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The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History Audio CD – Unabridged, March 8, 2010

by Jason Vuic (Author), Synnestvedt Erik (Reader)

4.4 235 ratings

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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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"As historian Jason Vuic chronicles in his captivating, unexpected new book, for a fleeting moment amid the clichéd go-go excesses of the 1980s, the $3,995 Yugo--loosely based on a Fiat and produced by a one-time arms manufacturer called Zastava--captured the wallets, if not exactly the hearts, of Americans and introduced some oddball charm and entrepreneurial zest into the staid confines of the US auto market. Vuic's history is a fascinating read, and an instructive one for the present moment."

-- "Slate"

"[A] rollicking chronicle of the rise and fall of the homely little hatchback that couldn't...[Jason Vuic] weaves a tale about crazy socialist factories, just-as-crazy Western financial practices, geopolitics in the days of the Cold War, and an American public yearning for affordable cars--all combined with the 'cutting edge Serbo-Croatian technology, ' as the Yugo was referred to in the spoof movie version of 'Dragnet'...Mr. Vuic is as hard on the Western capitalism that fleetingly embraced the car as he is on the socialist system that produced it."

-- "Wall Street Journal"

"Jason Vuic provides a thoroughly researched and illuminating account of what turned into a spectacular disaster."

-- "Economist"

"Jason Vuic, a professor of modern European history, could have easily written a straightforward takedown of the most maligned automobile since the Ford Pinto. Instead, he uses the Yugo as a vehicle for an insightful and witty look at car culture, a half-century of Balkan history, and the last decade of the Cold War."

-- "Mother Jones"

"Vuic's book is thoroughly researched, with hundreds of annotations. Its true genius, however, is its fine focus not on the Yugo itself, but on Bricklin the man--an outsized opportunist, a thick-skinned mega-capitalist whose modus operandi was to overpromise and underdeliver, a Mr. Magoo oblivious to the wreckage all around him, a charming marketing manipulator who realizes he has crossed the line only when the subpoenas start flying. In short, a fascinating story well told."

-- "Car and Driver"

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"

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08XZ65DGB
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tantor Audio; Unabridged edition (March 8, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8200111503
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.3 x 7.5 inches

Customer Reviews:
4.4 235 ratings

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Jason Vuic

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Originally from Punta Gorda, Florida, Jason Vuic is an award-winning writer and historian from Fort Worth, Texas. He is the author of several books, including The Swamp Peddlers: How Lot Sellers, Land Scammers, and Retirees Built Modern Florida and Transformed the American Dream (UNC Press, 2021), The Yucks! Two Years in Tampa with the Losingest Team in NFL History (Simon and Schuster, 2016) and The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History (Hill and Wang, 2010). Jason is a graduate of Wake Forest University and holds an M.A. in history from the University of Richmond and a Ph.D. in history from Indiana University Bloomington. He has been both a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and a Fulbright Scholar, and has appeared on such well-known programs as NPR’s Weekend Edition, Fox and Friends in the Morning, and C-SPAN’s Book TV. His website is www.jasonvuic.com

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D_shrink

Automotive History and Internatinal Politics All in One

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2010

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A very unique way to present an abbreviated history of the former Yugoslavia Federation and especially its Serbian state through its second largest industrial complex the the Zastava automobile complex that began producing the car known in America as the Yugo. The internal strife between the various Yugoslav states and the communist regimes way of doing things is well documented. But the majority of the book is devoted to the Malcolm Bricklin and associates who were the importers of the Yugo in America. He had also built a nasty piece of steel called the Bricklin, as he was a rather ego-maniacal personality. He had far too many other failed ventures to discuss in a short review, but needless to say most people have heard of the various companies from the Handyman Hardware stores of the 1960's to the Proton automobile manufactured in Malaysia by Mitsubishi. Mr. Brickln was rather a rogue and an idea man rather than a nuts and bolts type of entrepreneur. He lived large and fast flying his own helicopter and renting out the Tavern on the green for a dealers breakfast, but not checking the guest list, so that a bunch of freeloaders came in for the free grub. The book is written in a factual but still quite humorous manner. The book is listed at 262pp, but the actual reading material stops on page 213, with the rest being supporting notes. The nice thing about the author's writing is that he doesn't bother the reader continually by stopping to say who said what to whom, but allows you to look on the index pages to see where he got his information. The author is an asst. professor of European History and I would be interested in taking a class from him were I still in the college age group. Try the book, you'll not want to put it down until you see how it ends; well all except for the Yugo itself. But then again even that is in debate as the last chapter indicates it may still arise with a African nameplate in the future.

5 people found this helpful

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graveljoe

Well-researched, well-written book about so much more than a notorious car...

Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2024

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...but the automotive business, capitalism vs. communism, international relations and more!

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Andy Orrock

"The Yugo" is much more than just the Yugo

Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2010

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"The Yugo" is much more than just the Yugo. Jason Vuic is a professor of modern European history. That pedigree reveals itself in spades in this well-researched, fascinating book.

Despite Vuic's place in academia, "The Yugo" is no dry academic treatise. His vibrant prose leaps off the page, whether he's recounting the tortuous, zigzag career path of the Yugo's audacious importer/entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin, the roots of the Yugoslav wars, or the Yugo's place in popular culture. Indeed, Vuic has cataloged here every Yugo joke, every Leno swipe, every mention of the Yugo on Letterman's Top Ten list.

In the end, the Yugo had a chance. Yes, people remember the initial shoddy quality, but other manufacturers had similar beginnings and were allowed to travel the path of continuous improvement to respectability. The most notable and relevant of these: Subaru of America. Founder: Malcolm Bricklin.

So what ended up killing the brand beyond its quality issues and well-documented PR problems? Bricklin's sudden infatuation with the Proton from Malaysia, Yugo of America's knife's edge finances, and - as the death knell - the wallop of US sanctions imposed on Serbia by the Bush (41) administration. Vuic makes a clear, compelling case that it was ultimately these factors - not the quality/PR issues we remember today - that put the Yugo into the history books.

4 people found this helpful

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J. Young

who knew the Yugo was so fascinating?

Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2010

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For those of us who grew up with the Yugo being the punchline of so many jokes, it's hard to believe that there's an interesting story behind all those jokes. Yet there is, and Jason Vuic does a fine job of weaving the tale. From its earliest beginnings until the last one rolled off the assembly line, Vuic covers it all.

Yet this isn't just a manual on a part of pop culture. It runs the gamut as both a historical and political lesson, and demonstrates quite concisely how elements of both sometimes inadvertently conspired to bring the Yugo to the USA and to destroy it for good in the end. You get a history of the Yugo, as well as a brief history of Yugoslavia, of political backroom dealings, and of the man behind selling the Yugo, Malcolm Bricklin.

The Bricklin story alone is worth the price of the book. Bricklin had (and continues to have) an entrepreneurial history littered with one failure after another, but apparently could sell oceanfront property in Nebraska. In that respect, the Yugo was doomed from the start. For if there is one thing Bricklin is attracted to, it's a bad idea. Yet the timeline of the Yugo's failure is amusing to behold. You see it coming from a mile away, but only because-- thanks to this book-- you now know what was going on behind the scenes. From cars literally falling apart to Zastava's (the manufacturer of the Yugo) factory of drunks to Bricklin himself, the Yugo experiment was as doomed as a Slobodan Milosevic political rival.

At times overstated but never boring, Vuic makes the history of the Yugo a must-read for all you Cliff Clavins out there who want to know a little about a lot, or in this case a lot about the little Yugo. There is a ton of fodder for water cooler discussion in here, and a little more to boot.

5 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada on June 5, 2016

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Great book and a look inside a disaster !

Ian P

Not Quite The Worst Car In History

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 16, 2014

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A fascinating book concerning importing The Yugo an old Fiat based design built by Zastava in what was then Yugoslavia to the United States in the mid 1980's,this was too be the only attempt by an Eastern European manufacturer to sell cars in North America. The sub title of the book is maybe slightly misleading as the Zastava cars were far from the worst car offered by the Eastern bloc,compared to the East German Trabant the Yugo was a Toyota by comparison. The vehicle had one advantage however it was cheap,very cheap indeed an entry sticker price of $3990 certainly attracted a lot of interest and a high profile ad campaign certainly attracted a lot of interest and promising initial sales seemed to give the project some initial momentum. What is to me most interesting is the history of the importer of the vehicle Malcolm Bricklin who had a history of importing vehicles for sale in the US, his first attempt was to import the Subaru 360 again a very cheap vehicle so light that it could be categorized in the US as a motorcycle, damning safety reports doomed this effort, but at least it led to Subaru officially setting up as importer and led to the success it is today. Next up was the saga of the Bricklin sports car a safety sports car which Mr Bricklin was going to build in an old Renault factory in New Brunswick attracted by money from the provincial government. Actually superficially the Bricklin looked quite impressive with it's plastic coloured body panels, gull winged doors and an AMC V8 engine, for a moment it looked like that the Corvette may have had a rival, but a couple of years later it was all over after about 5000 cars had been produced, it was of course put into production too soon and quality problems scuppered this interesting effort. You've rather got to admire Malcolm Bricklin he didn't quit, after Fiat stopped importing the Spider and X1/9 models he stepped in setting up a company to import these cars into the US with again limited success,which eventually brings us back to the Yugo. The Yugo was to be the first product in a line of cars that would be imported from Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. As a British car enthusiast I was very interested in Mr Vuic's account of how the Malaysian manufacturer Proton came into being, as this was an attempt to give the country an automotive industry for the country that would design and manufacture Malaysian cars rather than an assembler of CKD kits. This project was backed by the Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed who gave his blessing to a joint project with Mitsubishi and backed it with cash and substantial tax advantages over the CKD assemblers, the hope was that this would create new employment, but initially Proton were an assembler of kits supplied by Mitsubish and the rival assemblers were driven out of business leading to a net loss in employment in the Malaysian automotive sector. Mr Vuic has written an excellent book on this subject that reaches behind the joke status the Yugo had become and is to be highly recommended for anyone interested in the auto industry

Rob J

Great Automotive History Book

Reviewed in Canada on December 25, 2013

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I bought this book on a whim and am glad that I did. It goes though the history of not just the Yugo, but of it's importer, Malcolm Bricklin. Overall, it is well written and has loads of interesting details that are actually pretty good topics to talk about with car folk.

My favourite bit of info is that the Yugo was not named because it came from Yugoslavia, rather, it was named for a trade wind, Jugo, just like the VW Passat/Jetta/Bora, but upon export, they thought nobody would pronounce it correctly and went with Yugo.

Either way, its a good read and I often recommend it to both car and non-car people alike.

One person found this helpful

AK

Solid, if somewhat rambling history of Yugo's rise and fall in the US market

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 19, 2013

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Jason Vuic has taken the brave step of trying to accurately chronicle the 'career' of the Yugo - Zastava's compact car from 1980 - in the United States. The car has quickly turned into the butt of many a joke and was dismissed almost instantly; still there is more to the story and at some level there were many successes, as well as plenty of lessons for those, who are yet to, or have already been attempting an entry into this truly difficult automotive market.

The book is very comprehensive and one can tell that it is a work of an academic, rather than someone with roots in the automotive industry. The author went to some lengths to collect plenty of original material, and to interview as many of the original protagonists as possible (and as a good academic included all the sources in the back, for those looking for additional detail). The book covers plenty of aspects, including pretty much the complete career of Malcolm Bricklin - Yugo and otherwise - the adjustments made to the cars to get exported to the US, some historical background of car manufacturing in Yugoslavia, the complete career of Yugo in the US, the later attempts to revive it after 2000, a general commentary on the 1980s environment in the US into which Yugo was launched, etc.

As such it is surely comprehensive but at the same time also a bit rambling and not particularly focused. The author is often getting to points in a roundabout way and includes plenty of aspects which are at best remotely related to the main story in question but which turned up during his research. This is fine if you have a general interest in the industry but could well frustrate some readers, too.

Another comment to make is that the author's non-automotive background occassionally leads to minor errors. They do not detract from the main story but could become frustrating if you are a stickler for detail. On top the aspect of the Yugoslav automotive industry has some holes in it (Zastava was by no means the only manufacturer and did not enjoy a monopoly position, even if open competition with the full raft of foreign manufacturers was not present). However the focus of the book has been the US, so even if the 'home market' context is a bit weak, the book is not greatly diminished by this.

I find that if you are working in the automotive industry, the book is definitely a worthwhile purchase. As mentioned, it does go into many aspects that need to be considered when entering a new market, provides plenty of background material, some 'war stories', which if nothing else, are quite amusing to retell... On top, it is an interesting management case study (if you abridge it a bit) and shows the situation in a sufficiently nuanced manned to enable rich discussions around several management topics. It goes well with books such as British Leyland: Chronicle of a Car Crash 1968-1978 , My Years with General Motors , On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors in providing a background to the automotive industry.

And in spite of being the probably most joked about car in history, and the reluctance of the manufacturer to enter the market in the first place, it managed to enter the US market at a time when few manufacturers were still capable off it, did so in record time, for a while registered as the third best selling European import, and even outlived much more storied brands in the market. Surely that is a part of automotive history that is worthwhile understanding.

Eckythump

A fascinating read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 9, 2021

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A fascinating read which takes in social history and business hubris. Interesting to read even were it not about the first car that I ever bought!

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