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How Do We Stop From Becoming The Next "yugo" Owners Group?

Joe Coppinger

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You actually owned one.. that's so cool !! When I was still in the USAF I worked in South Australia and there was this girl in the town who owned one. The rear suspension broke several times (welds break out the floor plan) eventually went to an old 1976 Holden Gemini and litterally created everything needed for the gemini rear suspension to work on the Yugo...

I was even in Tbilisi and owned a 1973 Zhiguli (Lada 2101 - had the 1200cc engine) and it had a better suspension and driveline, one would think Russian proven technology would have worked with the Yugo - cause both were essentially Fiats..
 

Joe Coppinger

Elio Enthusiast
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Hi Joe, you lost me at Holden Gemini! Can you explain some about all those vehicles you mentioned... Holden Gemini and the Zhiguli?
Previously in the thread imageon posted a picture of a Yugo,
When I was stationed in South Australia there was this girl in town that owned a Yugo, she was constantly having problems with that thing. A bunch of "gear heads" got together and knew of a Holden Gemini that had been once used for as a parts car that wasn't being used anymore.. Enough beer and someone mentioned switching the rear suspension from the Holden into the Yugo.. Well it happened and it worked out quite well.

The Zhiguli is a Lada 2101 - (Russian) but it came from a Fiat 124 (1966) Fiat sold it's design to Russsia (and many other countries) Lada stopped production somewhere in the early 90's (of this iconic model).
The Yugo was also a Fiat based design - Ritmo built in Yugosalvia (at the time member of USSR)
So the big question statement why did the Yugo car get the more "poor" engineering design when built. The Russian Gov't did a good job with the Lada series then how could they screw up another Fiat purchased design ??
 
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