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Wind the clock again to the early 1980s and drivers of a definite antique will recall a automobile coming into the United Kingdom marketplace with giant ambitions and a cut price ticket of simply £3,000.
While it undercut competitors of the generation just like the Austin Metro and Ford Fiesta all the way through a pivotal duration when Britain used to be within the depths of recession, it nonetheless controlled to spectacularly fail – and hasn’t generated a lot of a nostalgic collector fanbase since.
Flimsy, poorly made, unreliable and noticeably dated in comparison to the opposition, its laughable affordability used to be arguably its most effective redeeming issue.
While hundreds in keeping with 12 months have been to begin with snapped up, DVLA information display simply seven stay at the street these days, which is testomony to its infamously horrible construct high quality.
But the title is about to make a dramatic go back.
The venture, spearheaded by way of a Serbian college professor, has been published this month as step one in his plan to carry it again to the marketplace in 2027…
Do you take note this notorious 1980s reasonable motor? It is extensively reconginised as one of the vital worst vehicles ever offered in Britain. But within the subsequent two years, its title is being reborn…
The automobile in query is the Zastava Yugo – extensively thought to be one of the vital largest car travesties ever offered in Britain.
There’s even a e-book devoted to it known as: The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History.
The Yugoslavian logo – therefore the title – offered the Yugo 45 to the United Kingdom marketplace in 1981, as a rebodied Fiat 127 with a easy field form penned by way of famed styling area ItalDesign.
It borrowed the Italian producer’s engine line-up too, promoting with a number of 3 petrol choices of various capability, from 903cc to 1,301cc, carried over from Fiat’s 128. It even offered a ‘convertible’ variant with an influence roof.
And it used to be critically reasonable.
The Eastern Bloc product price as low as £2,795 by the point imports ceased in 1991 when the Yugoslav Wars broke out, making it by way of a ways the least pricey new automobile offered in Britain.
And it even made it around the Atlantic to the United States, the place it too bombed in relation to gross sales regardless of being the most affordable factor on American soil with 4 wheels.
The Yugoslavian logo – therefore the title – offered the Yugo 45 to the United Kingdom marketplace in 1981 as a rebodied Fiat 127 with a easy field form penned by way of famed styling area ItalDesign
The Yugo used to be to be had with a number of 3 petrol choices of various capability from 903cc to 1,301cc. It even offered as a ‘convertible’ variant (pictured) with an influence roof
At the peak of recognition in its early days, Zastava offered round 3,000 gadgets in keeping with 12 months in the United Kingdom.
Some 794,428 Yugos have been produced in overall, despite the fact that just a fraction of those have been offered in Britain.
By 2018, reliable registrations knowledge confirmed simply 19 nonetheless at the street. Half a decade later, UK numbers dwindled to simply 9 – and these days there are most effective seven last.
In 1997, one instance got here to a grizzly finish when cavalry officer Hew Kennedy and his buddy Richard Barr constructed a duplicate 13th century catapult – referred to as a trebuchet – and, to show off its slinging capability, connected a crimson Yugo.
The pair had spent £12,000 construction the catapult at Acton Round, close to Bridgnorth, Shopshire, to settle an issue about whether or not a weapon might be produced for laying siege to castles.
It successfully introduced the Zastava throughout the air, obliterating it when it sooner or later hit the bottom – as you’ll see within the pictures beneath (skip ahead to 2 mins to peer the Yugo being flung tens of metres into the sky).
The Eastern Bloc product price as low as £2,795 by the point imports ceased in 1991 when the Yugoslav Wars broke out, making it by way of a ways the least pricey new automobile offered in Britain on the time
The Zastava automobile manufacturing facility within the central Serbian the city of Kragujevac, some 75 miles from the capital Belgrade, used to be closely broken all the way through air moves in 1999
Incredibly, Zastava’s Koral (the title given for the home marketplace) stayed in manufacturing in its Serbian house marketplace till 2008 earlier than the general fashion rolled off the meeting line on 21 November that 12 months.
A decade later, Group Zastava Vehicles and its subsidiaries entered a chapter process.
But the title Yugo is now set to embark on a dramatic go back…
The Yugo title is about to go back beneath the stewardship of Dr Alekasandar Bjelić (pictured), a school professor with hyperlinks to the car trade in Germany
Bjelić debuted a 1:5-scale imaginative and prescient of the reborn Yugo on the Car Design Event 2025 in Munich, hosted between 6-8 May
Alongside Serbian dressmaker Darko Marčeta, the pair showcased how the eighties-inspired supermini would possibly glance – and its a vital departure from the Yugo Britons will know…
Yugo reborn
Debuted previous this month on the Car Design Event 2025, in Munich, Yugo Automobile unveiled its 1:5-scale imaginative and prescient for what the Yugo may seem like some 35 years after it vanished from Britain’s showrooms.
The corporate – and proprietor of the Yugo naming rights – is Dr Alekasandar Bjelić, a school professor with hyperlinks to the car trade in Germany and an bold relaunch imaginative and prescient.
Alongside Serbian dressmaker Darko Marčeta, the pair showcased how the eighties-inspired supermini would possibly glance.
The styling compact automobile options narrow LED lighting fixtures entrance and rear, huge alloy wheels and squared haunches extra befitting of a duration scorching hatch slightly than the fundamental, utilitarian runaround sharing the similar title.
Bjelić says it’ll to begin with be offered as an ‘reasonably priced’ two-door fashion, despite the fact that there’s possible for ‘other frame variations’ to practice
To stay prices down, it goals to debut with a petroleum engine and number of guide or automated gearboxes. However, Yugo Automobile additionally says ‘electrified variations are conceivable’
A completely operating prototype has been promised for the Belgrade Expo in 2027
Bjelić says it’ll to begin with be offered as an ‘reasonably priced’ two-door fashion, despite the fact that there’s possible for ‘other frame variations’ to practice.
To stay prices down, it’ll – if all is going to devise – debut with a petroleum engine and number of guide or automated gearboxes.
However, Yugo Automobile additionally says ‘electrified variations are conceivable’.
Promising a ‘fun-to-drive automobile’ that ‘meets all related protection requirements,’ Yugo Automobiles hints that it’ll use a shared platform borrowed from a ‘cooperation spouse’.
A completely operating prototype has been promised for the Belgrade Expo in 2027.
Given the unique Yugo is extensively thought to be one of the vital worst vehicles ever to be offered in Britain, indisputably the one means is up for Bjelić’s venture.
