Yugo Florida, the fancier and most advanced Yugo, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro.

At first it may not be weird, but more of an obscure car, but it’s definitely weird that such a modern and advanced car came from a manufacturer that was making outdated Fiats.

Anyway, this was Zastava/Yugo’s most advanced fwd car design and probably their most independent. It borrowed a bit from the Fiat Tipo and was even one of its competitors.

The name Florida was chosen because appearantly the large window surface inside the car made you feel like you’re in sunny Florida.

Engine choices were a 1372 cc 70 hp Fiat engine and a 1580 cc 83 hp engine from Lancia(top speed 170 km/h). Other engine options had the output of 60 hp, 68 hp.

The expected price of the car was supposed to be between 7500 and 8000 dollars.

It came out in 1988 in Yugoslavia, and then was sold and exported in other markets around Europe, such as the Netherlands, France and UK where it was sold as Yugo Sana, and Yugo Miami In some markets.

There was plans to sell it in the US, but by the early 90s, in Yugoslavia where it was produced, tensions rose up, and a war broke up as the Yugoslavia states split up. Sanctions were put on Yugoslavia by the west which meant the death of the Florida sales, and production numbers fell down, but it was still being produced as of the late 90s.

By the late 90s a pickup truck and van model was introduced.(8th picture)

By the early 2000s, the car was now outdated, so Zastava automobiles decided to give it a modern facelift by asking french design house Heuliez.

What came out of this was the Zastava Koral In(9-10th picture), a fresh new facelift for the Florida, with new engine options outsourced from Peugeot, engine options were a 1.6 liter 95 hp engine (top speed 175km) and a 1.1 60 hp engine.

This model lasted till 2008, when the Florida and including the original Yugo model ended production, however the pickup/van was produced till 2010.

The company Zastava automobiles went bankrupt, and the factory was bought by Fiat, which would go on to produce the 500L there.

Additionally, the car was produced in Poland with CKD kits, and even in Egypt.

And finally, a total of 30,150 Florida’s were ever produced, making it rare today, but still somewhat common in the roads of some of the post Yugoslavian countries. In the UK, as of 2019, there were only 4 registered on the roads.

People have compared its looks to the Citroën ZX, claiming it looks very similar, but the Florida came out before the ZX.

11th picture is the one of the few I’ve seen and documented in the wild.

by Enough-Engineering41