BELGRADE, Serbia — Why does a Yugo have a defroster on the rear window? To keep your hands warm while you push it. That’s just one of the jokes about the cheap and much-maligned subcompact that won notoriety as one of the worst cars ever exported to the United States.
Now, the last Yugo, once the pride of communist Yugoslavia’s automobile industry, will roll off its Serbian production line today. It will be missed here — but probably not in America.
Soon after it hit the U.S. markets in 1986, selling for the bargain-basement price of $3,990, the boxy Yugo was derided by American car magazines “as barely qualifying as a car” and “an assembled bag of nuts and bolts.”
Serbian maker Zastava is finally stopping the production of Yugo because its new owner, Italy’s Fiat, plans to start the assembly of its own compact, the Punto. The Associated Press; AP photo
