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 7 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 €2,552 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 cars we sized up on the hunt, from
the joke that started it to the kind we ended up going for. Click any photo to see the
original ad.01 · The honest minimum
Zastava Yugo 55 Innocenti
€9501992 · polovniautomobili.com
Cheapest car we'd actually trust to make the trip. The honest minimum that gets us home.
02 · The comfy one we eyed
Zastava Yugo 65 1.3 Weber
€3,3002003 · polovniautomobili.com
Bigger 1.3 engine, Weber carb, looked after. The comfortable one we eyed.
03 · The dream we skipped
Zastava 750 Cabriolet
€4,7501982 · polovniautomobili.com
The unicorn we skipped. Yes — technically a Fića, not a Yugo. The cabrio market doesn't care about our brand consistency.
Skipped
→ "But a €500 Yugo drives fine"
True. Around town. We need 500 km a day, seven days straight, across 7 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.
→ Belgrade is content too
Days in Belgrade are the handover: collecting the car, the notary, the export plates — every signature and every "will it actually start" documented daily on @yugotoriga. You're not just funding the drive home. You're funding two Latvians doing paperwork in broken Serbian.
Raised so far · 13 supporters
€365
Floor
€1,500
Car found — here's where donations go now
We didn't chase a fancier car — we went with the honest minimum: a €200 Yugo, bought in cash in Belgrade. The catch? Keeping it alive — €700 in repairs so far (tyres, a midnight roadside rescue, a carburetor mechanic), plus thirstier fuel and extra hotel nights. Hitting the €1,500 floor covers exactly that: repairs, fuel, food, the drive home. We said breakdowns are when, not if — we were right. Every €5 sticker pushes the bar.
03 · What you get
Stickers
WHERE THE
EUROS GO.
This is not a free-Yugo grift. We're putting €2,552 of our own money in — €2,303 already paid, €249 more lined up. Donations bridge the gap.
See the full breakdownAlready spent
€2,303
flights · AirBnB · domain · VPS · Stripe · Spotify · stickers · maps
We'll add
+€249
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.