00 · Not buying this
Zastava Yugo 45
€2491989 · polovniautomobili.com
Doesn't run. Lives in someone's yard. The joke car that started this.
The joke
● Departing 26.06.2026
TWO LATVIANS
WILL BUY A YUGO
IN BELGRADE
AND DRIVE IT HOME.
3,100 km through 5 countries in a Yugo — a tiny Yugoslav car famously called one of the worst ever made. A cybersecurity guy and a physics teacher with one driver's license. We're putting €2,500 of our own money in. Help us cover the rest.
SOMEBODY OPENED
POLOVNIAUTOMOBILI.COM
OVER DRINKS.
We were pricing rental cars to visit our friend M. in Sofia. Over €400 plus security-deposit-scam risk. So we joked we should just buy a Yugo instead. A week later we were still joking. A month later we were planning.
About the cards below
Each card is a real listing — the kind of car each fundraiser tier
actually unlocks. Click any photo to see the original ad.01 · Floor goal €1,500
Zastava Yugo 55 Innocenti
€9501992 · polovniautomobili.com
Cheapest car we'd actually trust to make the trip. The minimum that gets us home.
03 · Solid goal €5,000
Zastava Yugo 65 1.3 Weber
€3,3002003 · polovniautomobili.com
Bigger 1.3 engine, Weber carb, looked after. The comfortable choice.
04 · Stretch goal €8,000
Zastava 750 Cabriolet
€4,7501982 · polovniautomobili.com
The unicorn. Yes — technically a Fića, not a Yugo. The cabrio market doesn't care about our brand consistency.
Unicorn
→ "But a €500 Yugo drives fine"
True. Around town. We need 500 km a day, seven days straight, across 5 countries — with a notarized purchase and export plates on top. The price difference buys a documented service history, a fresh timing belt, cooling that works, and a seller willing to do the paperwork. Anything left over becomes the repair buffer. If we find a great car cheap, the rest stays in the buffer — we're not spending it for sport.
→ The hunt is content too
Days 2–4 in Belgrade are the car hunt: every viewing, every "it ran last winter", every handshake — documented daily on @yugotoriga. You're not just funding the drive home. You're funding two Latvians negotiating in broken Serbian.
Raised so far · 5 supporters
€240
Floor
€1,500
€1.5k
€3k
€5k
€8k
01 · Floor
€1,500
Cheapest Yugo that will make the trip. Sticker production starts.
02 · Better
€3,000
Better Yugo, repair buffer, an occasional hotel night.
03 · Solid
€5,000
Mid-range Yugo, real camping kit, hotels when we need them.
04 · Cabrio
€8,000
Full Cabrio hunt — unicorn car, the whole trip funded.
03 · What you get
Stickers
297/300 left
€5
01 · Small sticker
Your name on the car. No slurs, no political. Visible if you look.
29/30 left
€25
02 · Bigger sticker
Visible across a parking lot. Plus Insta thank-you mention.
10/10 left
€100
03 · Logo decal
Custom logo on door or fender (subject to approval). Plus thank-you reel.
Premium placements
prime real estate · few slots€200
only 3 left
04 · Bumper sponsor
Front or back bumper. Hero-shot material — supporter picks placement.
€300
only 2 left
05 · Roof / back window
Top-tier placement. Visible from every drone-style shot. Back window pending Latvian road-regulation check.
Hood is reserved for the Yugopilots logo. Not for sale.
Plus
€3 / song
Spotify queue (only while driving)
Heard live in the car. No content moderation — if it is on Spotify, we listen. Songs over 5 minutes cost more. Opens when the trip starts.
WHERE THE
EUROS GO.
This is not a free-Yugo grift. We're putting €2,513 of our own money in — €513 already paid, €2,000 more lined up. Donations bridge the gap.
See the full breakdownAlready spent
€513
flights · AirBnB · domain · VPS · Stripe · Spotify
We'll add
+€2,000
our own savings, before departure
Donations cover
€1,400+
the gap · scales with goal hit
05 · The honest part
WHAT CAN GO WRONG.
Because it might. No-bullshit pre-mortem.
→ The trip happens regardless
Flights and AirBnB are paid. The question is whether it's the Yugo trip or the original Sofia rental trip — not whether we go. Donations decide the shape, not the existence.
→ Under €1,000 = real risk
Below that floor we may not afford a car that actually makes the drive. We still go — but in a rental, and the Yugo becomes a we tried post-mortem video.
→ One driver
Only Nauris is licensed. Last summer he drove Riga → Vilnius → Riga → Tallinn → Riga in 48 hours. We are not strangers to this. We are also not invincible.
→ Old city car, long trip
Yugos are small, weak-engined, designed for city errands — not 500 km/day for two weeks. Breakdowns are not if, they are when. Repair buffer included.
THE PLAN WHEN IT BREAKS
not if · when01 · Spares where a trunk would be
Belts, ignition set, coolant, oil, fuses, bulbs, tire kit, real tools — bought in Belgrade before we leave, where Zastava parts are sold on every corner for pocket change.
02 · The Fiat trick
A Yugo is old Fiat tech underneath. Parts interchange with classics every Balkan village mechanic grew up fixing. Between Belgrade and the Latvian border the car is never far from someone who's repaired hundreds of these.
03 · People & paperwork
We're already in contact with Belgrade Zastava people for the purchase, export plates and inspection. Notarized sale, temporary export plates valid across all five borders, insurance from day one — sorted before we drive out.
If it dies beyond a roadside fix: tow to the nearest town, repair or park it, finish by rental, come back for the car. The repair buffer becomes the tow fund. The trip finishes either way — see Plan B.
If we can't buy the Yugo.
— no refunds, the trip just looks different —
> Rent a car in Belgrade. Drive ~400 km to Sofia.
> Two days with our friend M.
> Buy last-minute flights Sofia → Riga (~€150 each).
> Home well before the 10.07 Kraków flight.
A 3-day adventure instead of a 7-day roadtrip. Donations don't get refunded because the spending is already spent — they fund the rental, the t-shirts with every supporter's name on them (worn the entire trip — every photo, every reel, every border), the live GPS, the Spotify queue. Content still ships.
Whatever's left becomes seed money for the next attempt next summer.
— D. & N.
Riga, May 2026
Plan B
The trip and the content are guaranteed.
The Yugo is the bet.
Donating is supporting the bet, not buying the car. If the bet doesn't pay off, you still get a stranger doing 3,000 km in a small foreign country with your name on his t-shirt. Different content, same story.