Yugo

A blue and gold number one ribbon down the left side and gray-filled black text above and black text beneath down the right side on a white background.

On August 26th, 1985, the Yugo was available to purchase for the first time to the American public. On its first day, 1,050 units were sold, quickly putting the Yugoslavian-made car on track to becoming the fastest-selling first-year European import in history. Named one of the "Outstanding Products of 1985" by Fortune and nominated by Motor Trend for its "Import Car of the Year" award, the Yugo claimed success in America. Things turned quickly sour, however, once people actually began to drive the car.

A series of scathing reviews, one by Consumer Reviews, in particular, lambasted the Yugo it tested as a "sorry sample" that had nearly a dozen defects, "attributable to sloppy assembly or incomplete dealer preparation." Plenty of other reviews echoed the same sentiment and sales responded by spiraling downward. Even the senior vice-president of the Yugo's production and engineering in the US, Toney Ciminera, nearly died twice while test driving several of the proto-types in New Jersey. 

To this day the Yugo remains one of the most notorious consumer product failures of the 1980s. The last Yugo in production didn't come off the Yugoslavian assembly line until late 2008.