Zastava

The Zastava 600 was the Yugoslav-built, license-produced version of the Fiat 600 and played a crucial role in the motorisation of post-war Yugoslavia. Production began in 1955 at Zastava’s Kragujevac plant, making it one of the country’s first truly mass-market passenger cars. Mechanically, the Zastava 600 closely followed its Italian counterpart, with a rear-mounted, water-cooled four-cylinder 633 cc engine and a compact unibody construction. Designed to carry four passengers within minimal dimensions, it was ideally suited to urban use and the narrow roads typical of the region.

Introduced in 1964, the Zastava 750 was an updated and more powerful development of the earlier Zastava 600. It retained the familiar rear-engined layout, but was fitted with a larger 767 cc four-cylinder engine, improving performance and usability. Early examples closely followed the Italian design and featured distinctive rear-hinged “suicide doors”. In 1969 Zastava switched to conventional front-hinged doors. Over its long production life the 750 was gradually modernised, including the adoption of a 12-volt electrical system in the early 1970s, while later cars became increasingly simplified. Produced well into the 1980s, the Zastava 750 was affordable, robust and easy to maintain, and for countless families it was their first car.