The 101 model survived the advent of modern cars, economic sanctions against Milosevic’s Yugoslavia and the factory bombing in 1999 in the production program of the Serbian carmaker Zastava.
–
The first serial cars rolled off the production line on October 15, 1971, and almost four decades later, a “weird latimeria” car could be bought in Serbia. It was not until November 2008 that the Serbian government made a living motoring fossil with the Italian Fiat, which took over an obsolete factory in the southern Serbian town of Kragujevac.
Along with the car, nicknamed “stojadin” or “kec”, two other age-old models, Koral and Florida, definitely ended at that time. However, they actually lasted for a relatively short time in the production program – the first of them began production in 1981 and in its time elegant Florida six years later. The Zastava 101 is one of the few cars in Europe that lasted so long to roll off production lines after World War II. Only the Russian Lada Niva (since 1977) and then the small-series Caterham Seven (its predecessor Lotus Seven was founded in 1957) are still produced.
The first pieces of the Zastava 101 left the production line in the autumn of 1971 (but its prototype, the Fiat 128, first appeared two years earlier) and during almost forty changes, the car underwent only minor modifications. 13 years ago, a Serbian customer could buy a car for about 100,000 crowns, which has not changed much since the early 70’s – only the original round lights were replaced by square and the interior was dominated by plastic instead of the original leatherette, which replaced the chrome on the bumpers and exterior mirrors.
Otherwise, however, the person in the new “web” felt like he was in a time machine: instead of injection, the engine had a traditional carburetor until the end, and the airbag was not even in the optional equipment. The questionable quality did not change during production. In the Yugoslav magazine Auto Revija, critical reactions from the owners appeared as early as August 1972 – Ivica Krašovec from Zagreb, for example, wrote that the brakes of a completely new car had been blocked three times in a row, and Dušan Ćurčić from Belgrade complained about the electrical installation.
–
–
Since 1971, over a million “webs” have been produced, and another 250,000 Zastava 128 cars have come off the production line in Kragujevac, which is actually the original Fiat sedan. In the last years of production, however, only about 2,000 cars left the factory each year, with total production reaching only 20,000 cars. Shortly after the turn of the century, the factory tried to succeed with the licensed Fiat Punto, renamed the Zastava 10, but the real impetus came only from the Italians, who have been producing the Fiat 500L in Kragujevac since 2012. However, the fate of the factory is uncertain after the establishment of the Stellantis concern.
Flag 101 (marked 1100) can also be found in the Czech Republic, in the second half of the 70s it was sold by Mototechna. The car for 65,000 crowns was one of the more expensive at the time, the Lada cost 1300, the Škoda 120 was 7000 cheaper. However, reviewers of the then magazines Automobil and Svět motorů also complained about the quality of processing. The second of them wrote in 1977: “If we are to name the order in which the manufacturer should focus on improving the car, then the first two places are shared by the quality of workshop work and noise reduction.”
–
–
Between 1976 and 1980, only 10,000 “webs” were sold in Czechoslovakia, which were imported from Yugoslavia as part of a barter trade. About 1,250 of them remain in the Czech register as of June 30 this year, but 15 years ago it was about double. And how many of them really ride, it is impossible to determine. Sometimes the well-preserved car can still be met on the road and there are also websites or Facebook pages dedicated to Zastava 101.
“Stojadin” is also quite popular in the former Yugoslavia, although it is not as iconic as its predecessor in the production program of the Kragujevac car manufacturer – “fićo”, ie the Yugoslav version of the Fiat 600, which was produced between 1955 and 1985. The well-known band Hladno pivo that “The new brands are falling off the belts / they’re just soulless wrecks / mine (the web) is pure handwork / from bumper to exhaust.”
– .
