Yugo, the Yugoslavian-origin car that Forbes magazine named “The World’s Most Dangerous Car”, was featured in Metallica’s music video and Bruce Wills movies, even in Cars!
It sounds strange that a car with such a reputation is also the “Worst car in the world”. Let’s look at the interesting story of Yugo together.
In fact, Yugo appeared many times in the cinema.
The character played by Bruce Willis in the TV series “Blue Moon” was given a Yugo car in one episode of the series. Wills tried to get out of the car throughout the series!
In the years that followed, Wills chased criminals with Yugo through the streets of New York in the movie “Die Hard.” In the movie “Drowning Mona”, all the characters used Yugo cars.
There was also a Yugo in the comedy “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”. Lastly, Metallica also used a Yugo in their “The Day That Never Comes” music video.
There was Yugo in the movie Cars 2 too!
Yugo brand cars were used in the movie Cars 2. The car in the movie, which was in the “vintage” class, was called “Hugo” with a slight name change. The yellow car and the black guard cars that come in the truck in the video are actually Yugos.
Let’s get to our main topic, how did Yugo come about?
The production story of the car goes back to 1954. Zastava, which made an agreement with Fiat in these years, produced this car in 1954 without the knowledge of its partner Fiat.
The car had three different engines: 993 cc, 1100 cc and 1300 cc during the 36 years it was produced. This engine was accompanied by a 4 forward and 1 reverse manual transmission. The car had two different body types: 3-door hatchback and 5-door hatchback.
Yugo was not taken very seriously outside Yugoslavia.
The car was first produced in 1954 in Yugoslavia, where it got its name. The people of Yugoslavia showed extreme interest in this project and began to drive Yugo cars, but the car became a laughing stock in the rest of the world.
The beginning of the end for Yugo was America. The car was offered for sale here at a price of $ 3990. Its cheapest competitor was $1,000 more expensive than itself. In 1989 Yugo had to withdraw from the American market.
So why is it the most dangerous and worst car in the world?
The main reason why Yugo had to withdraw from the American market was that the car was chosen as the most dangerous car in the world. The car was cheap, poorly designed, and poorly fuel efficient for its size.
The real problem was that the car constantly broke down because the car’s engine was designed incorrectly. As a result, many accidents that resulted in death occurred due to serious malfunctions while the car was in motion.
What brought Yugo to an end was not an accident, but a production disruption.
In 1990, when internal turmoil broke out in Yugoslavia, Yugo’s production began to be disrupted. Subsequently, in 1999, NATO bombed the factory for strategic weapons production. This was the official end of the Yugo era.
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