- It was Britain's cheapest car between 1981 and 1991 - it is being reborn for 2027
Wind the clock back to the early 1980s and drivers of a certain vintage will recall a car entering the UK market with big ambitions and a bargain price tag of just £3,000.
While it undercut rivals of the era like the Austin Metro and Ford Fiesta during a pivotal period when Britain was in the depths of recession, it still managed to spectacularly fail - and hasn't generated much of a nostalgic collector fanbase since.
Flimsy, poorly made, unreliable and noticeably dated compared to the opposition, its laughable affordability was arguably its only redeeming factor.
While thousands per year were initially snapped up, DVLA records show just seven remain on the road today, which is testament to its infamously terrible build quality.
But the name is set to make a dramatic return. The project, spearheaded by a German university professor, has been revealed this month as the first step in his plan to bring it back to the market in 2027.
The car in question is the Zastava Yugo - widely considered one of the biggest automotive travesties ever sold in Britain.
Do you own a Yugo? We want to speak to you. Email: rob.hull@thisismoney.co.uk
Do you remember this infamous 1980s cheap motor? It is widely recoginised as one of the worst cars ever sold in Britain. But in the next two years, its name is being reborn...
The Yugo was so bad that there's even a book dedicated to it called: The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History.
The Yugoslavian brand - hence the name - introduced the Yugo 45 to the UK market in 1981, as a rebodied Fiat 127 with a simple box shape penned by famed styling house ItalDesign.
It borrowed the Italian manufacturer's engine line-up too, selling with a choice of three petrol options of varying capacity, from 903cc to 1,301cc, also carried over from Fiat. It even sold a 'convertible' variant with a power roof.
And it was seriously cheap.
The Eastern Bloc product cost as little as £2,795 by the time imports ceased in 1991 when the Yugoslav civil war broke out, making it by far the least expensive new car sold in Britain.
Taking into account inflation, in today's money it cost a mere £8,600. That's more than £6,000 cheaper than the current least expensive motor sold in Britain, the £14,715 Dacia Sandero.
And it even made it across the Atlantic to the US, where it too flatlined in terms of sales despite being the cheapest thing on American soil with four wheels.
Poorly engineered, ugly, and rudimentary against the market, the Yugo survived long after imports to American ceased - though as the butt of jokes.
'Six months after its American introduction in 1985, the Yugo had become a punch line; within a year, it was a staple of late night comedy,' Jason Vuic's in-depth book details.
You can see the action-packed 1988 US ad for the Yugo below...
In 1989, the car made more headlines in the US for the wrong reasons.
On 22 September, 31-year-old Leslie Pluhar was said to be speeding across the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan in her 1987 Yugo during high winds.
When the 48mph gusts struck, the waitress from Royal Oak lost control and plunged off the five-mile-long suspension bridge to her death.
The Yugo even had brief appearances on the big screen - though again for comedy effect.
One featured in 1987 film Dragnet, starring Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks in the slapstick action film about two LAPD cops.
Aykroyd's character, Joe Friday, says in the movie while rocking the small vehicle by its B-pillar: 'After losing the two previous vehicles we had been issued, the only car the department would release to us at this point was an unmarked 1987 Yugo - a Yugoslavian import donated as a test vehicle by the Government of that country and reflecting the cutting-edge of Serbo-Croatian technology.'
It returned to the silver screen in 1995 in action thriller Die Hard with Vengeance, with Samuel L Jackson featuring alongside Bruce Willis as John McClane in this third appearance in the hugely successful franchise.
With McClane ordering Jackson's character, Zeus Carver, to find a car to track the bad guys, he breaks into a beige Yugo using a gold bullion and hotwires it at the road side.
Frustrated at the pedestrian speed of the car, McLane hammers the dashboard saying: 'What kind of engine does this piece of s**t have? Come on, step on it!'
To which Carver responds: 'It's a Yugo; it's built for economy, not speed!'
The Yugo was also famously depicted in the 1992 Simpsons episode Mr Plow, where Homer visits Crazy Vaclav's Place of Automobiles to test drive a car produced in a country that 'no longer exists'.
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The Yugoslavian brand - hence the name - introduced the Yugo 45 to the UK market in 1981 as a rebodied Fiat 127 with a simple box shape penned by famed styling house ItalDesign
The Yugo was available with a choice of three petrol options of varying capacity from 903cc to 1,301cc. It even sold as a 'convertible' variant (pictured) with a power roof
A total of 794,428 Yugos were produced for the global market. However, only a fraction of these were sold in Britain
At the height of popularity in its early days, Zastava sold around 3,000 units per year in the UK.
Some 794,428 Yugos were produced in total, though only a fraction of these were sold in Britain.
In 1999, during NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia, the Zastava car factory in Kragujevac, where Yugo cars were produced, was targeted and damaged, though not completely destroyed.
By 2018, official registrations data showed just 19 still on the road. Half a decade later, UK numbers dwindled to just nine - and today there are only seven remaining.
In 1990, Jeremy Clarkson famously blew up a Zastava Yugo 45 with a Chieftain tank using its 125mm gun, before running it over with the military vehicle to finish it off entirely. He then referred to it as 'the second worst car ever made'.
In 1997, another example came to a grizzly end when cavalry officer Hew Kennedy and his friend Richard Barr built a replica 13th century catapult - known as a trebuchet - and, to showcase its slinging capacity, attached a red Yugo.
The pair had spent £12,000 building the catapult at Acton Round, near Bridgnorth, Shopshire, to settle an argument about whether a weapon could be produced for laying siege to castles.
It effectively launched the Zastava through the air, obliterating it when it eventually hit the ground - as you can see in the footage below (skip forward to 2 minutes to see the Yugo being flung tens of metres into the sky).
The Eastern Bloc product cost as little as £2,795 by the time imports ceased in 1991 when the Yugoslav civil war broke out, making it by far the least expensive new car sold in Britain at the time
The Zastava car factory in the central Serbian town of Kragujevac, some 75 miles from the capital Belgrade, was heavily damaged during NATO air strikes in 1999
Incredibly, Zastava's Koral (the name given for the domestic market) stayed in production in its Serbian home market until 2008 before the final model rolled off the assembly line on 21 November that year.
A decade later, Group Zastava Vehicles and its subsidiaries entered a bankruptcy procedure.
But the name Yugo is now set to embark on a dramatic return...
The Yugo name is set to return under the stewardship of Dr Aleksandar Bjelić (pictured), a university professor who owns a major car care product company in Germany
Bjelić debuted a 1:5-scale vision of the reborn Yugo at the Car Design Event 2025 in Munich, hosted between 6-8 May
Alongside Serbian designer Darko Marčeta, the pair showcased how the eighties-inspired supermini might look - and its a significant departure from the Yugo Britons will know...
Yugo reborn
Debuted earlier this month at the Car Design Event 2025, in Munich, Yugo Automobile unveiled its 1:5-scale vision for what a Yugo could look like some 35 years after it vanished from Britain's showrooms.
The company - and owner of the Yugo naming rights - is Dr Aleksandar Bjelić, a German-born university professor of Serbian descent who already owns Globo Car Care, a brand making cleaning products, such as shampoos and waxes, for vehicles.
Alongside Serbian designer Darko Marčeta, the pair showcased how the eighties-inspired supermini could appear.
It's called the Yugo Siaj, which in Serbian means 'shine' - though its name is said to have a more personal meaning to Bjelić.
The styling compact car features slim LED lights front and rear, large alloy wheels and squared haunches more befitting of a period hot hatch rather than the basic, utilitarian runaround sharing the same name.
Darko Marčeta's design vision for a reborn Yugo was unveiled in February, with the company preparing to create a full-scale prototype in the next 12 months
The new Yugo concept is call the Siaj, which in Serbian means 'shine'
Bjelić says it will initially be sold as an 'affordable' three-door hatchback, though with the potential for 'different body versions' to follow
To keep costs down, it aims to debut with a petrol engine and choice of manual or automatic gearboxes. However, Yugo Automobile also says 'electrified versions are possible'
The fully working prototype that's been promised in two years' time will be showcased at the Belgrade Expo 2027
Bjelić says it will initially be sold as an 'affordable' three-door model, though there is potential for 'different body versions' to follow.
To keep costs down, he is seeking an automotive 'cooperation partner' to turn the concept into reality to produce it on a borrowed platform.
And, if all goes to plan, he wants it to debut with a petrol engine and choice of manual or automatic gearboxes.
However, Yugo Automobile also says 'electrified versions are possible'.
He promises a 'fun-to-drive car' that 'meets all relevant safety standards'.
Bjelić says he is seeking an automotive 'cooperation partner' to turn the concept into reality to produce it on a borrowed platform
Speaking at the Munich car design event, Bjelić said the mission for the Siaj is to 'preserve the heritage of the old Yugo and create a design to bring the next Yugo into the future'
The boss of the relaunched Yugo name said he wants to create something older drivers instantly recognise
The Yugo Siaj will be similar in dimension to a Ford Fiesta. The concept model is a three-door - keeping true to the original
Speaking at the design event, Bjelić said the mission is to 'preserve the heritage of the old Yugo and create a design to bring the next Yugo into the future'.
He added: 'We will start with a combustion engine, and of course later on an electrified version to serve as many markets as possible.'
He told the conference that the aim is to create a car older drivers immediately recognise as a Yugo and younger customers would find attractive. This includes retaining some of the original's design features, including the bonnet air intake towards the bottom of the windscreen.
A fully working prototype has been promised for the Belgrade Expo in 2027.
Given the original Yugo is widely considered one of the worst cars ever to be sold in Britain, surely the only way is up for Bjelić's project.
