Nobody does nostalgia like car lovers. Witness: the Ford Bronco, the return of Scout, the Volkswagen ID. Buzz (winner of the 2025 World Car Design of the Year Award), and the car of your dreams, which could well be older than you.
The cars we love aren’t even necessarily great cars. Sometimes, a car becomes a classic because it’s quirky, not because it’s good.
We know that. But even we didn’t see this coming.
A classic of the 1980s, known mostly for its unforgiving awfulness, may return to the road soon. The Yugo is attempting a comeback.
A caveat: We may not see this in the U.S. We’re reporting on it anyway because it’s the comeback of the Yugo. You’d want to know about another Milli Vanilli album, too.
Enthusiast site The Autopian had the story first, publishing sketches of a proposed New Yugo earlier this year. Now, the team behind the rebirth attempt has appeared in public with a car to show off for the first time…sort of.
The U.K.’s Car Magazine explains, “The naming rights to Yugo were secured by Prof. Dr. Aleksandar Bjelić – a university professor that has links” to the automotive industry in Germany. Bjelić secured the services of Serbian designer Darko Marčeta, and the pair appeared at a car design forum in Germany this week with a scale model.
A Beloved 1980s Flop
In case you’re young enough to be spared the memory, we’ll give a brief history.
From 1980 to 2008, a Yugoslav (later Serbian) company called Zastava produced a small, boxy hatchback known in the West as the Yugo. It sold well in its home market, where it served as bargain transportation. So, in the 1980s, unorthodox American businessman Malcolm Bricklin tried bringing it to the U.S.
It wasn’t a lark. Bricklin had already succeeded once with a similar plan – he’s the one who introduced Subaru to the American market.
From 1985 to 1992, Bricklin imported Yugos to the American market. The tiny hatchback was the cheapest car for sale in the U.S. for most of its run. Yugos were famous for build quality problems and wheezy engines, but the company sold more than 140,000 during its run.
The fall of Communism, the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, and an emissions scandal combined to stop the import of Yugo cars in the early 1990s.
The car, however, has a cult following to this day. Still-running Yugos are reliable hits at cars and coffee events nationwide. Several Facebook groups unite owners and celebrate the history of the odd little vehicles.
A Comeback in the Quirky Spirit of the Original
To be clear, this project may not get far. Car Magazine reports, “Yugo has confirmed that the new supermini will launch as a combustion engine car, working on both naturally-aspirated and turbocharged versions, as well as manual and automatic versions.”
But all the nascent company has displayed thus far is a scale model likely shorter than your knees. “The big reveal,” Carscoops says, “isn’t expected until 2027. Yugo has made it clear that we won’t see a full-scale drivable prototype until May 15 of that year, during the Belgrade Expo.”
And the scale model doesn’t exactly look finished. Motor Trend comments, “It’s sort of a mess,” with “what we can only describe as feigned panel misalignment.”
Even The Autopian, praising the design, says, “The bottom line on the doors sits lower than those of the fenders, and the rectangular front grille is a little ungainly.”
However, a few awkward lines may be the perfect way to bring back the Yugo. Would anyone love a reborn model that looked just right?
Americans may have to…admire?…the new Yugo from afar. Car and Driver calls a return to the U.S. “unlikely,” adding, “The Yugo’s reputation was badly damaged by quality issues when it was new, and while there’s certainly a cult following for them, there’s probably not a business case to sell them to the general public.”