Rusty But Trusty

So the Yugo was a big national scandal, scam, or something. In the light of crazy inflation in the early 1980s, and lingering fuel economy awareness from the 1970s crises, manufacturers perceived a demand for small, bargain basement cars, such that you could buy a new Yugo or Hyundai for the price of a used Honda or VW. And hey, what was good enough for Comrade Miroslav or Jay Park should be just fine for Earl too, right? These ultimate throwaway cars have for the most part disappeared from our roads, and while the Excel was a boring cheap heap, the Yugo actually had a little fun built in that makes them appeal to the same folks crazy enough to love Fiat 128s and X1/9s. Check out this 1986 Yugo GV for sale with bidding at $1780 and 6 days left to go in El Cajon, CA.

Incidentally, El Cajon is Spanish for “the drawer”. Someone must have left this one in a cool, dry drawer in its original Arizona home, as it shows a believable 18,000 miles on the odometer. It’s said to have been stored for quite a while, so you’ll need to count on some resurrection-related work, but none of that will be cosmetic – this car is spotless. It’s also said to run well, and to have spotless glass.

Is that your tailpipe or are you happy to see me? Something doesn’t look quite right about that, and either way this car would be more fun with a throatier upgraded exhaust. Check out those sweet dual auxiliary reverse lights – there’s no need to integrate those into the tail light cluster since letting other people know when you’re moving backwards should really be an optional thing.

Look at that interior – mostly these are torn, stained, cracked, and any other number of words for done-for, while this one looks like it’s only a couple of years old. No cracks on the dash, either, and this one seems to have got some options like factory speakers – just the thing to listen to tinny Bon Jovi and Ice T. Volvo thinks they’re so cool with their floating center console, but Yugo had it 30 years before them.

That engine makes the car look like it was never driven, and in fact, you should expect that to change since the seals are likely dried out. Whoever Armor-Alled the engine compartment should be forced to bathe in the stuff themselves, or at least try to work on an engine coated in it – this is kind of the automotive equivalent of Axe body spray. That said, this is still a really clean Yugo – unless you’re holding out for a GVX or a Cabrio, this is probably the cleanest one out there.

Tags: Feature, gv, hatchback, yugo, yugoslavian

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