YUGO!

[solarlord]

dont have pontiacs here ,is that a good thing?

[CathodeRayTube]

I believe i was the one who singled out Pontiac...and this is because when i was car hunting 3 years ago, before i found the corolla, i test-drove a 93 Pontiac Sunbird...it was one of the crappier cheap small cars at the lot i went to...i was just desperate to get something that was decent on gas because my 4runner was and still gets around 13mpg...so anyway, when i test drove the thing, the 2 tards from the lot got in the back seat, and i took it down the highway & back 1 exit...had it up to 80mph and all the lights & gauges started going nuts and then shut off...then after i got off the highway it DIED completely about 100 yards from the car lot..in heavy traffic...and wouldnt restart...so they got out & pushed me back into the lot...and i pissed them off i think cause i attempted to clutch-start the car while they were pushing...then when i looked under the hood it looked like an oil bomb had gone off, and the engine oil looked like milkshake...so i guess it had a bad headgasket or something. I know the car was old and probably would have been fine after repairs...but this experience scarred Pontiac's reputation in my mind...that and my one friend went thru 3 heads in 1 year in his Grand Am...

[dlb]

they're common here because people are stupid and think that 'new' and shiny is always 'good.' i have a friend who bought one and within the first year it developed braking problems. she took it back in at least a half a dozen times and they have yet to fix it. just typical new crap, poorly made.

[solarlord]

any way this is getting too borring ,, some motoring fun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyK5CdZCaaE

[dlb]

holy hell, that was hilarious! you're 3 for 3, derek.

[Petros]

That is just odd. They sound like Liverpool accents, are people from there the butt of jokes and derision?

[CathodeRayTube]

didnt look anything like a ships engine...looked like something out of star wars that was obviously made of styrofoam..

[solarlord]

we do have starwars boats with stryofoam engines over here , so they are quite common, usually you see them dumped by side of the road when the big end goes-DEREK

[takza]

That was a clip from a British comedy show...but haven't seen it over here....PBS has some though.

....and I am unanimous in that opinion.

[solarlord]

PETROS- your right people from liverpool are often the butt of jokes - but so are all the rest in this country -usually if there is a strong local accent like
people from the bronx or texas- these guys are from the north east durham/newcastle(geordies)-
a bit more with careful driving ----
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pm0ziZ-DzY

[dlb]

i was recently talking to a guy at work who used to have a small auto repair shop. somehow, yugos came up and i asked him if he was familiar with them. he said he had only seen one that a customer brought in once with a bad wheel bearing. my friend had to order the new bearing direct from yugoslavia or serbia or whatever, and it showed up packed in sawdust. it also had no grease so it had already started rusting. he said he called the owner and explained the condition of the 'new' bearing, and that he could clean the rust as best he could but couldn't guarantee the quality or lifespan of the new bearing. the guy wanted it done so my friend did it and never saw the car again. i just can't imagine something like that showing up in sawdust. it must have been a very different ball game over there at the time.

[CathodeRayTube]

I started this thread when i first bought the Yugo, about 2 or 3 years ago. I still have it and have enjoyed driving it, people ask about it and talk to me about it all the time in parking lots. I have been maintaining it, no serious running issues since the initial rehab. I successfully added in factory A/C from old, new in box parts located from somebody who bought out the entire dealership inventory many years ago. And also put a nice stereo in it. slowly undercoating it to prevent rust...none thus far...also avoid driving it or anything else in the winter salt as much as possible. now has 31K miles on it...bought it with 26K. its alot of fun, along with the rest of the collection, which now includes an 88 Lincoln Town car and an 85 F250 dually diesel.

[danzo]

Love the factory hood scoop! When I lived in New England a few years aback there was a guy who autocrossed the buh-jesus out of his very modified Yugo. He would beat the Lotus Elises! The Yugo engines are fairly robust, IIRC they are the same as what was in a Fiat X1/9. I owned one of those and never had any engine problems, just make sure you change the timing belt no matter what it looks like.

I also had an '81 Rabbit circa 1990 (also had a '79 Scirroco - lotsa fun) and never had any issues with either car. Not sure why they got a bad rap, perhaps for the CIS injection? I think it would be pretty easily switched to a carb to solve any serious FI problems.

Good luck with it, hopefully parts aren't too tough to find.

[CathodeRayTube]

Im not sure what CIS is, but mine is EFI...bosch motronic as found in several other cars.. VW etc...the newer, larger 1.3l EFI motor i have is also non-interference, so if the timing belt breaks its no big deal...the 1.1 carbed motor in earlier yugos was of the interference type.

[emmahumpfritter]

My daily econo-box is a 91 Ford Festiva, the late 80s and early 90's seemed to be the time for hatch-boxes on wheels.

I remember the joke "how did the Yugo get it's name? From two test drivers standing next to it saying, 'no...YOU GO."

What kind of MPG's are you pulling? With the 1.3L (same size as the festiva) you would be pulling 40's? Didn't some of them come with a 3-cyl like the metro?

None the less, that's a real survivor.