1991 Yugo Skala 55 from Republic of Srpska - Comments

For the ten years only parts I had replaced are pump and erasers.

About the car: this car cost some $3500 for me.

What do you expect to get for this money?

The interior is not something Zastava can be proud of. There are bad arranged plastics, but still better than the 1970s.

Engine is 55 PS and its behavior is very satisfactory, I think better than many cars produced even these days.

I drove it at 150km/h successfully, the acceleration is not the best, but is better than many cars (ie Fiat Uno) - some 13-14 seconds from 0-100 km/h.

The best thing related to this car is that anybody can repair it and the parts are very cheap.

For the ten years I did not have any problems with the car. Nearly the only things one should buy are petrol and oil.

The some people reported defects with the car a short period after they had bought them.

I think that there were many models and there were periods with production problems.

If your car do not have problems in the first 3 months, they will never appear.

Currently condition of the car is also satisfactory and it is better than many cars, ie Opels from 1989 to 1992, or Fiat, Skoda and similar cars my friends have.

So, will I buy this car again?

If Zastava/Yugo make new car models, better looking, with a bit better performance and security than present, with the same approximate price - of course I will.

I have to say that you must be deluded if you think any Yugo is better than a Skoda, even the old pre VW Skodas were much better built and handled much better than the Yugo. A better comparison would be to a Lada or FSO.

I also have Yugo Skala 55 and totally agree with first issue. My Skala make-year is 1989 and after 15 years it still goes on and on.

The only thing I had to repair (change) were brakes, what you need to change on every car, however not for 9 € :) (pretty cheap ha?), exhaust (some 5 times, but only the last part of it), wipers, bulbs, brushes on starter (after 11 years), 2 tires every second year (front goes back, and 50 € for two front tires). Somewhere here the list stops why nothing went wrong with it.

Fuel consumption is from 7.5L/km to no limit; it depends on stile of driving (once I had 15L per km, but with 800kg trailer) but on long distances (100+ km) it stops at 7-8 (if going by speed limits).

Yugo's have only few problem (it couldn't be many because there isn't enough things to go wrong) :)

One thing are door locks. If winter morning is -10°C or more than you are really a lucky man (and walking man too).

Second, all for side windows starts opening on their own (when driving over 80km/h) and the only way to fix it is that you block them someway (and cops stare at you when trying to show them documents through open doors).

Last thing I noticed is also that empty fuel-tank bulb goes of on all Yugo's (just need to clean sensor in fuel-tank - done myself).

These are all things that went wrong and I can say that I is very reliable (engine not body) and better to drive than Skoda 1300 (rear engine isn't good for speeding).

If you have some mechanic skills then this is superb "old-timer" to own (If you live in ex Yugoslavia and anywhere in ex "red Europe") (this is because of spare parts) :) :)

I also own one myself and the design of the car is pretty good, reliability is also, they could have done the doors better however my opinion is that the plastics where done rather well, thing I admire the most are the pedals, they are suited perfectly, with the brakes and accelerator very close one to the other. It is a better car than the pre VW skodas if not by anything else than technically, it is a car which was first built in 1972 and has got an overhead camshaft unlike 2000 Skoda fabia 1.4 mpi, quality of the doors is not satisfactory, they should have had a better monitring system in the factory, stories where told that the workers took alcohol into the facility and knowing the former Yugoslavian practice it would not be a surprise to me that these stories are thrue. However in sixteen years I had no larger faults, though I haven't driven it much eighter. Spare parts where always cheap and I must admite that I bought more parts then the first two owners, I had to buy new cabel for the electrics (ignition cables) and I often had signalization problems, engine is modern and if it had a multiple point injection system it woul have been thechnicly equal to ones in fiat punto or peugeot 206. yet it is fixed with an ancient SCOE system (single carburetor), ignition is rather modern, and the engine pretty elastic for its size. one thin I have to say against this car: it is rhich in different sounds, gears are not easy to change, and you can always smell gasoline fumes. well that's not one thin, but three, would I buy a Zastava again? Sorry, but I don't think so, it simply isn't safe enough, and you have a feeling they could have done a better job with it, and they are asking to much money for them, so I wouldn't do it, though it is robust it is unfinished...

I have Yugo Skala 65 wit LPG and I can say that this is the best combination for cheap driving.

I have one of the latest version. It is called Yugo Skala 55. Serbian production (november 1989).It is FIAT 128 hatchback version (five doors) so it is really practic. It is the best car of that type here in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Yesterday I achieved 150 km/h (5300 rpm) on the motorway Sarajevo-Visoko. Max. speed is 160 km/h. Nice result for only 55 HP. 6000 rpm is really nice, woaw what a sound. I - 55 km/h (6000rpm), II - 80 km/h (6000 rpm) or 85 km/h (6400 rpm), III - 123 km/h (6000 rpm) and IV - 160 km/h (5700 rpm) after very long pushing to the limit. It is not true about poor fuel consumption and rust. My car is in perfect condition even after 130.000 km and 17 years. Fuel consumption is sometimes even lower than 8l/100 km in city. On motorway fuel consumption is about 5-7 l/100km (it depends on driving style). Electronic ignition makes wonder. There is no problem to drive the car in 4. gear 1200 rpm. Really elastic high touring motor, the best ever made in car industry. We have a nice FIAT BRAVA in family. Excellent car. Why? It is Fiat too.