Yugo getting some love

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

...not any worse than the Chevy trucks and suburbans from those same years.

Yeah. I never drove a Yugo myself, but it's hard to imagine it being worse than the Chevy Vega, which is the reason (well, the last straw, anyway) why I finally stopped buying American cars.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Yeah. I never drove a Yugo myself, but it's hard to imagine it being worst than the Chevy Vega, which is the reason (well, the last straw, anyway) why I finally stopped buying American cars.

The original Fiat 127 which the Yugo was based on is not a bad project if we consider its time, but I'm sure the Soviet-standard built quality in the Yugo was not something to brag about...

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

The original Fiat 127 which the Yugo was based on is not a bad project if we consider its time, but I'm sure the Soviet-standard built quality in the Yugo was not something to brag about...

You just needed to replace the timing belt (a lot) and then have the shock mounts rust out.

Besides rust it wasn't that bad of a stripper car.

[t vago]

A competing automobile to the Yugo...

[RedDevil]

That's a Renault 5!
And it is French, not German nor Mexican. And it is not made of clay - that is actual French steel after a rainshower.
My parents owned 2 Renaults, I took my driving lessons in one, I know their value. There is not that much to know really.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

The Renault 5 is actually a great little car.

[Arragonis]

The original Yugo



Is really one of these, a FIAT 127



Which was pretty much at the forefront of Euro car tech in the early 1970s = FWD, Monocoque (aka Unibody) construction, OHC engine and end-on gearbox. Compare that with the US compact car market which was the Chevette and Pinto with their RWD live axles - the FIAT/Yugo win.

Of course FIAT replaced the 127 with the UNO (good)



but Yugo continued with the older model.

They replaced it later with the SANA (AKA Florida)



But at about the same time the Yugoslavian civil war got in the way.

[wdb]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

The original Yugo

Is really one of these, a FIAT 127

Which was pretty much at the forefront of Euro car tech in the early 1970s = FWD, Monocoque (aka Unibody) construction, OHC engine and end-on gearbox.

Fiat was, and is, pretty good at being at the forefront of Euro car tech. what they are decidedly not good at is building a car that will last. The 127/128 Fiats had reliability issues at every level; interior, electrical, engine, transmission, brakes, suspension. They were technically interesting pieces of garbage.

Compare that with the US compact car market which was the Chevette and Pinto with their RWD live axles - the FIAT/Yugo win.

The Fiat might win in terms of technical doodads, but Chevettes were remarkably long lived vehicles. I still see one occasionally. (I'll stay away from Pintos - too much badness there with all of the fires and Ford's unwillingness to back their product.)

Yugo sold a 'performance' version of their little crapbox in the US; they put a lip spoiler and a bunch of vinyl stickers on it, and called it the "Yugo GY". I loved that name. "GY (gee, why) would anyone do something like that to a Yugo."

[Arragonis]

Chevettes lasted well mechanically but were nowhere near as nice to drive. Later FIATs got as good as smaller VWs for reliability - which kind of made them boring too

We just got the Yugo 65A - no imagination the UK distributors.

They all vanished quicker than you could say Ethnic Cleansing...

[Pandaf]

Originally Posted by wdb

The 127/128 Fiats had reliability issues at every level; interior, electrical, engine, transmission, brakes, suspension. They were technically interesting pieces of garbage.

Beg to differ, several Fiats were used in our family, sure they had issues, mainly rust which the Italians solved in the early nineties. I remember they always ran, one time the garage forgot adding coolant to a 127 (I'm talking circa 1981, the car was circa 1971), engine steamed up. Added coolant, damned thing ran for years thereafter (untill the passenger door practically fell out - the aforementioned rust issue...)