(Insert stupid Blog name here)

"After losing the two previous vehicles we had been issued, the only car the department was willing to release to us at this point was an unmarked 1987 Yugo, a Yugoslavian import donated to the department as a test vehicle by the government of that country and reflecting the cutting edge of Serbo-Croatian technology."

 I think the title captures the essence of...What I've been thinking right along...

 

 

 

PS:  I think my usual, colorful comments needed to be captured in black and white....Perhaps reflecting the not often used switch on the VCS,  Except that's not a thing so I'll use the elegance of the oft overlooked italics...And you can pretend we can taste purple or hear orange...Only in this case,  monochromatically.

Also funny cuz in print,  They say things like, there it is in 'black and white'...And my above comment was printed...So...

 

 

Aren't tiny letters wonderful?

 

Sometimes it's the little things...

 

 

I crack myself up   HAAAaaa

I thought the Coleco Gemini was the Yugo of 2600s. Or maybe the Ford Pinto...

11 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

"After losing the two previous vehicles we had been issued, the only car the department was willing to release to us at this point was an unmarked 1987 Yugo, a Yugoslavian import donated to the department as a test vehicle by the government of that country and reflecting the cutting edge of Serbo-Croatian technology."

Fitting that it was quoted on a Friday.

The car that I learned to drive in was the Fiat 127, which provided a significant chunk of its drivetrain in order for Zastava to be able to build the Yugo under licence.  It came my way when my mother replaced it with a Honda Civic.

 

Courtesy of Fiat having ended up with crap Soviet iron ore in lieu of actual payment for the Lada factory that they more or less built for the Soviets (who defaulted on repayments, instead effectively bartering iron ore for it), the car would just about rust out around you.  Mine wasn't bad in that regard, though, and mechanically was utterly bulletproof.

 

I don't know what was going on in Kragujevac, but the Yugo equivalent would rust out around you and be mechanically-unreliable.  I remember seeing them on dealers' lots with telltale bubbling under the paint when new.  The convertibles were particularly bad, having even more ways for moisture to get in.

4 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

I remember seeing them on dealers' lots with telltale bubbling under the paint when new.

4 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

Courtesy of Fiat having ended up with crap Soviet iron ore in lieu of actual payment for the Lada factory that they more or less built for the Soviets (who defaulted on repayments, instead effectively bartering iron ore for it), the car would just about rust out around you.  Mine wasn't bad in that regard, though, and mechanically was utterly bulletproof.

Not only Fiat was affected, in the 1970s and 1980s almost all European cars were affected by the cheap Soviet recycled steel. For example, the first VW Golf (Rabbit) had serious problems with rust, as did Mercedes and BMWs. However, the most famous is the Alfasud, a great small car, but it started to rust during production.

2 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Not only Fiat was affected, in the 1970s and 1980s almost all European cars were affected by the cheap Soviet recycled steel. For example, the first VW Golf (Rabbit) had serious problems with rust, as did Mercedes and BMWs. However, the most famous is the Alfasud, a great small car, but it started to rust during production.

True, and this is what nearly killed Lancia completely.  And you're dead right about the Alfasud.  Same with the Alfa 33 that replaced it.

 

One exception: most British cars.  They just rusted because of shit build quality at the time.  I could go into some of the reasons why, but that would absolutely be politics.

 

The French sort-of escaped that association, but still had cars that would rust though not as badly as others.

5 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

One exception: most British cars.  They just rusted because of shit build quality at the time.  I could go into some of the reasons why, but that would absolutely be politics.

The Alfasud had this problem on top, because the government forced Alfa to build it near Neapel. Where they did not find enough educated workforce, which on top was on strike 700 times over the Alfasud's lifetime. The result was a miserable build quality there as well.

 

Which is a shame, because the Alfasud was designed very well. Great engine, great ride and spacious for its size. Three years before VW Golf/Rabbit, it paved the ground for the hot hatchbacks.