Yugo Is Trying to Make a Comeback with a New Cheap Car

theautopian.com

4 pointsrmason3 comments

Old joke: A man walks into an auto parts shop and asks "Can I get a rear view mirror for my Yugo?" The sales clerk thinks for a few seconds and replies "Seems like a fair trade to me."

I realize a lot of younger folks on HN might never have heard of the Yugo. There used to be a McDonald's at the far east end of Michigan State University that closed. One of the Chevy dealers leased it and setup a Yugo dealership.

The TV ads started out why buy a used car when you can get a brand new one for $3990? Reagan had just been elected president and this little import from Yugoslavia (based on an old Fiat design) shook up the low end of the market.

Course Yugoslavia as a country ceases to exist today. Can they take the old factory and do it again with a new design at probably four times the price?

They would likely have to be modified to meet new safety, emissions, anti theft, etc standards to be able to sell them in the US... In other words, it would be a completely new car. Even old designs with a new date of manufacture have to meet these new requirements.

Not to mention that insurance will have a say about the ongoing costs of such a car. Some of the cheapest cars on a basic search to insure are SUVs or Crossovers.

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