OK - I exaggerated. Yugo's are foul - based on a 70's Fiat I believe?

 

Worse than that. The Yugo was based on the Fiat 128, introduced in 1969 I believe. So it was a mid to late 60's design.

 

Mechanically, Yugo's are based on 70-80's Fiat's, basically they bought technology and produced it.
There was an Fiat 128 version made by Zastava (company that produces Yugo), but obviously thats not source of Yugo (it was Fiat 127, although looks were changed)

Interior and rest of the car are by Zastava, and that can be seen easily. My good friend has one thats done 80,000 miles and is completly falling apart. I think life expectancy of Zastava's are around 30,000-40,000 miles :-).

Funnily enough, version for USA market was considered "luxury" version and went through stronger quality control :-). Another thing was the 1.3 engine, designed by Porsche.

p.s. Zastava made 230,000 cars per year at its best year, and they were still waiting lists in Yugoslavia to get one. Customs on imported cars were 150%. :-)