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Consider the Yugo

My latest Slate column, a look at Jason Vuic’s new book about the Yugo, is up.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 10:51 am and is filed under Cars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Consider the Yugo”

  1. Paul Johnson Says:
    January 18th, 2010 at 3:41 pm

    We need to get back to the inexpensive car. It’s stupid that we’re stuck with overpriced plastic hulks because we’re too concerned in alleviating drivers of responsibility by mandating traction control, airbags and crumple zones… Whatever happened to not causing an accident to start with?

  2. Josh R Says:
    January 18th, 2010 at 5:58 pm

    I remember the Yugo. A friend at the time went to a dealership to take a look at one. While talking to the sales guy he leaned on the front side panel of the car and caused a dent. Not the “put pressure on the metal and it pops in, take the pressure away and it pops out” harmless kind, but a permanent “you need a bodywork tool to remove it” dent. And he wasn’t a heavy guy either.

    He chose not to buy one.

  3. Michael Burke Says:
    January 19th, 2010 at 1:04 pm

    To paraphrase, “inexpensive and built not to stay that way”. We now expect so much more of automobiles: safety, economy, low price, reliability. There was a time not so long ago there were gas station repair facilities everywhere. Why, because they were needed. I drive a 1953 GMC Pickup truck. No safety features, lousy gas mileage, poor handling and it requires much more maintenance than a modern car or truck. You can buy one for about $5,000, more or less depending on the condition. I own mine for sentimental reasons, not transportation. If you want a low cost car, know there will always be sacrifices.

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Traffic Tom Vanderbilt

How We Drive is the companion blog to Tom Vanderbilt’s New York Times bestselling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, Penguin in the U.K, and in languages other than English by a number of other fine publishers worldwide.

Please send tips, news, research papers, links, photos (bad road signs, outrageous bumper stickers, spectacularly awful acts of driving or parking or anything traffic-related), or ideas for my Slate.com Transport column to me at: info@howwedrive.com.

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