August 26, 1953 is considered the birthday of the Zastava Automobile Factory. At the referendum on that day, 96 percent of employees in the then “Red Flag” Institutes agreed to the proposal to invest the largest part of the realized profit in the development of the automotive industry. As early as 1953, the Kragujevac factory produced 162 vehicles. They were “Willis” jeeps. True, the first assembly of vehicles was organized in Kragujevac just before the Second World War, in 1940, when 250 Chevrolet trucks with gasoline engines were assembled.
Nevertheless, the real production of cars in Zavode began in 1953. The license purchase agreement with Fiat was signed on August 12, 1954, and three months later, the assembly of the first vehicles of the “Fiat AP-55” (“Campaniola”), “Fiat 1400 BJ” and “Fiat 1100 B” models began. The production of the “Zastava 750” car, i.e. “Fiče”, began in 1955 and ended 30 years later. “Fića” is a repackaged “Fiat 600”, with an engine volume of 600 and later 750 cubic meters. During the development period of the “Flag 750” model, the engine power ranged from 23 to 27 horsepower, which it had in the last year of production. A total of 923,487 copies of this model were produced.
For the realization of the plan to increase production to 12,000 vehicles per year, the construction of new production capacities of the automotive industry has begun. After two years, the assembly lines started working. That year, 13,719 cars were produced.
It is considered that in 1957 and 1958 a solid foundation was laid for the supporting industry for the supply of semi-finished products such as, for example, castings and forgings. Then the organized mechanical processing of chassis parts in the Institutions and the mechanical processing of all engine parts in “21. May”, in Rakovica.
Along with the production of 53,493 cars, in 1968, with the participation of Fiat’s capital and domestic credit, the production capacity was expanded to 85,000 vehicles per year. This completes the first phase of the development program of the Car Factory. “Crvena Zastava” institutes already had seven factories – five in Kragujevac, and one each in Macedonia and Kosovo.
The first Zastava cars were exported in 1965. First, six thousand vehicles were exported to Poland, then they were placed on the markets of Finland, Colombia and Greece, and later the export was expanded to the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France.
Zastava started in the sixties of the last century by replacing the “1400” model with the “1100” model. This vehicle, designed by Bertone, will not only be produced by Zastava and Fiat, but also by Germany’s NSU Fiat and Austria’s Steyer Fiat. “Fiat 1100” had 36 hp in 1955; it was boosted to 40 hp by 1957 and finally, it got 43 hp at the very end of its life in 1966. The “Fiat 1200” with 55 HP was also available, but its time did not last long because in 1969 the “Zastava 128” overshadowed the decade-old line.
With rear-wheel drive, disc brakes on all wheels and a powerful engine that had up to 72 horse power, the elegant “tristać” became the favorite high-class Yugoslav car. It was produced from 1961 to exactly December 20, 1979. 202,160 copies found new owners in versions with 1.3 and 1.5 liter engines. Even today, many in the former Yugoslavia think that the “1300” is the best Zastava vehicle of all time – they call it the “Yugoslavian Mercedes”.
The truck factory separated from the car factory in 1969, and then a contract on long-term business cooperation was signed with the truck manufacturer Om from Breša.
In Sombor, in 1970, the delivery vehicle factory, until recently Zastava special cars, was established.
The production of the first own vehicle, then of the middle class, “Flag 101”, began on October 15, 1971. The model was developed on the basis of the “Fiat 128”, which was declared the car of the year in 1967. The millionth was produced in 1991, and the record annual production was in 1979, when 88,918 “stojadins” rolled off the assembly lines. A total of 1,273,532 copies were produced.
The millionth “Zastava” car was produced on December 15, 1975. Production capacity was expanded to 200,000 cars per year in 1980. That year, serial production of the “jugo” model began. The first car officially developed by Zastava, the “jugo 45”, was made by hand on October 2, 1978. November 28, 1980 was recorded in the history of the factory as the beginning of serial production of “juga”.
The contract on the export of “juga” to the USA was signed on September 7, 1984. The first “jugo 55 GV” for export to America was produced on September 9, 1985. A total of 141,511 “jugas” were exported to the USA. The last “jugo” left the production line on November 11, 2008. It was “coral in economy” and had serial number 794,428.
“Florida” was first presented to the public in 1987. The first “Florida” rolled off the assembly lines on October 2, 1988. A total of 29,950 copies were produced.
In the facilities of the Kragujevac factory, the “uno” was also produced and a total of 2,620 units came off the production lines, and the factory also had a “supplementary program” so it sold cars better known as “pezejac”, “peglica”…
The year 1989 was written in golden letters in the history of Zastava as a record year. In its own production program, 180,950 cars and 4,827 trucks were produced in industrial cooperation. 26,777 vehicles were exported, rounding the production capacity to 220,000 vehicles per year and achieving export volume based on the industrial corporation in the amount of 81,075,000 US dollars.
Zastava had 53,357 employees, and its production involved 280 companies from 130 cities of Yugoslavia at the time.
As the crown of many years of successful cooperation, in 1991 followed the signing of the contract by which Zastava and Iveko founded the joint company Zastava trucks. Production capacity is rounded to 11,000 trucks. This factory, until then, produced 180,000 and exported 36,000 light and medium trucks.
The disintegration of the SFRY and the economic sanctions of the international community in the period from 1991 to 1998. represents another difficult period in the history of Zastava. In order to maintain production, Zastava won the production of 1,407 positions purchased in the republics of the former SFRY, and 403 positions for imported cars, as well as 123 positions for trucks. After several years of stagnation, in 1998 there was a gradual revival of production and sales. The flag was destroyed again in 1999. 160,000 square meters of production areas were destroyed in the bombing. On the renewed production lines, in September of the same year, the first cars roll off the assembly lines.
Zastava produced a total of about four and a half million vehicles. About 650,000 cars were exported to 76 countries around the world.
The last car with the “Z” logo is “zastava 10” with serial number 4,224.
Fiat and Serbia signed a joint venture agreement on September 29, 2008, and the company Fiat Cars Serbia was founded on October 14, the day before the birthday of the first “ace”…
It could have been different
According to unofficial information, just before the breakup of the SFRY, the VW concern and Zastava signed a memorandum of cooperation. The plan was to increase production in Vogošća to include other models and expand to Kragujevac. The war started and VW turned to Skoda…
A tradition of 160 years
In 1853, the first industrial company in Serbia was founded under the name “Topolivnica”
In 1880, the first rifle of its own production was made
In 1904, the repair of vehicles and the production of individual auto parts began
In 1941, 400 military trucks were assembled in the factory. At that time, the factory had 12 thousand workers
In 1953, a car factory was established
In 1954, the assembly of “Jeep Willis” began
In 1955, the first “boy” left the factory
1965 Zastava starts exporting its cars
In 1971, the production of “flag 101” was started
In 1980, the production of “juga” began
In 1983, the design of the “Flag 103” (“Florida”) and “Flag 104” (“Florida” sedan) began.
In 1985, the first “jugo GV” was produced and exported for the American market according to new standards
1986 marked the production of the three millionth “flag” since 1955
In February 1987, the factory changed its brand from “Zastava” to “Yugo” – the first “Florida” was introduced.
Source: www.magazinauto.com
