The Yugo Florida, also known as Zastava Florida, Yugo Sana or Yugo Miami, is a five-door

hatchback A hatchback is a car body style, car body configuration with a rear door that swings upward to provide access to the main interior of the car as a cargo area rather than just to a separated trunk. Hatchbacks may feature fold-down second-row sea ...

which was introduced by Yugoslav automaker Zastava on 19 February 1987, and remained in production until 2008. The Florida was designed by

Giorgetto Giugiaro Giorgetto Giugiaro (; born 7 August 1938) is an Italian automotive designer. He has worked on supercars and popular everyday vehicles. He was named Car Designer of the Century in 1999 and inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002. He w ...

, and one group of engineers of Zastava at

Italdesign Italdesign-Giugiaro S.p.A. () is a design and engineering company and brand based in Moncalieri, Italy, that traces its roots to the 1968 foundation of Studi Italiani Realizzazione Prototipi S.p.A. by Giorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani. Best ...

. It has design similarities to Giugiaro's highly influential

Fiat Uno The Fiat Uno is a supermini manufactured and marketed by Fiat. Launched in 1983, the Uno was produced over a single generation (with an intermediate facelift, 1989) in three and five-door hatchback body styles until 1995 in Europe — and un ...

supermini design, and also his design for the Mk1

SEAT Ibiza The SEAT Ibiza is a supermini car that has been manufactured by Spanish car manufacturer SEAT since 1984. It is SEAT's best-selling car. The Ibiza is named after the Spanish island of Ibiza and was the second SEAT model to be named after a Span ...

. Detail style is similar to his

Renault 21 The Renault 21 is a large family car produced by French automaker Renault between 1986 and 1994. It was also sold in North America initially through American Motors dealers as the Renault Medallion and later through Jeep-Eagle dealers as the Eag ...

design. The Florida was the most advanced and independently engineered automobile produced by Zastava before it stopped producing civilian automobiles in 2008. It was sold in the United Kingdom from 1988 to 1992, badged as the Yugo Sana and available with a 1400 cc litre petrol engine and also with a 1700 cc diesel, both shared with the Fiat Tipo and supplied under licence from Fiat. It was eventually withdrawn from sale, due to its distributor, Zastava Cars (GB) Ltd of Reading going out of business as a consequence of the

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

and

economic sanctions Economic sanctions or embargoes are Commerce, commercial and Finance, financial penalties applied by states or institutions against states, groups, or individuals. Economic sanctions are a form of Coercion (international relations), coercion tha ...

. In 2001, many years after its debut in Europe, the Nasr badged Florida entered production in Helwan District in Cairo,

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

by Nasr. Nasr's Florida is almost exactly the same as Zastava's Florida, except with a modified grille.

Background

The Zastava Florida was developed as the Zastava 103, and officially went on sale on 2 October 1988. The model was given the name "Florida" in order to celebrate the success of the

Yugo Yugo (), also known as the Zastava Yugo, Zastava Koral (, sr-Cyrl, Застава Корал) and Yugo Koral, was a subcompact car, subcompact hatchback manufactured by Zastava Automobiles from 1980 until 2008, originally a Socialist Federal R ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. During its lifetime the Florida faced competition from the Romanian built Renault based

Dacia Solenza The Dacia Solenza was a subcompact/supermini liftback automobile produced by Romanian auto manufacturer Automobile Dacia, Dacia from March 2003 to July 2005. It was the last model on Dacia's own platform, but was one of the first models to benef ...

and its successor

Dacia Logan The Dacia Logan is a family of automobiles produced and marketed jointly by the French manufacturer Renault and its Romanian subsidiary Dacia since mid-2004, and was the successor to the Dacia 1310 and Dacia Solenza. It has been produced as ...

, and the Russian

Lada 112 The Lada 110 or VAZ-2110 is a compact car built by the Russian automaker AvtoVAZ from 1995 to 2009. It spawned two close derivatives: the Lada 111 estate and the Lada 112 hatchback. The Lada 110 and its variants were replaced in 2007 by the Lad ...

, in the value for money compact family hatchback market. Its main advantages were its versatility, its high technology compared to other Zastavas, and its price, never exceeding the EUR 7,000 figure for top of the range models. In 2000 a refreshed model of the Zastava Florida was revealed, originally called the Florida 103FL. At the 2001 Belgrade Auto Show, it was shown with an "In" trim name added, so as to be called the "Zastava Florida In", and this is how it was marketed since. The Florida In L was the top-of-the-line trim, and offered air conditioning and radio. The price range was between EUR 5,000 and 7,000. It was Zastava's most expensive car, before the introduction of the

Zastava 10 The Zastava 10 is a subcompact car that was produced by Zastava between 2006 and 2008. Essentially a rebadged Fiat Punto under licence, the car was the last vehicle to be introduced by the company before it was acquired by Fiat. Design The car ...

at the 2006 Belgrade Motor Show. It was also available in flat bed pick up, panel van and ambulance format. After Zastava's brief fallout with Fiat, 1.1 and 1.6 litre Peugeot TU Series engines were installed, beginning in September 2002. Zastava announced a diesel engined Florida in January 2007, which was a model which had been promised since before the original introduction, using Peugeot's 1.4 litre HDi engine. In the end, only 18 of these cars were built. In November 2008, the last Zastava Florida was produced in the factory in

Kragujevac Kragujevac ( sr-Cyrl, Крагујевац, ) is the List of cities in Serbia, fourth largest city in Serbia and the administrative centre of the Šumadija District. It is the historical centre of the geographical region of Šumadija in central Se ...

Gallery

File:Zastava Florida In L 1.6i F.jpg, Zastava Florida (post facelift) File:Zastava Florida In L 1.6i Nazad.jpg, Zastava Florida Rear (post facelift) File:Zastava Florida Pick-Up.jpg, Zastava Florida (pick up) File:Zastava Florida Poly Pekar R.jpg, Zastava Florida Pick Up (rear)

References

External links

Zastava Florida 1.4HDi
- Common rail Diesel
Zastava Florida Sedan
{{Zastava

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

Compact cars Cars of Serbia Cars of Egypt Front-wheel-drive vehicles Cars introduced in 1987 1990s cars 2000s cars Cars discontinued in 2008