Zastava

AI-assisted Knowledge Update: This article was automatically consolidated to provide you with the most up-to-date data instantly.

--- CONTENT--
La Zastava (in Serbian: Застава, trad. it. flag) was a car factory, weapons and machinery founded in 1853 and active until 2008 in the Serbian city of Kragujevac.

Its first activity for almost a century was the construction of weapons but was very present in the car industry thanks to an important agreement made with Fiat since 1953 and carried out until 2011. Today the company produces small military and sports weapons, many of which are based on Russian and German design, under the name of Zastava Arms. The production of cars ended in 2011, when Fiat acquired the production facilities of Kragujevac for the production of the Fiat 500L.

History

After a first attempt to produce vehicles, especially for military use, during and just after World War II, a Ford truck and the Jeep Willys, the real start as a car manufacturer was in 1953, when the company that was then called Zavodi Crvena Zastava, following a first deal with Fiat, acquired the license for the production of the Fiat Campagnola. On 17 November 1953, the first Campagnola AR51 came out of the Zastava factory in Kragujevac. Production continued until 1962 and 4640 were assembled.

The following year came the Fiat 1400, whose first specimen came out of the factory on 12 August 1954. Some were also produced in the "1900" version and several tens of thousands will be manufactured in total. Then the Fiat 1100 D was also presented, but it will be with the production of the Zastava 600, a car identical to the Fiat 600, that Zastava will know the greatest development; the 600 was replaced in 1962 from 750 and in 1980 by the 850 aesthetically almost always unchanged but equipped with engines from the major displacement. The model had a huge success. The production of the Z850 will end with the bombing of the Kragujevac factory in 1999. In the same period the Zastava 1300 was also sold, identical to the Fiat 1300.

In the early 1970s, an important novelty was Zastava 101, a 128 with the modified trunk; this became the most widespread and best-selling car in Yugoslavia and was exported to Africa, Asia, Cyprus, Spain, Germany and Belgium under the name of Zastava Skala. In the catalog there was also the Zastava 125 identical to the Fiat 125P available in Kombi version.

The Zastava marketed the Zastava 600 Kombi, derived van of 600 and the Zastava 900E derived from the Fiat 900 Panorama.

In 1981, Zastava Yugo 45 appeared as a model to make history, replacing the 750, which will mount the engines of the Fiat 127, the first to "settle" in the United States, the same model that will be marketed in Italy in 1991 under the name Koral and with brand Innocenti. Since October 1981, the Yugoslav company has also started production under license of Fiat Argenta.

In 1993 the Zastava renews the 101 by calling it Skala 55 that is flanked