> On Oct 17, 2025, at 4:58 PM, Doc Shipley via cctalk <[email protected]> > wrote: > > On 10/17/25 15:25, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: >>>> Some makes and models of cars don't last ten years >>>> and auto makers don't WANT them to last; >>> On Fri, 17 Oct 2025, Van Snyder via cctalk wrote: >>> Subaru: Built cheap and designed to stay that way. >> Subaru was actually not the worst. >> Think of Yugo! Imported into USA from 1985 - 1992 >> https://www.librarypoint.org/blogs/post/the-yugo/ >> It was brought in by Malcolm Bricklin. He had also been the one to bring in >> Subaru 360, and founded subaru Of America. >> -- >> Grumpy Ol' Fred [email protected] > > > I worked on a few Yugos, and had a disproportionate number of friends who > owned them. My take: > > They were designed & built on the AK-47 Principle - inelegant, ultra-simple, > no consideration at all for style, and manufactured to intentionally > ridiculous tolerances. > > Turned out all that works a lot better in a rifle than an internal-combustion > vehicle. > > If you accidentally got one that was built pretty tight they were solid cars, > but most of them died early when one bearing or another grenaded. > > > Doc
Jason Vuic’s book on the Yugo is one of the better business history books out there. It does into Bricklin’s insanity , the desire for cheap and small cars , brand rebadging, and why Yugos were built with so low quality. That quality boiled down to lack of quality controls and processes. It is why I refer to Teslas as tech bro Yugos because Tesla makes the exact same mistakes that Yugo did with their manufacturing process. https://www.jasonvuic.com/the-yugo -Andy Wallis
