Well, these are two pretty similar cars we have here! It's only details that could potentially make the difference. Considering they both belong to the city car segment and utilize the same 3-door hatchback body style and the front wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a FIAT-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 8-valves 55hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 3-cylinder, 12-valves 55hp engine designed by Daihatsu.

Unfortunatelly, neither of the two vehicles was submitted to the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) testing. This makes it virtually impossible for me to pick one over the other and I'm generally against buying such cars as the safety should really always come first. Moving further on, let's take a closer look at some additional safety-related facts. Both vehicles belong to the city car segment, which is generally not a very good thing safety-wise, but that fact doesn't break the tie between the two cars. Furthermore, if we'd like to consider vehicle mass in this context too, which we definitely should, the Serbian car offers a considerable difference of 14% more metal.

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that Daihatsu as a brand displays somewhat better results, at least on all of the models level. These are the results of an independent reasearch, while our visitors describe reliability of Zastava with an average rating of 3.4, and models under the Daihatsu badge with 4.1 out of 5. The same official information place Yugo Tempo as average reliability-wise, and Cuore is more or less at the same level.Above it all, drivers of cars with the same engine as the Serbian car rank it on average as 3.2, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 3.5 out of 5.

Daihatsu is way more agile, reaching 100km/h in 3.9 seconds less than its competitor. Still, it lacks the power to win the top speed competition, topping at 140 kilometers per hour, 15km/h less than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be the Serbian car, averaging around 0 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (INF mpg), in combined cycle. That's INF% difference compared to the Japanese car!

Daihatsu appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In my opinion, everything taken into account, the Serbian car offers significantly better overall protection, taking the lead here. From there things take a different direction, with Daihatsu outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... It's not difficult to say then that if I'd need to make a choice, it would definitely be the Zastava. In any case that's my personal view, built upon all the data available to me. What should decide here though is the way you feel about the two vehicles, and I hope you'll find my guidelines useful in the process. In case you have two minutes to spare I invite you to define your needs, desires and budget and see which car would be chosen by the virtual adviser™, among thousands of similar, yet so different vehicles.