2k more.
The Cabrio was supposed to be the start of a new era at Yugo: the aged 127-based hatch was to make way for the Yugo Florida (Sana in some markets), a smartly-styled and more modern hatchback. Of course, with troubles in the region, those plans fell apart.
Part of the Yugo hatchback’s charm, if you can call it that, was that it was supposed to be simple and unpretentious transport. In fact, the Yugo was marketed heavily as being an “old idea”: basic transport in the vein of the old Beetle. But this convertible, although smartly executed, represented a hefty price hike over that unassuming hatchback. Paying $4k for a shoddily-built Eastern Bloc hatchback was a fool’s errand: you could get a much better used car for the same money. As the Yugo was revealed to be less of a bargain than originally thought, sales slid accordingly. The twice-as-expensive Cabriolet never stood a chance.
What a staggering premium for the drop top! After looking at those pictures, the Geo convertible looks like a Lexus in comparison. How much more was a VW Cabriolet over this?
How much more was a VW Cabriolet over this?
A lot; somthing like six or seven thousand more.
Unreal—-a Yugo convertible—who knew! How much dedication it must take to keep that thing on the road.
I had a friend with a red hatchback Yugo. She bought a box of window cranks from the dealer and kept them in the car because they snapped off so easily. Snapped cam belts resulting in bent valves killed many of these. Been a long time since I saw one.
I talked with a woman who used to be in my office building who had two of them, and loved them both. She claimed that if you knew what you were doing with them, they were great little cars. She may be the only person in America who went back for a second. I have forgotten what happened to the first one, I think it got hit after she had owned it for quite awhile.
Ha! My old girlfriend had a new Yugo back in 88 or so and I remember the window cranks constantly breaking. I solved that problem by going to the local junkyard and pulling some window cranks off of an old Gran Torino and retrofitting them. Never had that problem again, had countless others though, the most memorable of which was when the bolts holding the passenger seat to the floor sheared off, dumping me into the back seat on the Maine Turnpike and soaking me with my coffee. Good times, good times…
I also had two Yugos back in the day. I bought my first one with great trepidation back in 1991. I bought mine for about $1000, and it made a great commuter car. Mine had the Cromodoro wheels, A/C and an AM/FM cassette with four speakers! It ran better (sometimes) than my late, lamented Dodge Lancer ES Turbo. It was totaled in an accident, but I was able to keep the car for parts.
My second one was bought off of an iron lot, it had been abused a great deal. I was glad I had the first car for parts, as there had been a lot of bad repairs done to the cars in it’s short time. I believe it was a classic case of buying a cheap car and then ignoring (or abusing) it until it broke. Then they disposed of it. I was able to upgrade the second one with parts from the first one and it was a reliable little runner for three years for me. In addition, Bayless was then based in Atlanta, and I could get any Fiat parts I needed through them. Later, I then sold it to a friend of my BIL’s who was down on his luck. He drove the car for another couple of years as far as I knew.
I enjoyed mine, they were like these inexpensive car that would go anywhere and you could park anywhere. Nobody ever broke into mine or stole anything out of it. Great gas mileage, but a bit too high a gear ratio for freeway driving. That little motor was screaming at freeway speeds, but it did have a good power curve for such a tiny motor.
I often think about getting another one, but I think I’d like the advances made in the last 25-30 years. I’d probably look at a Fiat 500 if I were so inclined.
The car is a complete wreck. I’ve been photographing it for years and can’t believe it’s still running. Let me know if you want current pictures. I’ve chatted with the owner and she swears it’s the safest car on the road. Oh oh!
Wow, I don’t think I ever knew these existed. I had long stopped paying any attention to Yugo by the time these came out. But I find my self actually wanting this car now. Badly. Just because I will never run into another person who owns one. Ever. And I could probably buy it for $1500. This find definitely qualifies you for the CC Hall of Fame.
Before everyone goes ballistic on the Yugo, keep in mind they had their virtues. They were cheap, and, um, they were cheap, and oh yeah, they were cheap.
I do recall the convertible. I can just imagine a few people driving these home, top down, all excited about their convertible – and then soon the reality of the car’s one virtue would set in.
Like one auto reviewer said about the Yugo-“if I had to commute back and forth to my job in a Yugo, I`d wind up hating my job”.Another reviewer said”if theEast builds their weapons like a Yugo, we`d have nothing to worry about if we get into W.W lll.
Now They are building Fiat Punto and the brand new 5 door 500…in the same old factory where Yugos had been built in the past…
Actually, old factory was destroyed during bombing campaign in 1999. They built new factory from ground up.
If you would like a good read, try “The Yugo” written by Jason Vuic. It tells the whole sordid story. For many years I had heard of Malcolm Bricklin, but I never realized what a crook the guy was.
Years ago R&T or C&D, don’t remember which one had an artilcle about the worst people to be in business with in the automotive world and Malcolm Bricklin was at the top of the list. This was about the time his EV Warrior business was going belly up. His bright idea this that time was to capitialize on California’s ZEV mandate. The idea was that somehow CA would except it as a ZEV for automakers to sell or more realistically give away with the purchase of a car to meet their ZEV quota. I don’t know if he ever got it approved to meet those requirements but he went about setting up dealers for the EV Warrior focusing on automobile dealers, not bicycle dealers. The EV Warrior was a cheap Chinese made bicycle with a motor and battery strapped on to it when it hit our shores.
4 attempts at being in the auto industry, all of them failures.
First Subaru which while we have them today it is only because the parent company stepped in and took over. Followed by his biggest folly the self named Bricklin. When that wasn’t enough he brought in the Yugo and again the parent company ended up stepping in when his company set up to import them went under.
Now there there was one way to do business with Bricklin and make out alright and that was to be his Lawyer and his Lawyer happened to be my Wife’s Uncle. He got a very nice Bricklin as part of the “payment” for taking care of the bankruptcy that resulted from the Yugo. In my FIL’s storage yard in the 90’s there were also a number of decrepit Bricklins hiding, including one of the early prototypes that was powered by a Torino engine, and not a Ford Torino engine but the straight 6 Torino which was the improved and renamed Kaiser-Jeep Tornado engine produced by IKA-Renault. It was probably what led to the use of the AMC V8 for the early models.
My uncle in law also helped with the formation of the EV Warrior business and he ended up with a number of those as well.
You actually missed one – between the Bricklin and the Yugo, he was responsible for importing the Fiat X/9 as the Bertone x/9 after Fiat pulled out of the US market.
Yup forgot about those.
Yeah, Malcolm Bricklin seems like sort of a bargain-basement John DeLorean. Both of those guys were so full of charm and charisma that it was incredibly easy to get suckered into whatever scheme they had going at the time.
In fact, you have to wonder what old Malcolm is up to these days. The last thing was his failed attempt to bring the Chinese Chery into the US and, AFAIK, there’s still a bunch of legal wrangling going on over that one.
Great story.
Hopelessly cute, but the top INSIDE the body is unbelievably dumb design. All the water will end up in the trunk.
Maybe it wasn’t built that way originally, or maybe it’s like a boat with scuppers to carry away the drainage?
I understand there were “catch basins” under the car that the water was supposed to flow into, but the owners never bothered to crawl underneath, remove the plugs, and drain the water out, so……..Eastern European engineering.
A Yugo convertible? That’s as silly as a Cadillac truck……..Oh,Wait …
This a stellar find indeed! I didn’t realize that there just so few sold, which makes this quite a unicorn.
The price mark-up was undoubtedly necessary to try to recoup the considerable cost of making these, as they were quite different from the sedan. it was really more about being the cheapest convertible on the market.
I guess some people are just so afraid of used cars that they’d buy something like this? Because I can’t really imagine what this would give you that a year-old Metro Convertible, or a two year-old Cavalier convertible, or a three year-old Golf Cabrio, wouldn’t do better. Other than perhaps new-car smell.
That having been said, it’s very cool to see a rare survivor like this and good to see that it seems to be in the hands of an owner who cares (it would have to be to still be in working order!)
There is a very powerful appeal in a new car because of that beautiful English word ‘Warranty’.
I also think that its Eastern European origin gave the Yugo sort of a perverse attractiveness. In the same way one assumes that the proverbial Farmer’s Daughter will be willing, strong, and healthy even if not sophisticated, people believed that a Yugo would be Fiat-fun-to-drive, simple, robust, and easy to repair – a Fiat reimagined by a tractor/tank manufacturer so to speak.These were cars for the people who claim that power windows, air conditioning, and automatic transmissions are liabilities not virtues because they are expensive,unnecessary, and more difficult to repair.
By the way, I did not know that it was the war that ended the Yugo’s run in the U.S. Market. I had always assumed that it was the tar, feathers, and pitchforks.
Good point. I’m thinking in terms of today’s warranty world, where it’s effectively impossible to buy a car with less than a 3-year warranty and 5+ is more common. So if you buy a 1 or 2 year old car, there’s still a comforting amount of warranty remaining. That wasn’t the situation in the 80’s, I suppose.
In fact, the Yugo’s build quality only *really* tanked when the war started and exports halted. Hyperinflation bankrupted Serbia very rapidly and the war and trade embargoes made raw materials hard to come by, but production had to continue anyway. Hence, every part available was used, resulting in Yugos with many mismatched parts, some with American-spec engines ill-fitted for local fuel supply, some parts missing altogether etc. Those built before the wars were much better, even if that’s little to shout about. The best ones were built after the wars were over though.
Actually, common opinion among mechanics and car fan in whole ex-Yugoslavia region that the best Zastava cars (including Yugo, 101 and 128) were built between mid-1988 and mid-1992. Especially those that were destined for export were built with special care (no mismatched parts, additional cavity protection and rust protection, all screws properly tightened 🙂 ).
We had a ’97 Yugo that had speedo in miles, exhaust made for cat, but with a simple pipe squeezed in its place,really hurting engine breething ( standard Yugo 55 had 4-2-1- exhaust ) … Not to mention porous block that required re-sleeving one cylinder at 6000 miles… It took us 3 years to fix everything and make it a usable (and mildly reliable) car.
Yugos from 2000. and later are even bigger piece of junk,with new plastic bumpers and side protection, acting as even bigger mud-traps (…and eventual rust areas).
Ahhhh……This car has the same body and top color of the Yugo convertible I fell in love with at the NYC Auto show. Must’ve been ’90?
I wonder if it’s the same car (would they have shown it anywhere else?) or if all the convertibles that were made followed this color scheme. And yes, I fell for it because it was the height of impossibility, starting with the notion of a Yugo Convertible, down to the extreme cheesy cheapness of the interior.
But you gotta remember, saving $2000 bucks was still a lot back then! (“til you spent it on the serial breakdowns and parts failures).
My other fond Yugo memory is of watching one grind to a halt in front of my office on Des Plaines Ave., in Chicago, seeing the driver spend a long time trying to get it restarted, and then a few hours later watching the owner and a friend show up in another Yugo with a rope to tow it away. It was only 8 degrees that day…. a fine time to tow a Yugo with Yugo with a rope. Cars today are just too darn reliable.
I believe they came in yellow, red and white
The last yugo I saw was in 2002 covered in weeds with 4 flat tires
They came in black also as I bought one brand new. I drove that for car for four years before selling it. This car never let me down and I put over 100,000 miles on it. I do want to get another for a hobby car now. One I should have held on to.
Yes…I too fell in love with this little nugget at the 1990 NYAS. Funny thing, I didnt realize it at the time. My first reaction was…’seriously, a Yugo convertible?! In Yellow and Silver no less?! Ha!’ And yet, THAT’S the car that stayed with me in my memories so much so, it’s my ‘unicorn’.
This provides a new answer to the old joke: How do you double the value of a Yugo? Fill the tank with gas. Or in this case, make it a convertible.
Patina lover that I am, I’d like to see this one fully restored.
Why do Yugos have rear window defrosters?
To keep your hands warm while you push it.
How do you make a Yugo go faster? A towtruck.
What do you call the shock absorbers inside a Yugo? Passengers.
The Yugo has an air bag. When you sense an impending accident, start pumping real fast.
A friend went to a dealer and said, “I’d like a gas cap for my Yugo.” The dealer replied, “Okay. Sounds like a fair trade.”
What do a Yugo and a Ferrari have in common? A Ferrari goes from 0 to 60 in 4 seconds. A Yugo goes from 0 to 4 in 60 seconds.
How are Yugos and door to door evangelists alike? You can’t close the door on either one!
How many people does it take to build Yugos? Two, one folding, one gluing!
Yugo Service manual:
Step 1. Raise hood
Step 2. Remove radiator cap
Step 3. Push car off cliff
Step 4. Push new Yugo under old radiator cap
Step 5. Install old cap on new car
Step 6. Lower hood (very gently).
Oh, another fun fact about these (if you didn’t notice it in the pictures) .. the folded top took up the entire back seat!
Best Yugo I ever saw was in the waiting room at Grand Central Terminal (NY to the non-cognoscenti).
It had been “arted” into a full-size toaster.
Quite possibly the best example of art following life.
It was actually an art school art project. Evidently the art teacher put an ad out asking for Yugos, and a bunch of people gave them away to him.
http://www.cruisin66.com/stl/yugonext.html
Google Groups search result
From: Barry S. Marjanovich
Date: 1996/04/12
The following story appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Jan. 1, written
by Times Staff Writer Paul Dean with the explanation: “The Yugo died an
agonizing death as the worst thing to hit the road. Now, it’s found a
higher purpose as art”:
Reviled when alive, celebrated only when it rattled into extinction, the
awful Yugo is back from perdition; as a fun cluster of three-dimensional
art.
“It’s the total abysmal failure of a car that makes our exhibit a
success,” explains art teacher Kevin O’Callaghan, father of the
collection. On the basis, presumably, that any purpose for a Yugo is a
huge improvement. “Exactly. If we’d done it with a Volkswagen Beetle
people would have killed us for desecrating something that once was very
useful.”
But nobody has sympathy for the Yugo. Only bad dreams.
Junkyards won’t take them. Dogs never chased them. No Yugo was reported
stolen because no owner wanted it back. When O’Callaghan picked up one
for his project with Manhattan’s School for Visual Arts, he got it for
nothing plus a spaghetti dinner.
“Negatives were the challenge,” says O’Callaghan. “So a year ago last
Thanksgiving, I told my students: ‘Take the Yugomobile and give it some
purpose beyond what it was originally designed to do.'”
Three dozen students and graduates took an equal number of dead Yugos-
average purchase price $100, total price $3,900- and snipped, sliced,
disemboweled and restuffed them into “Yugo Again, Fuel For Thought,” a
winking, fanciful, whimsical muster of what might have been.
And this week, while Washington ummmmms thoughtfully over 21 oils by
Johannes Vermcer at the National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles gets to
giggle at 19 recycled Yugos at the opening of the Greater Los Angeles
Auto Show at the Convention Center.
Look for the paneled, intimidating Yugo confessional by Ann Marie
Mattioli, complete with stained glass and tape-recorded mutterings.
Inspiration was no huge reach for Mattioli. She spent 12 years in
Catholic school.
Then there’s the blue-tiled, fully plumbed, steamed-up Yugo Shower by
Jude Dominque (‘the ultimate commuter convenience, a car you can shower
in”) and a Yugo movie theater by Brendan Kennedy (“There’s a movie
projected on the inside of the windshield…We thought something
dreadful like ‘The Blob’ more in keeping with something terrible like
the Yugo”) and a 750-brick Yugo BBQ by Polish expatriate Piotr Wosniak.
(“I wanted to create something that’s a backyard fixture because that’s
where most Yugos wind up anyway.”)
Artistic cute is the show’s characteristic. Coils glow, Styrofoam bread
pops up, and smoke curls from the rear windshield of a Yugo toaster. The
neon above Hugo’s Diner is broken and only “UGO” gleams. The Yugo
Port-O-Potty, with a toilet roll mounted on the steering wheel, looks
grubby enough to be viewed at a distance.
Like most concepts of substance, O’Callaghan’s inspiration was a quick
glimpse and instant realization. He was driving from his mother’s home
on Long Island and saw kids playing stickball on a vacant lot. Their
backstop was an abandoned Yugo.
Somehow, it made less of a waste of the Yugo.
Whenever one purpose is done, he mused, creative process can begin.
O’Callaghan, a movie set director, designer of Elton John’s over-huge
sunglasses, and teacher of three-dimensional design and illustration at
the School of Visual Arts, took out an ad: “Yugos Wanted: Dead or
Alive.”
Eighty offers were fielded. Two cars came running. One poor soul
implored O’Callaghan to take his immaculate, perfectly waxed, fully
registered Yugo. Please.
“Seems he’d blown the engine years earlier and couldn’t get a new one,”
remembers O’Callaghan. “The condominium association said if he intended
parking it at his place, he’d have to keep it polished and registered.”
Yugos, a bastard Fiat coupe built in Yugoslavia, arrived in the United
States in 1985 as a plastic-lined tin box costing $3,999. It was the
closest thing yet to a disposable car.
Six months later, with the nation’s highways already ankle-deep in
ailing Yugos, Consumer Reports said the car was the worst it had ever
evaluated. The national Highway Safety Administration ruled the Yugo the
most dangerous car on the road. Seat belts broke, engines froze,
windshields popped out, and an auto magazine said Yugo’s manual shifter
felt like a baseball bat stuck in a barrel of coconuts. Which was being
particularly unkind to the coconuts.
In 1992, Yugo America was in bankruptcy.
“When you start looking at what’s left, you realize how bad these
vehicles really were,” says O’Callaghan. “One was rigged with a doorbell
buzzer you pressed to start the engine. Another had a gate latch from a
hardware store holding a door that wouldn’t close.
“I felt bad about taking one because Tiffany, the young woman who owned
it, said it had been her first car and she had named it Sophie. Then she
told me she’d named it Sophie after an aunt she couldn’t stand.”
Since O’Callaghan and crew began squeezing art from the sourest of
lemons, “Yugo Again” has been applauded from New York to Tokyo.
There’s talk of exhibiting the collection in Montreal and maybe the
Pompidou Center in Paris.
All that traveling, loading and unpacking, of course, is tough on the
exhibits. Pieces fall off. Bits don’t work. Sometimes only ingenuity
keeps things moving.
Rather like owning a real Yugo.
I’m curious
What does “Yugo Cabriolet – Western Frivolity, Eastern Bloc Style” mean?
My guess is that it means that a cabriolet is a western frivolity.
Frivolous:
1. characterized by lack of seriousness or sense: frivolous conduct.
2. self-indulgently carefree; unconcerned about or lacking any serious purpose.
I suppose if someone held a gun to my head I’d admit that my convertible (which I use to commute to work every day) is self-indulgent. But it has a very serious purpose – to make my drive to work enjoyable.
My father was seriously considering a Yugo on at least two separate occasions that I can remember. The first in 1989 when his completely rusted-out Plymouth Volare was due for replacement. They sold new ones at the local Nissan-Jeep-Yugo dealer (Campbell Motors) in Sarasota and we actually test drove a new one. I remember it being loud, slow, and that the interior fabric felt like our scratchy vintage 1978 or so sofa that I hated. My Mom left with a new Sentra, while Dad took over her still-nice Buick. I suppose the salesmen showing the Yugo first was a great way to unload a whole lot of base Sentras to people looking for something cheap, but not awful.
The second time was a used Yugo in about 1991 or so. At the time, his Buick Skylark was starting to show its age, and at just 2-3 years old with under 20k miles on the clock, the shiny red Yugo at about $2k really looked like a bargain to him. I remember that it still looked like a new car, albeit a really cheap one. Luckily, common sense won out and he ended up with a used Pontiac Grand Prix. Bullet–dodged.
I had almost forgotten these existed! How easy/hard would it be to get a replacement convertible top? How hard would it be to get parts, in general?
Surely you can`t be serious.
Don’t call me Surely.
I’m sure an upholstery shop could probably custom-make a top, but it probably wouldn’t be cheap.
Parts might not be too bad, since it’s basically a rebadged Fiat 127/144. There is a YugoParts.com – no idea if they are any good.
Right, that’s what I’m saying! They’d have to homemake something. Just looking at those gray trim pieces on the side of the car – I can’t imagine.
You could try to search on google.rs / “delovi za yugo” and some of the local serbian carpart dealers websites may have them. If you are lucky very few of them should have english language options as well (?). Anyway google translate could help either. It’s for the case if anybody might be an overseas Yugo enthusiast…
The local dealer was also a Buick dealer at the time and to move their inventory of two slow sellers, the Yugo and late 80’s Rivieras they ran a promotion of buy one get one free. Buy a Riv and get the Yugo for free.
Holy cats! I have seen that VERY car repeatedly! My mother lived in Riverdale until 2011 when she passed away and in my frequent visits with her in her last few years I could not help but notice that thing always parked within a few blocks of the location of your photos. Sometimes, despite the passage of a two week interval between visits, it would be parked in the EXACT SAME SPOT! If I had ANY doubts that it’s the same car (and I really didn’t) they were dispelled by the slightly goofy vanity plate.
Yugos are still alive and running every day in Belgrade, Serbia.
Agree 🙂 I have exact same Yugo like those (mine is 25 years old,though 🙂 ) doing 25,000 km a year as a light delivery vehicle. Not much trouble with it, if maintained properly (which means using better-than-original parts and oils). It may not be the most comfortable (I really miss air-con these days…), or convenient (roof line is too low, hatch opening too small), but it does the job.
Oh, it’s also great for light offroad deliveries (with M&S tires, of course), on particulary badly cambered and steep piece of muddy, rutted road, following Lada Niva without problem 🙂
As a side note, my previous Yugo was sold with 229,500km and still ran another 3 years on daily basis.
I have just recalled having promised my Yugo story to Paul two years ago…:)
Misha, I think people here do not understand Eastern Block (and I count the old Yugoslavia as a part of that in so far as car production is concerned with). The cars were usually years behind Western cars and broke often but when they did, the village ironmonger could fix them. Not something you can do with any Western car if you are stuck 600 miles away from the nearest dealer (as the case would be in Russia). Of course, the producers of these cars did not understand Western car buyers:)
And as we both know, if you are prepared to invest some money and can do the work, there is a Fiat Abarth hiding in any Yugo…
A cheap fun car
You are right, 99%. They actually broke as often as Fiats, Opel, some Fords, so reliability was not that horrible (I would say on par with most GM-FORD-CHRYSLER cars from the “Malaise” period ). But they were easy to fix and that was a part of a problem – under-qualified mechanics using all sort of junk parts and ill-remedies to sometimes serious problems (I still recall troubles I had with my rear brakes…that actually required very simple solution).
As for converting a Yugo to Fiat Abarth – it would actually cost helluva lot of money, as too many technical concepts on it were already 15 years too old, when they introduced Yugo in 1981. It would be much cheaper to get Peugeot 205 GTI or Golf Mk1 GTI or even famous rwd Corolla. 🙂
But, there is a certain (…certainly irrational…:) …) charm in driving 25-year old Yugo 65 and I still do enjoy it…:)
Ooooo… I want this one. Without all of the stripes, though…
Well, I would not know it would be that expensive if you don’t care about how you get there, the engine is Fiat-based, I have a feeling you’d be able to stuff a later Fiat FWD engine/box in there. I know people do the older rear engined Zastavas like that (those are essentially Fiat 600s, to those who do not know), so you just need a mechanic who has common sense. From what I’ve seen so far, most Serbian mechanics will take on ANYTHING, so…
Throughout the 6 republix of former-Yugoslavia! Not only in Belgrado… Italianos had meant that the Yugo was worth to wear their Innocenti badge as well… The RHD Yugo had been also exported to the U.K., Malta, Cyprus! Netherlands, Germany and Hungary also imported them…
Neat ~ I never heard of a Yugo flop top before .
Nice to see there’s at least one still operating .
In a harsh environment no less .
-Nate
Just so you know, Yugoslavia wasn’t an Eastern Bloc country. It had, in fact, been a Western ally of sorts.
That is a crazy good find, though. That isn’t a garage queen, but a daily driver, and you have to wonder where the owners have found service and parts for the thing. It’s said that once the engine switched to fuel injection, the cars were actually quite reliable, and I believe the ‘vert was fuel injected (but I’m not sure).
Exactly a “Non-Aligned” sort of a country…which ensured good economic relations both with the so called “Western and Eastern World”. The fuel injected versions wore the EFi sign. But most of them stood Carburated…non-catalyst. The engines were manufactured under Fiat licence by the engine manufacturing company DMB nearby Belgrado/Serbia. Not only Yugo cars had been equiped with DMB engines. I was surprised when once I looked under the hood of an american export Fiat 128 manufactured in Torino Italy. That car had also a 1.1 Litre carburated DMB engine. No the Yugo isn’t a garage-queen. But the Cabrio has the most serious appearance among the Yugos…and in the ’80’s it was an acceptable choice as a low-budgeted economy-car for average “non-aligned” working folks…
I don’t think I’ve ever seen something that was quite so rare and at the same time utterly worthless.
Somebody alert Hollywood – in case they’re thinking of remaking “Drowning Mona”. They’ve done just about everything else.
Given the discretionary nature of convertible purchases, the required cachet and their well documented deficiencies as primary transport, what ever drove the decision to offer this at the lowest rung on the ladder? M Bricklin was no M Hoffmann…
Good find and yes quite rare, how ever this MK V Jag is one of 17 built more pics of it on the cohort
Hate to be a buzzkill, but I don’t know if it’s the grey paint, or the angle, but, especially in the rear view, that ragtop looks like a conversion someone did in their driveway with a pair of tin snips and a hammer. The Metro looks like a work of art in comparison.
Last Yugo I saw was in a strip center parking lot around 94. It sat motionless for months.
It does look like that, but then again, it could just be that famous Yugo build quality….
Not that anybody really cares, but this car is in fact a 1990 model (GVC Cabrio, to be specific).
What a rare find indeed and thanks for taking photos. I wonder how close to the original color the quarter panel is?
A Yugo convertible in the US? That has to be the find of Convertible Week!
Yugo – along with Eastern Bloc comrades Skoda and Lada, were in the UK, often purchased by retirees – a way to get a new car at a used car price. Many had sparing pampered use, and consequently lasted on our roads. Most have now gone and a rare sighting.
-Too bad these were such poorly built pieces of crap, as they were quite cute to look at. The Cabrio models with the top down were especially cute.
I think with the “top-up”… 🙂
Amazing find – wonder if the person who owns it is a Yugo enthusiast or just someone who happened to buy the most reliable Yugo ever built? I didn’t realize the convertibles were so extraordinarily rare… must be very close to extinction at this point. I can remember seeing a few of them around back when they were new-ish, although it’s been at least 15 years (if not more) since I last spotted one.
I remember seeing these when new at the LA auto show. I thought it was funny that the spare tire was under the hood.
I also recall a stand up comic at the time making a joke about the Yugo convertible.
“You buy a convertible to be seen. Who wants to be seen in a Yugo?”
Can anybody tell WHICH EXACT TYPE OF AN AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION is built inside the Yugo Automatic???
Yugo had three-speed automatic, from Renault 5.
Thanks a lot for the answer! One more question. To which Yugo engine was the R5 automatic transmission attached???
I am not quite sure, but only engine powerful enough to run with automatic was 1.3, probably in EFI version.
Hello,
I’m looking Yugo Cabrio for repair.
I’m looking Yugo Cabrio for sale 🙂
Best Regards
Back sometime in the late ’80’s a Yugo was on display in a shopping mall, calling it cheap
would have been an understatement. I suppose in Eastern Europe these things would have been popular, as oxcarts were the standard transportation.
When the local NPR station carried “Click and Clack” on Saturday morning, Tom and Ray used to lampoon these things all the time. One morning a priest called in lamenting that his Yugo had expired after about 140,000miles. That has to be some type of record for the Yugo.
Hope you all enjoy this !
One of my favorite parodies! It’s been awhile since I’ve seen it; thanx for sharing!
That was great, thanx ! .
-Nate
The last Yugo I saw (here in California, in 2019) was a convertible, not this one as it was red. There may not have been many built, but maybe more have been preserved, compared to the hatchback.
The local Cadillac – Jeep – Jaguar – Oldsmobile dealer took the Yugo brand on for a few years. (The owner was a bit of a ‘gambler’ as it was, and once got an escort back with his friend and owner of a gravel mine operation, from Vegas. With the soldiers of one of the casinos to sign over some collateral for debts owed)
The Yugo line did not sell well. He had about 20 hatches on the lot and several convertibles and they sat and sat. And sat some more. He tried an advertising ploy on offering the choice of a mink coat with the purchase of a new Yugo. When that didn’t work to empty the lot, he offered a new Yugo with every sale of a new Cadillac. “Free”. They still sat. I remember seeing the ragtops on the lot at Christmas, snow on the ground, big red bows tied around them…… and they were still there come the following summer. I believe the last cars there were given away during a promotion, where 20 people had keys to start the car and if they fit and cranked the little Yugo, they won. Or…. lost. Depending on perspective
Yugo in the movie Dragnet
Great pics of my old neighborhood. I used to live just north of there, near the Henry Hudson Parkway, and I went to Manhattan College a few blocks away, and I used to drink heavily at a bar called Sidekicks that was where Jakes is now…good times…
I’ve always had an odd attraction towards the Yugo, though I’ve never owned, driven, or even ridden in one. Even with their very simple styling, the hood protruding over the headlamps lends them a purposeful, determined look. As a young kid, I remember being somewhat perplexed seeing these as slightly used cars sitting on dealer lots, usually with a three digit price tag attached to the windshield… like how could a three year old car only be worth $900?!
I think what did many of these in was broken timing belts, the same thing that snuffed out many of their Fiat cousins a decade earlier. I seem to remember replacement intervals on the order of every 30-35 kilomiles, and no second chances if one snapped. I remember a Yugo Cabrio cruising the streets in my home town of Kalispell, MT during summer months. It was driven by an eccentric looking middle aged fellow who also had at least two top spec GVX models in his fleet, which I remember him daily driving through at least 2005. Had no idea that the convertible was so rare.
Dear reader of this column,
I am the person who still owns the 1990 yellow Cabrio featured in this article and shown in the photos. I still have the NYS vanity license plate “YUGOGAL.” I’ve owned the car about 15 years and it has only about 78,000+ miles on it. I had the tan canvas convertible top made to replace the tattered black vinyl original.
I am 74 years old. I have owned seven (7) Yugos since 1986 when they first appeared in the U.S. I have owned five hardtops and two Cabrios. I bought all of these cars USED, paying between $50 (a women begged me to take it off her lawn where it had sat for about two years) and $2,000 for them (for the Cabrios).
I have always gotten my Yugo parts from Matthews Foreign Auto Parks in Alabama. Most recently (two years ago), the owner supplied me with an original brand-new 1990 five-speed Yugo clutch.
Update: My beloved Yugo has been vandalized and basically trashed since the article was written in 2015. The left rear panel was the victim of a hit-and-run taxi and I had no collision insurance with Geico. Couldn’t find anyone to fix it for a reasonable fee in the Bronx. The custom-made canvas top was slashed on both sides, resulting in flooding, rusting, and complete damage to the electrical system, which now has so many shorts, it’s pathetic. No mechanic will touch the job of trying to find the short — too expensive.
The body is now a total rust-bucket. No one in the Bronx knows how to adjust my new carburetor. Mechanics only want to work on fuel injection cars.
And yet, when I put the still functioning electric top down and fly down the highway, I am filled with joy! Everyone on the road gives me a “thumbs up” and shouts, “You go, Yugogal!”
People regularly leave notes on my windshield, saying they want to buy my car, even in its woebegone, pitiful condition.
I’ve always said this will be my last car because I’m so attached to it. We’ve been through sooooooooo much together! But it is now getting to the point where I think I may have to let it go to someone who would like to try to fix it up and restore it.
I am now looking for my next used Yugo Cabrio. If anyone has one for sale, please contact me. I live in the Bronx, NY. Feel free to contact me at (718) 796-8081.
And for all you naysayers who have had nothing but trash to say about Yugos, please remember there must be a reason I’ve owned seven of them and lived to tell about it.
My 1990 Yugo Cabrio and Beamer, my beloved miniature Italian greyhound!
I bought this Yugo for Beamer because he loved to have his ears blowing in the wind!!!
Enjoy!