Wherever Yugo, Whatever You Do…
Yes, people collect Yugos. Yes, there is support for Yugo owners. Yes,I get excited when I see one.
Never has a car been more maligned, scoffed at, shunned, and criticized than the Yugo. For those reasons, I am going to say in the beginning what I usually save for the end: Whenever I see a Yugo at a car show, they garner the most attention, and the owner earns the most slaps on the back and congratulatory handshakes. Even with all that attention, you can still buy one very cheaply, probably cheaper than any other classic car.
There is a famous comedian who used the Yugo as a large part of his act. He got a lot of mileage out of the Yugo. His act was, and still is, as funny as the introduction I just wrote. Where does one begin? I am looking at the Yugo "brochures." I put brochures in quotes because they are two-sided ads on cardstock. There isn't a fold (one is folded, but I think that was just to put in the envelope before mailing it to me). The Yugo was initially pictured with a Model T and a VW Beetle, and the copy reads, "Introducing the same old idea. Yugo, $3990."
Therein lies the problem. By the 1980s, a cheap car was totally perceived as a cheap car. The Model T was perfect for its era, and the same could be said for the VW, not to mention that both cars benefited from quality engineering and eventually, a huge fanbase that remains to this day. The Yugo, unfortunately, would suffer the same fate as the similarly marketed as cheap transportation Henry J, which sold well at first, then failed. The U.S. version of the Yugo was sold from 1985 to 1992; the best year was 1987, with around 48,000 new owners, and the worst year was 1992, with only around 1,400 interested buyers. In the end, little more than 141,000 Yugos were sold in the United States.
Yes, people collect Yugos. Yes, there is support for Yugo owners. Yes,I get excited when I see one.
Never has a car been more maligned, scoffed at, shunned, and criticized than the Yugo. For those reasons, I am going to say in the beginning what I usually save for the end: Whenever I see a Yugo at a car show, they garner the most attention, and the owner earns the most slaps on the back and congratulatory handshakes. Even with all that attention, you can still buy one very cheaply, probably cheaper than any other classic car.
There is a famous comedian who used the Yugo as a large part of his act. He got a lot of mileage out of the Yugo. His act was, and still is, as funny as the introduction I just wrote. Where does one begin? I am looking at the Yugo "brochures." I put brochures in quotes because they are two-sided ads on cardstock. There isn't a fold (one is folded, but I think that was just to put in the envelope before mailing it to me). The Yugo was initially pictured with a Model T and a VW Beetle, and the copy reads, "Introducing the same old idea. Yugo, $3990."
Therein lies the problem. By the 1980s, a cheap car was totally perceived as a cheap car. The Model T was perfect for its era, and the same could be said for the VW, not to mention that both cars benefited from quality engineering and eventually, a huge fanbase that remains to this day. The Yugo, unfortunately, would suffer the same fate as the similarly marketed as cheap transportation Henry J, which sold well at first, then failed. The U.S. version of the Yugo was sold from 1985 to 1992; the best year was 1987, with around 48,000 new owners, and the worst year was 1992, with only around 1,400 interested buyers. In the end, little more than 141,000 Yugos were sold in the United States.
