The Yugo

The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History

By: Jason Vuic

Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt

Six months after its American introduction in 1985, the Yugo was a punch line; within a year, it was a staple of late-night comedy. By 2000, NPR's Car Talk declared it "the worst car of the millennium." And for most Americans that's where the story begins and ends. Hardly.

The short, unhappy life of the car, the men who built it, the men who imported it, and the decade that embraced and discarded it is rollicking and astounding, and it is one of the greatest untold business-cum-morality tales of the 1980s. Mix one rabid entrepreneur, several thousand "good" communists, a willing U.S. State Department, the shortsighted Detroit auto industry, and improvident bankers, shake vigorously, and you’ve got The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History.

Brilliantly re-creating the amazing confluence of events that produced the Yugo, Yugoslav expert Jason Vuic uproariously tells the story of the car that became an international joke: The American CEO who happens upon a Yugo right when his company needs to find a new import or go under. A State Department eager to aid Yugoslavia's nonaligned communist government. Zastava Automobiles, which overhauls its factory to produce an American-ready Yugo in six months. And a hole left by Detroit in the cheap subcompact market that creates a race to the bottom that leaves the Yugo...at the bottom.

©2010 Jason Vuic (P)2010 Tantor

Critic reviews

“This is a fun read about a heap of junk that should make anyone feel better about having to take their car to a repair shop.” ( Publishers Weekly)

Interesting, don't pass one this up.

A great listen. Well worth the time invested. In an interesting way the author digs deep and presents hard facts about this auto and the players that brought it to market. It is a fluid explaination of the human gains and losses racked up in project of this scope. He simplifies and assists in understanding how geo-political knots affect the "man in the street" and the value of hard earned dollars spent. This should be required reading for high school and first year college business classes. They could learn something marketable in the concrete, not idealistically in the abstract. I'm trying hard not to make this sound like a dry textbook because it is not that at all. Funny and entertaining. You will wish there were more. The narrator is someone you could listen to for hours and come away feeling refreshed.

The little car that couldn't

Would you listen to The Yugo again? Why?

I might listen to this again someday, to relive the moments of promise and optimism of that time just after the Sarajevo Olympics when it seemed Yugoslavia was on the brink of transitioning from a second to a first world nation, when its natural and human resources seemed to be coalescing into something great and perhaps even lasting.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Yugo?

There'd always be a guy with a tray full of little glasses of this jet fuel -- plum brandy -- that everyone would partake of at all hours of the day at the Yugo factory. The way the Americans tried to eat the coffee grounds at the bottom of their Turkish coffee!

What does Erik Synnestvedt bring to the story that you wouldn???t experience if you just read the book?

The narrator brings a lighthearted, yet earnest, tone to the book. He helps you believe in the charm and winsome nature of the little car at the center of the book. His pronunciation of Serbian names and words is very good. He's good at bringing an ironic, dark undertone to the Yugo gags sprinkled throughout the book. I would listen to more books narrated by him.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I cried at the end, at the lyrics of Yugo 45, about the window of peace and a sort of prosperity symbolized by the freedom to fill up the tank and drive over the border to Trieste to buy jeans. In a completely different vein, I was angered at how much wealth and luxury the entrepreneur Malcolm manage to glean from his huge salary and then his multimillion dollar severance package, while investors and Yugo dealers lost everything they contributed to his dream.

Any additional comments?

I remember when the Yugo came to America. I took one for a test drive, but I never considered actually buying one. This book explains how the car became a punch line, a longstanding laughingstock, a latter-day Edsel -- and why the reputation was and wasn't deserved.

Interesting but disjointed

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

This book was an interesting look at the Yugo - a car I remember hearing a lot about at the time it was being imported to the U.S. It has an interesting back story involving the Yugo's promoter James Bricklin. The book is almost as much about James Bricklin's adventures in importing cars as it is about the Yugo. Jason Vuic places the Yugo imports in an historical context involving the cold war and the conflicts within the former Yugoslavia. While I found some of the historical context that Jason Vuic discussed in the book interesting, it wasn't always clear which events had a direct bearing on the Yugo and which ones didn't. There was a long discussion about Yugoslavia defying the Russian boycott of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angelos - I kept waiting for the tie in to the Yugo but it never came - other than to highlight how Yugoslavia was independent from Russia.

Any additional comments?

An interesting look at a car most of us have heard about but largely forgotten. A nice trip down memory lane for car buffs.

Great book

You might think you know about the Yugo but chances are you really don't know the half of it. I was surprised how much actually was going on behind the scenes. For instance how much politics, American and world had to do with both its success and failure. It's also an interesting exposé of sorts on Malcolm Bricklin, the man who brought the Yugo to America. It follows the ups and many more downs of his career. By the way you don't need to be a car nut to find this book enjoyable. Narration is great too.

Good story

This is a good story. I completely enjoyed listening to the history of the company, the players and those who fell into the story.

Even if you're a car guy - skip it

I like automobiles. I was surprised when I listened to this book, thought back to the glowing reviews and surmised there must be a disconnect somewhere. While the book was interesting for the most part to listen to, it rambled on about barely Yugo related subjects like Yugoslavian politics. Yes, some political facts are necessary to present a full picture, but to blither on about country politics, for me, just didn’t add anything to the book. If one removes all of the excess detail that was provided about the people and places that Yugo touched, the book would be reduced by half and probably be a more interesting listen. Luckily, I have long drives with the patience to get through it all.

Fascinating read - endless conversation material

What made the experience of listening to The Yugo the most enjoyable?

I'm not a car guy, but I knew the Yugo was a terrible car. I never knew the story, and I couldn't have guessed that there were still elements still left in play! The almost 40 year story of the Yugo was fascinating, and it's a lot of fun to talk about with friends because, let's face it: everybody knows the Yugo was terrible, but not a lot of people remember why.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The....Yugo?

Have you listened to any of Erik Synnestvedt’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I haven't listened to any of Erik's other performances, but he has a variable enough tone that I always found myself paying attention

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

And you thought your grandmother's car was terrible.

Well written, very detailed

If you are looking for a Yugo jokebook, this is not for you. But if you have a passing interest in the behind-the-scenes story of how oddball cars are brought to market, this is well worth the read.

You don't need to be an auto enthusiast to enjoy this book, it is a fascinating mixture of world history, politics, and PT Barnum hucksterism at it's grandest. I've been a car guy since the '60s, so I already knew the basic story of Malcolm Bricklin and the Yugo, but this story went into great detail about Malcolm's many failed attempts at success, the political climate in Yugoslavia that led to them building an aging Fiat, and why the Yugo became first a national celebrity then a national joke in the time time it takes most auto companies to design a single car.

Caution: unless you are a car person who followed the industry in the '70s and '80's, what you think you know about the Yugo is probably wrong - it wasn't the "worst car in history", it was just an outdated design built in a communist bloc country on a shoestring budget.

Well worth the read, and highly recommended!

Eye-Opening and Insightful

What did you love best about The Yugo?

There's so much more to the story of the Yugo than most would ever expect It's a surprisingly riveting story about the automotive industry, marketing, international politics, high finance and entrepreneurship. I chose it because I'm a car enthusiast, but I got hooked into it for all the other areas of interest even more.

I was a new driver at the time that the Yugo came out, so I have some particularly sharp memories of it, and hearing the

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Yugo?

Learning about the contrast in practices between the free market automotive manufacturers versus the state-run Yugoslavian Zastava's methods.

Have you listened to any of Erik Synnestvedt’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

N/A

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The number of times the Yugo/Zastava deal died and was resurrected and the entrepreneurship that it required.

Any additional comments?

A surprisingly interesting story that I actually had trouble turning off when I'd get to my destination because I wanted to keep listening to the next phase.

Not particularily impressed

I thought there was lots of "less than significant" information included -- causing me to think that information was included simply to add volume to the book. My opinion is that the same story could have been told with about half the words... at times, I thought the story had moved to some other topic. It did all tie together by book's end, but still seemed a bit wordy. That being said, I did enjoy the facts (which I did not verify) and specific timeline for the Yugo.