1989 Yugo GVL Long-Term Road Test Edmunds.com

Edmunds.com

1989 Yugo GVL Long-Term Road Test Edmunds.com

Has a 1989 Yugo GVL ever shared space at the valet stand with a Range Rover? It almost certainly had not until the Edmunds Yugo did just that at a holiday party in LA.

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daryleason

I guess you should be grateful it wasn't used as a dumpster.

bankerdanny

Philistine, doesn't he know the Yugo is a classic?

daryleason

This is sort of along the lines of a point I made once before. Whether a car is a Nissan Versa or a Rolls Royce, to someone, it's THEIR car. Whether it's that first owner, who bought it new, or a subsequent owner that got it, someone, at some point, was proud of that particular car, for whatever reason. Maybe it's the great deal they got on it, it was their first car, it's their dream car, it was given to them by someone, it was inherited from someone they loved, or it brings back memories of another car. But the point is, most cars have some point in their "lives" where they're special. It's why salvage yards make me sad in a way. Walking through the salvage yards, you can see vehicles that you know that someone probably cared about it at some point. But along the way, they got traded, sold, or just abandoned and they ended up there, rusting away, to be stripped of parts and forgotten. It's why, no matter what condition a vehicle is in, or what it's worth, I always try to find something nice to say about someone else's vehicle. What to you might be the worst car in the world (PT Cruiser...) might be the best vehicle in the world to someone else (in the case of the PT Cruiser, I suspect brain damage...)

It's why I'm now seeking out my first vehicle, a 1994 Ford Ranger. It was nothing special, just a regular cab, 4 cylinder, 5 speed manual regular cab with a short wide bed. It wasn't particularly fast (although it'd hit 45 mph pretty respectably), couldn't tow or haul that much, didn't have a lot of features (A/C, AM/FM Cassette, Sliding Rear Window), but it gave me FREEDOM, taught me responsibility, and took me, both literally and figuratively, out into the world.

dm7279

daryleason said:

This is sort of along the lines of a point I made once before. Whether a car is a Nissan Versa or a Rolls Royce, to someone, it's THEIR car. Whether it's that first owner, who bought it new, or a subsequent owner that got it, someone, at some point, was proud of that particular car, for whatever reason. Maybe it's the great deal they got on it, it was their first car, it's their dream car, it was given to them by someone, it was inherited from someone they loved, or it brings back memories of another car. But the point is, most cars have some point in their "lives" where they're special. It's why salvage yards make me sad in a way. Walking through the salvage yards, you can see vehicles that you know that someone probably cared about it at some point. But along the way, they got traded, sold, or just abandoned and they ended up there, rusting away, to be stripped of parts and forgotten. It's why, no matter what condition a vehicle is in, or what it's worth, I always try to find something nice to say about someone else's vehicle. What to you might be the worst car in the world (PT Cruiser...) might be the best vehicle in the world to someone else (in the case of the PT Cruiser, I suspect brain damage...)

It's why I'm now seeking out my first vehicle, a 1994 Ford Ranger. It was nothing special, just a regular cab, 4 cylinder, 5 speed manual regular cab with a short wide bed. It wasn't particularly fast (although it'd hit 45 mph pretty respectably), couldn't tow or haul that much, didn't have a lot of features (A/C, AM/FM Cassette, Sliding Rear Window), but it gave me FREEDOM, taught me responsibility, and took me, both literally and figuratively, out into the world.

Well said, although my Old Man loved his PT Cruiser. He admitted it was a terrible car, but he just loved the look and the utility. His even had hideous fake wood paneling on the side. I'm sure the Yugo was loved (at least initially) by many that bought one, because it brought the possibility of owning a new car to many that would have had to buy used otherwise.

daryleason

@DM7279 :

I too had a PT Cruiser. I bought it under duress, because my wife played multiple cards all at once...
1) She never got to pick out a new car...
2) She LOVED the way they looked...
3) She would get her driver's license (long story) if I bought it for her...
4) I'd never have to drive it (she lied...#3 never happened)....
5) It'd get great fuel economy (this one was actually true)....
6) She'd let me have final say on color (awesome blue...the only thing I did like about that car)...
7) She'd never second guessed me buying a car (very true...she's been very understanding; although now, we've gotten to the point of "No more cars until you either buy me a bigger house or get rid of some of the other cars".

So what could I do? I bought it. If it wasn't so horribly built, combined with me doing the normal maintenance and repairs, I'd probably have been "okay" with it. But it didn't fit my body right. I hated driving it. I could flip people off from both the driver's side and the passenger's side. I like to sit upright when driving. But when I did, my head rubbed the headliner. The sun visor completely blocked my view if it was in use. And I never thought the grab handle on the Driver's side made any sense. It was only there to catch my temple when I was in a hurry and trying to get in. WHY would you need a grab handle on the driver's side? Keep your hands on the wheel. It was a pain in the rear to replace anything on it. I actually had a mechanic once follow me to a store just to ask how to get the stupid spare out from under the car.

darthbimmer

daryleason said:

This is sort of along the lines of a point I made once before. Whether a car is a Nissan Versa or a Rolls Royce, to someone, it's THEIR car.

I've written something similar before, too. Not everyone feels passion about their cars, but for those who do... well, a car doesn't have to be expensive, fast, or luxurious to have meaning.

With an inexpensive car like the Yugo that meaning is/was often the difference between owning a car and not owning a car. Being able to go where you want, when you want versus being relying on others or on public transportation (which in many parts of the US is virtually nonexistent). Independence vs. dependence.

BTW, I've seen people passionate over their PT Cruisers, too. One was a woman for whom it was her first new car. Its meaning was the end of all the hassles she had to put up with in owning cheap used cars: radios and heaters that work sporadically, having to play the will-the-engine-start-when-I-turn-the-key game, visiting the mechanic once a month, etc. A new PT Cruiser meant saying goodbye to those problems... well, for the first 50-70k miles anyway.

daryleason

As a slightly humorous side note...after the PT Cruiser, my wife said she'd never voice her opinion on a car again, that she obviously has no place picking a vehicle. When she first said it, I thought she was being snide because of my frustration and general distaste for the car and was doing a "men think women aren't smart when it comes to cars" comment. Come to find out, she was actually being genuine and felt like she'd failed me and herself over the car. At the end, she hated it more than I did, especially after the AC quit working 45 days after the warranty expired.

She thought the tables had turned when I bought a 12 year old Buick Regal GS (Supercharged 3.8 Liter V6) to replace the PT Cruiser (I used the money I would have had to spend to fix the Cruiser to just buy a used car). She was already starting on the "granny car" jokes on the way to look at it. Then she saw the car and rode with me on the test drive. After that, she understood why I was buying it. Never really had a problem with the Regal and it was a great fit for our family. I got it with a little more than 150 thousand miles on the car and sold it with about 320 thousand miles.

But I told her, seriously, that buying a car is a learning experience. You either learn that you made a good choice, or you learn that you made a bad choice. Sometimes, the right choice now is the wrong choice in a year, because situations change, just like the wrong choice now can be the right choice in a year.

Now, when we car shop, she tells me what she would like, but doesn't insist if I veto it.

gslippy

This won't be the worst car Edmunds has ever run in a long-term test. It actually seems to have stabilized.