Former Yugo Plant Now Home to GM's Opel Astra

General Motors has announced that it has signed an agreement with Serbia's state-owned Zastava Auto to start kit assembly of the Opel Astra Classic next year at a plant that once built the much-maligned Yugo. GM said Astra production will increase gradually, reaching 10,000 units a year by 2012. The automaker may add another model and export cars to other Balkan countries.

Zastava may be a dim memory in the minds of most U.S. car buyers. The company began exporting cheap cars to Europe and the U.S. in the 1970s under the Yugo brand. The Serbian government plans to take Zastava public later this year. This latest announcement is part of a larger GM global strategy to cultivate production and sales in emerging markets, at a time when North American sales are flat. GM said it increased its sales volume in Serbia by 93 percent in the first six months of 2007 compared with the same period in 2006. It sells Opel and Chevrolet vehicles in Serbia