I’m from the United States and recently bought a 1988 zastava koral 55. Has anyone here ever owned one and do you have any fun stories?

https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1dhcri8

Posted by supercharged_autism

36 Comments

  1. First car I ever drove. My father gave it to me to try it out but he left the steering wheel turned to the left and I didn’t realise it. I pushed the gas pedal and Yugo swirled left and drove right into a tree.

    Fun times.

  2. supercharged_autism on

    Also there’s a tape with music by a guy named seki turcovic and I don’t know if y’all ever heard of him before but he’s got this song called Konobar and that song is really really good.

  3. satellite779 on

    Everyone in Serbia either owned one or had someone close who owned one. My dad had two (basically my whole childhood till I finished with University).

    They are not common anymore since they are not making them since 2008.

  4. There is a joke about the rear window heaters.

    Do you know why there are heaters on the back of Yugo’s rear window?

    So your hands are warm while you push to start it

  5. daily_standup on

    My first car.. I did all maintenance myself. Funny story – mine didn’t want to work during the rain. If you go through the pond, it would die(cables would get wet or the ignition box wasn’t sealed, can’t really tell..) and then I would have to sit in the car for about 10-15 minutes so they get dried out and I could continue until the next pond. I say pond because I don’t know the better term for a pothole full of water. Either way, a lot of great memories, probably because I had 19 years and my own car, not the car itself 🙂

  6. Strale_Gaming2 on

    My dad had one, the electronics were fucked up, the left blinker turned on the emergency lights, the emergency lights turned on the wipers the wipers turned on long lights, the right blinker turned on the speedometer and that’s about as far as I remember to how it was wired. Basically everything was wired wrong and you couldn’t drive without having the blinkers in the right position

  7. Ghetto Golf 1. Considered a midsize family car back in the day, was omnipresent. Tons of jokes about its unreliability.

  8. the_offspring on

    Wow, ~~repression~~ recession is real in the States. Looks neat & clean, I’ll let you have that.

    Find a reliable mechanic for your fierce road warrior Yugo.

  9. Substantial-Stay6625 on

    My father had the same car 12-13 years ago. In Serbia, there is a popular chocolate bar called “Životinjsko carstvo” (“Animal Kingdom”) and with it you get a sticker with an animal on it. Dad kept buying it for us and then my brother, sister and I would take those stickers and stick them on the roof of the car from the inside. The roof was covered in stickers of various animals. 🙂

  10. ConflictAcademic4623 on

    When I was little (7 or 8 yrs old) my mom got robbed due to the fact that the universal key for those cars was a 1 RSD coin (or another kind of coin, but I remember adults saying something like that).

  11. Shifting from 2nd to 3rd can be somewhat rough. On the bright side, if you can find the gears in this you can find them in anything.

  12. I went from Novi Sad to Tara and then to Bulgaria and from there back to Montenegro all that with the samewhite one. Had only 1 breakdown, the customs officer repaired the car with an axe. Lots of that trip.

  13. You are asking Yugo owners if they have fun stories. Fun stories are the only good thing about the car.

  14. I learned to drive on one of those. Third gear had a sort of “code”. If you push it from second to third it gets stuck, all you had to do is just pull it back by 2 milimeters and then push it. Stick slides in perfectly.

    It was a clunker but in winter it was invincible. Very light with all the weight on front wheels and front wheel drive, could climb up a greasy telephone pole.

  15. My gradpa was driving me and gradma. I was at the back seats and grandma at passenger seat. Engine caught on fire we had to stop in a field, as soon as gradnma opened passenger door i slit out while she was still sitting in the seat it was a narrow gap i dont know how i managed to get out.

    We got out and truck driver that was passing by helped us extinguish fire

  16. AfterUnion5325 on

    Story time.

    My father both a YUGO that was suppose to go to USA, but sanctions and so he both it from costums, for low price. His best man ask him to borrow the car for a trip to Belgrade. He gave him the car, but didn’t told him that it showed mph not km/h… so the dud was going 80 mph on freeway and cops stoped him and gave him a ticket. He was going 80 mph where speed limit was 80 km/h 😂 He was going 130 km/h

  17. CTPABA_KPABA on

    Funny story? My whole family went to Istria in one of those. To seaside vacation. Incredible how we managed to pack everything. It was hot. One piston just died half way. We drove all the way to Istria and there too during vacation. It was fixed back home.

  18. Been wanting to buy one as a weekender gag. Searched on Bring A Trailer, a few times on Craigslist, even Facebook Market Place & no luck !

  19. A friend of mine sold me his Yugo for 100e, I didn’t really need it since I had a car, but I took it just for fun beacuse it was cheap. Couple of months later first thing broke on it, and I went to local scrapyard to find a spare part. Local gipsy at the scrapyard told me that he can fix it for me for 10 euros. I called him a couple of times to ask if he had finished it, and he kept lying to me. After a while I forgot about it. I have no clue as to where it ended up

  20. Striking_Race_6907 on

    My parents had a Yugo 45 a long time ago. It was the car they had during my upbringing and we really loved it. I don’t know where you’re from, but in Iowa, there’s a great mechanic for Zastava cars, especially for the Yugo. The mechanic even has his own YouTube channel: Kompa Company.

  21. voja-kostunica on

    its the best car, i have it too, you should install lpg tank to make it complete