Back in the 1980s, a car manufacturer called Zastava Yugo began producing extremely economical compact cars commonly referred to as Yugo. In the U.S., these appeared in 1985 as extremely affordable options for buyers here. The cars had about an 8 year run, selling nearly 150,000 units in America before imports stopped.
The tiny Yugos had inline-four cylinder engines, manual transmissions (with a few exceptions), and terrible safety records. I personally owned one for about two weeks, spending time in the wrecking yard I worked in making one running model out of the three on the lot. Needless to say, reliability was not this car’s strong suite and I eventually let it go to scrap.
Well, fast forward to 2025 and guess what? A guy named Professor Doctor Alexander Bjelic wants to bring the Yugo back. Or at least the brand and central idea. The good professor doctor is an engineer, economist, and (you guessed it) professor with a doctorate degree. He’s also got years of experience in the automotive industry in Europe. And has filed trademark applications worldwide for the Yugo name.
Bjelic has also enlisted automotive designer Darko Marceta, of Serbia, to come up with some styling proposals for the new Yugo. And they’re not horrible. The sketches, inspired loosely by the original Yugo cars, depict a modernized hatchback similar in shape and appeal to the Volkswagen Golf, but with stronger lines and more aggressive features.
The professor doctor seems to be aiming to hit on a nostalgic marketing angle while offering a modern and (I assume) road-legal design. He’s also made it clear that it being the cheapest car offered in North America is definitely a goal. Parts and mechanics will come from an as yet unnamed manufacturer. It will be a combustion model, Bjelic says, though an electric option hasn’t been totally ruled out.
The new Yugo is still under development and Bjelic plans to have a scale model ready for showing later this year with a tentative debut of a running prototype in 2027.
