Zastava
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Zastava is a Serbian automobile manufacturer based in Kragujevac, 86 miles south of Belgrade. The company began collaborating with Fiat in 1955 to assemble versions of its cars for Eastern European markets.
The company is best known for its locally built versions of the Fiat 128.
The company sold its cars in the West under the "Yugo" brand. Its final model, the Yugo Sana was styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro and launched in 1990, but its career was cut short by the acts of war in the former Yugoslavian states, and Yugo had disappeared from most Western markets by 1993. In 1999, the factory came under NATO bombing during the Kosovo War missions.
Like fellow Eastern-bloc manufacturer AutoVAZ, maker of the Lada, the post-communist era has been difficult for the company, and following its withdrawal from Western markets, has developed few new models such as Yugo Florida and continues to manufacture the Fiat 128 based range of cars for the various Balkan states.
External links
- Official Yugo Site (http://www.yugo.co.yu/)
- Zastava corporate site (http://www.zastava.net/)
- Zastava car information site (http://www.zastava.cz/)cs:Zastava