Today’s automotive curiosity comes thanks to a couple of images shared by riveranotario at the Cohort; a 1991 Yugo Skala, a model I had no idea had reached South America. And if this looks like a Fiat 128 with a pickup body to you, you’d be right. After all, it’s a 128 variant built by Yugoslavian carmaker Zastava between 1984 and 2008.
Like Austin, Fiat is that other European carmaker whose genes created whole new species around the world. And back then, a good deal of Fiat’s spread took place behind the Iron Curtain, most notably with Russia’s Lada and Yugoslavia’s Zastava.
As with earlier arrangements, Fiat’s modern 128 platform reached Zastava a bit later, with production of the model starting in their factory in 1980; in sedan and hatchback versions at first.
MotorPlus 1978 test.
Around those dates, plans to add the pickup variant were adopted. Itself, a creation of Fiat’s South African subsidiary and which had already shown up in that market in 1978. Unlike the car lines, a new factory for utilitarian vehicles was built in Sombor, from where the 128 derived pickup finally came out in 1984.
The little truck kept most of the 128’s FWD mechanicals in place, with mainly body work alterations to fit the job. Power came either via a 1.1 or 1.3L Fiat derived powerplant, mated solely to manuals. Accommodations, as can be imagined, were rather basic.
Originally called the Zastava 101 T, it showed up in a variety of names depending on equipment, location, and variant. Now, “variant” may be a bit of a stretch of the term for our Western likes, as some were rather basic adaptations. But such were the realities of that market. In any case, names like Poli, and Kombi joined the pickups lineup.
As can be seen, by the late ’80s the Yugo name was adopted for the model in export markets. Understandable, as the Zastava Koral (the Yugo, to all of you) adventure was in the making at the time.
Outside Eastern Europe, few of these are to be found, regardless of variant. So take a good look, who knows when another one will show up.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1969-85 Fiat 128 – The Fiat We Must Remember
The translation I saw was “Wake up early and prepare yourself”.
Seems like these came out a bit after the Rabbit-based VW pickup even the Dodge Rampage. For pretty light duty (for bulky but light things) I guess these would be handy. Plus it has vent windows….might help some if it lacks air conditioning.
Never had a Yugo but did a 128. It used premium fuel but the tank was tiny, maybe 7 gallons. Mine still had a manual choke but it worked pretty well, though you had to remember to move it to choke off as the car warmed up. I had it just a few months…it threw a gear in the transaxle and the mechanic said he didn’t know if he could get it back together after repairing it (not sure what, maybe a transaxle mount was rusty.
I felt like a fool this morning, brought my ’00 Golf into inspection station (just emissions now and only in certain counties in Texas) and the inspector informed me that cars 25 years and older don’t need to be inspected (even in counties). The rules have been changing and I didn’t keep track. Wonder why…you’d think they’d be more likely to want to look at an older vehicle for emissions than a newer one…seems kind of opposite what you’d expect. My Mom gave up her ’88 Tempo a number of years ago during a state version of cash for clunkers, mostly due to emissions (it was fine in that respect but just was an older car). This policy seems exactly opposite, even though both were put in place by the state (albeit at different times). Seems someone working for the state would remember the program when making old cars exempt from emissions testing. Whoops, probably shouldn’t say anything when I’m beneficiary of the “new” policy.
I know the Tempo was OK because my mother brought it to some event specifically for emissions testing…and ended up in a news report on TV. They first focused the camera on the hubcap of her car, being familiar with it got my attention, but when they zoomed out from that there was my Mom in the driver’s seat waiting for her turn to get the emissions test. We only gave up on the car because the AC compressor went bad and we didn’t want to replace it, plus it was R12, but AC is pretty mandatory in our stop and go traffic that seems to exist most of the time.
My friend and I both owned 128SLs at the same time- I traded mine in after the starter motor caught fire ( the last straw in a stream of never ending problems) and my friend’s had major structural corrosion where the motor mount met the chassis- which it turns out, most 128s had that issue and no body shop would touch it. A fun car, but a POS.
Too bad we don’t have small two door pickups today. They were very popular in their day.
Yes I love my ’83 Ranger but really miss my ’75 Chevy LUV
I worked at a Yugo dealer in the late 80’s and didn’t know these existed, they weren’t imported to the UK. Seems like they could have been a success, they would have undercut the VW Caddy and competed against the Hyundai Pony pick up.
OK so that was a factory build, there was an old street scene pic on FB one of those utes was in the background, I guessed it had been carved out of a hatchback shade tree style, tiny pickups have their uses or so many wouldnt have been built, Never knew there were real.
Nice to see this, Rich! These never came to Uruguay and were not built neither in Argentina nor Brazil as Fiats,but it’s interesting to note that the Brazilian Fiat 147, itself a copy of the Italian 127, was built in many different bodies, some of them also in Argentina. One of those bodies was a pickup that, save for the front grille, could be easily mistaken for the one you show us today. There were variations of the car, with or without a top, with or without rear seating and windows…It was called the Fiorino, and eventually the name stuck with each new generation of Fiat Uno.
I like them, especially the one that riveranotario caught at the show!
Below the 128 Bakkie (no mentioning of Fiat) options from South Africa.
Pretty nice .
I too prefer the smallest truck I can get to properly do a job .
1.3 Liters is too small for America’s needs .
-Nate