I really dont think that anyone has a competitive advantage in rust resistance any more. I cant recall reading anything positive about the vehicle, anywhere. Since Yugo America was basically just a collection of cheap office furniture and unanswered phones, creditors received essentially nothing for their interests in the company. Saying that, it doesnt mean that people were particularly promiscuitive or anything like that. Likewise the Toyotas and Datsuns. Ladas were, and are, shite. I attach a picture of a 1100,the previous model,(5 door too! Film Focus: Drowning Mona. Drowning Mona is one of my favorite comedies, and its currently available on YouTube for free. }
The Yugo was based on a mash up of models 127 and 128 built under license by a wildly unproductive workforce in an obsolete factory with assembly quality that made real mid 70's Fiats look hand built. . The philosophy behind Drowning Mona is not good clean fun, or even intelligent nasty fun. Regarding the rust: It was a myriad of factors. Enterior wall panels were thin cardboard with painted on carpet flecks. The car itself staggered on until early 1992, with steadily declining sales and a dealer network that was slowly (and then quickly) going bankrupt. My point is more that while suited for its home market, the Yugo was a cynical attempt by its promoter to make a quick buck by appealing to the most fickle, least loyal of all purchasers-the price shopper.It is only coincidental that the car was built in Yugoslavia. i doubt they are still there. Competing econoboxes included the Chevy Chevette,. IIRC, when hers finally died, she said that she tried to find another but couldnt. (Cracked distributor cap, IIRC.) Before I moved to Atlanta in the early 90s, we sold off our other cars before moving. Also spare parts were inexpensive and any mechanic and his nephew would fix it. Wyatt finds no shortage of suspects. Well, when someone drowns Mona (Bette Midler), it's almost a cause for celebration in the quiet, upstate New York town of Verplanck, whose one claim to fame - except Mona Dearly - is that it's a hotbed of Yugos. I saw it on the Helena streets quite a lot, but it was the only one in the city. LOL The old fashioned radio was a piece of crap, and the speakers cracked and gave out after very little use. He lost his house, his fortuneAnd the dozens of Yugo GVs that he received as part of his settlement with his bankers. Frequently, that new model sets the status quo on its ear and forever changes the way we think about (and react to) our transportation needs. The character name, Wyatt Rash, was intentionally chosen by writer, Peter Steinfeld, to reflect the underlying premise of the movie -- said fast enough, it sounds like yup, White Trash! I was sure youd have had one. Your experience was exactly what my suspicions were about these cars. 1) Anything assembled at gunpoint tends not to be of high quality. In 1968, Bricklin thought that what America needed was an air cooled two cylinder car that could make zero to sixty in thirty seven agonizing seconds. Critically, one of her co-workers loved Fiats, and he taught her their quirks-most of which the Yugo shared. All in all, Monas jaunt into the river could have been described as a pretty fortuitous accident for everyones lives she touched, or in Monas case, bludgeoned. At least in the old days I could see why the industry that does not want a cheap car to succeed, but whats the point now? I saw one on the F4 so they did sell one.Those were a Polish Fiat 500 updated Just rubbish. A 2000 American crime comedy film directed by Nick Gomez that has a police chief ( Danny DeVito) investigate the death of a woman named Mona ( Bette Midler ), an abusive and spiteful woman who was hated by everyone who knew her. Copyright 2011 - 2023 Curbside Classics. Mona Dearly (Bette Midler) is an anagram for "only a dream". }
With an estimated cost of $16,000 each to build against a selling price of around $5K, Bricklins SV-1 was a blast furnace that no amount of subsidy could fully quench.The maritime province had sunk over four and a half million taxpayer dollars into the scheme since its beginning, and slow sales (along with numerous engineering problems) cost no small number of politicians their jobs. (function waitGEO() {
It failed, of all places, on the Bonneville salt flats area in Utah. One reason is that lots of people own and drive them and parts are a breeze. But the acquisition by Fiat in 2010 renders all of that as ancient history. Could you imagine if another country decided to do that? After Mona Dearly (Bette Milder) dies in the movie's opening moments when her Yugo plows through a guardrail and into the Hudson River far below, Wyatt begins investigating her death. Detroit, also, but not so much. Yugoslavia was in the state of bankruptcy at that time, import of all goods and raw materials was practically halted. The first Mazda was also a kei-car, the R-360. Someone steeped in the maintenace required to keep something like a Trabant running would probably be right at home with a Yugo. as long as you didnt try to get away with normal American car owner maintenance. }
I think that was true of most of the Japanese automakers the early passenger cars evolved from tiny commercial trucks and three-wheelers, sharing engines with motorcycles. GM had tried to buy Zastava in 2007, but the deal fell through. In the moviedrowning MonaI remember there was among the many regular Yugos one that had four doors (a black one).Was it It would be interesting to see how the rear suspension was beefed up. You could disassemble the whole car with like 5 Allen keys, three sockets and two Phillips-head screwdrivers, if you were inclined. I wonder why they used the Yugos, To show the towns Quirkyness? In the end, its poor management. I saw this movie. According to IMDBThe first thing to appear on screen is a little blurb about the Yugo car company using the town of Verplanck as a test area for their new model years ago. The effort collapsed along with Yugo sales in America. A revised constitution in the mid 70s turned the country into a loose confederation and as Croatia/Slovenia were more developed due to being part of Austria Hungary, there was only so much that approx thirty years of prosperity after WWII could reverse. It was a nightmare. W. Edwards Deming was key in Japans metamorphosis from a backwards exporter of trinkets and junk to a source for amazingly-high-quality automobiles and electronics. Handling is sharp and the engine loves to rev. Many years later I saw it, and her, driving down a street near my house. Wheel barrow. https://chrisoncars.com/yugo-victim-or-victimizer/: (Time Magazine said it best: The Yugo has the distinct feeling of something assembled at gunpoint), I found quite a few articles from later years, quoting the same sentence over and over again (https://www.carkeys.co.uk/news/the-story-of-the-yugo-the-worst-car-in-the-world, https://www.ocregister.com/2017/01/03/the-best-worst-cars-ever/ , https://blastmagazine.com/2014/05/13/truth-10-cars-never-hit-road/), And there you have it: everybody knows for fact that Yugo was actually assembled at gunpoint. The faded red one in the piece is for sale- $750. The collapse of Communism removed any perceived legitimacy left in the public who thought their future under capitalism would reflect a standard of living like W Germanys. Dubrovnik is kind of old fashion place with somewhat stricter rules about dressing on the beaches and elsewhere. How quickly they developed larger cars was a product of how well capitalized each company was and how much their senior management (some of which was deeply conservative, even by Detroit standards) was willing to make the investment in export-specific products. They were incredibly simple mechanically. The last Yugo that we would recognize rolled off the assembly line in November 2008. Trouble for him was, the rest of America wasnt interested in postwar America. The sexy Marsha Brady girl with the bellbottoms in the Subaru commercials is unforgettable. I cant imagine that anybody that test drove one like mine actually laid down real money for one. He was a statistician in the War Department who became interested in using statistical controls to produce higher-quality manufactured goods. As for the first gen Civics and to a lesser extent, the second gen Civics, I would guess where we dont have rust to deal with, it was 30+ years and many accrued miles that ultimately were their demise, ie, 200K-300K+ and a head gasket finally blows are what killed them off eventually if not an accident or some other mechanical failure due to age/mileage. Sloppy or ignorant engineering plays a part most times; but its MANAGEMENT thats supposed to identify problems and stop them as soon as possible. Back in 87, a cheerleader at my high school won one of these in a raffle. Well, as they say, two out of three aint bad. I think I remember this! (Eagleburger had been U.S. ambassador to Yugoslvia and had spent almost all of his foreign service career in southeast europe. The other Eastern European lemon sold in Australia at the same time as the Niki was the Lada Samara. There are lots of related legacies connected with Americas brief, mad affair with the Yugo. Tye Mobile Homes in Tye, Texas using the incentive of Buy a mobile home at Tye Mobile Homes, get a new Yugo for $1. No joke. Saw a lot of Datsuns with the box off, and the tiny size of the frame on those thingsthey were half-ton trucks only by extreme optimism. Re: Malcolm Bricklin I do not see him as a crook. Tracey Walter appeared in the original Tim Burton Batman, Danny DeVito appeared as The Penguin in Batman Returns and William Fichtner appeared in The Dark Knight. At least until the inevitable head gasket problems caused by an Iron head and alloy block. I shut it down to call a dealerand it wouldnt leave the parking spot under its own power. But Bricklin assured his erstwhile investors that the car could be made ready for the U.S. market with some minor tweaks. Rona Mace (Jamie Lee Curtis) is an anagram for "a romance". I dont buy junk to begin with, maintain them, and only have minimal issues with them. 3. Or wasting half a grand. NO. The writer of Drowning Mona thought it would be hilarious to fill a 2000 crime caper with Yugo vehicles. The Yugo became the default entry level car for people that knew the price of everything but the value of nothing. Why did Yugos have standard rear defrost? Not too long before I sold it, it had started to develop noisy CV joints, but by then the car was 8 years old and 100,000 miles. I ask because I wanted to make a comment in the article about the C3 Audi 100/Audi 5000 about how much of a disaster my fathers ownership experience turned out to be, but I figured itd make an interesting point of comparison. I have NEVER burned out a clutchexcept on a Yugo. It is the cheapest person that spends the most. I must admit that I own a Yugo. He was scarred sh*tless and begging me to not make him drive it. Other folks I know routinely neglect maintenance on some very well regarded cars and wonder why they have such bad luck! During WWII, they built a few Jeeps. Mine was an 86 and a half Yugo. The movie was directed by Nick Gomez, who, in "Laws of Gravity" and "New Jersey Drive," brought a John Cassavetes touch to working-class crime and confusion. . The salesman was vaguely aware that they were built somewhere in Europe,but he was cagey about just where. (We also wanted to stick a finger in the eye of the USSR, which was at odds with Yugoslavia anyway). By the 90s Japan had it totally nailed. Also in that time, poor workmanship wasnt exclusively Yugos problem. In a recent episode of Top Gear UK the trio were allegedly asked by an alleged high-ranking member of the alleged Romanian Mafia what would be the best luxury car for one of his stature. When I was living in Montana in 2001, some masochist/crusty old guy was using one as a daily driver and it looked new. Mine was 5 years old and had like 40K miles on it. He regaled us with stories of his work at Yugo and claimed that the factory started to develop (or adapt) an automatic transmission for the market in the USA. That's not what I'm about." And, with such an unsatisfying ending and its inability to capitalize on a potentially funny situation, it's a film that you probably shouldn't rush to see on DVD. How did Danny DeVito die in Drowning Mona? Yugoslavia The Land Of The Southern Slavs went to war with itself in late 1991 and essentially spent the next 17 years shooting, ethnically cleansing and generally behaving like it had before World War I. She picked them up for virtually nothing and was content with bare-bones transportation. Every character's automobile has personalized plates. This has been true of: Renault in its government-ownership days; And, now, Government Motors, which is thumbing its nose at old GM customers who have warranty claims. The first thing to appear onscreen is a little blurb about the Yugo car company using the town of Verplanck as a test area for their new model years ago. Parts are no problem, because it is basically a FIAT. But even before then, Subarus had features that endeared them to snow-belt climates, like dual radiators that got the car to warm up quickly. It couldnt be trusted just sitting in the parking lot. I also bought a new Yugo in 1989, and had to replace brake master cylinder immediately because brakes would fail after about 10 km on the road. After Mona Dearly (Bette Milder) dies in the movie's opening moments when her Yugo plows through a guardrail and into the Hudson River far below, Wyatt begins investigating her death. Yugos are cars. The entire dashboard- I mean the WHOLE thing in RHD versions is a single piece of soft foam. I was discussing cars with a woman in my office building one day, when she remarked that she had owned a Yugo, and got an incredible number of miles out of it. In the 1970s the PCI (Italian Communist Party) reached its all-time maximum electorally: 34.4% in the 1976 general election (12,600,000 votes, 3 million more than in the previous election in 1972). The Yugos bait was a stunningly low MSRP of just $3990. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. Two cars are in the driveway of a glorious but faded Victorian mansion: The Bertone and a Yugo. of record for a Yugo. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . However, the 67 cu inch motor had plenty of power if you kept it revved, and I never really had a problem keeping up with traffic. They initially started out as an arms manufacturer. The best part was they all had the same license plates on them to just have a semblance of legality! The problem is, there's not a single person in town who DIDN'T have a motive. (* 5-20 for older cars, up to 200 if they have to change water-pump and rollers, new models are more expensive, but 500 maybe for new BMW). As to Bricklin, Ive always liked of liked the SV-1 and wish Id picked one up when they were really cheap, with the AMC 360 they could be made to really move! Its a tough call on the Yugo. It just flat refused. Drowning Mona, Movie, 2000 Pictures provided by: garco, antp, ahight Display options: Also known as: Todos la queran muerta (Spain) Mais qui a tu Mona ? Once the carb was replaced with a Weber instead of the Zastava kinda sorta copy with 3 miles of vacuum hose it ran and started a lot better. Even on foot. alignments. Now they are all scared by digital cameras and this are just some memories from the other side of the iron curtain. Actions lie louder than words. by Carolyn Wells. The local news interveiwed some and they were going for $4000 Id end up with used junk, but now I got a new import!. Dan beat me to it. It wasnt ancient ethnic hatreds, it was more a perfect storm. Except that the belt managed to get into the TIMING BELT caseand pop THAT off. But there was one area that, frankly, I was impressed with, and that was the basic two-box design. YUGO caps and shirts and other fun car show displays. )that I spotted a and lso two Horizon ? I would like to add that once money was in short supply, it was easy to lay a blame on the other side, to stir old misunderstandings and conflicts, send kids to London or USA and start profiting from the war. @Zackman: No the real experience was driving that thing in Atlanta rush hour traffic at 80+ MPH. And the gas cap would not come off. One of a kind, Im sure, There is an article from 2012, quoting the Time magazine If Italy had built it, would it be known as the It??? I had always known these to be license-built versions of the 128. It was like, when you get in, what is next to give out or give you trouble. Anyway, you got 2 I think 6.5 door speakers standard and an option for 2 46 oval speakers, mounted in the rear cargo covers side panels for a total of 4 speakers and an optional AC unit that replaced the console stack, just below the heater and the floor and it I think augmented the weak heater in these things. I heard a version on Car Talk of a deer that a priest hit and it had 150K on the clock when he hit it in his Yugo. Ford 2000 Diesel Cold-Blooded and Worn Out, http://www.observer.com/2010/culture/wannabe-warhol?page=0, http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_113306-Plymouth-Horizon-C2-1984.html, https://chrisoncars.com/yugo-victim-or-victimizer/, https://www.carkeys.co.uk/news/the-story-of-the-yugo-the-worst-car-in-the-world, https://www.ocregister.com/2017/01/03/the-best-worst-cars-ever/, https://blastmagazine.com/2014/05/13/truth-10-cars-never-hit-road/, https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2009/jan/14/cover/#, https://jalopnik.com/the-yugo-is-not-the-worst-car-ever-and-anyone-who-says-1830229976, 1987-91 Ford F-Series Bustruck Monster Mashup, COAL 2010 Subaru Forester Green, Its What Makes A Subaru, A $ubaru, Cohort Pic(k) of the Day: 1963(?) I guess Ive been mispronouncing subaru all these years. Ironically, if he had stuck it out with Subaru for the long haul, he might have done a whole lot better for himself. Warranty claims were dreadful. Quality (or a lack of same) would ensure that the car could not survive in a competitive marketplace. Its not too late! It wasnt four door Yugo, that was Chevy Citation, if I remember correctly. A girl I hung out with in college had a Yugo. Having seen pics of the 127, I can relay that the Yugo body is a complete reskin no lines or panels are the same or interchangeable. So, with connections, he was brought to Japan for a series of lectures; and if America wasnt interested, Japan was very much so. Sales quickly slowed when word of the myriad problems began to circulate in the media. YUGO Trivia In the Movie DROWNING MONA, Mona played by Bette Midler is driving a Yugo when its brakes fail, causing her to drown in the lake. Amidst mutual finger pointing, the deal collapsed in July 2008 as the erstwhile partners took turns suing one another in federal court. What do you call a Yugo with twin exhausts? A Rolls-Royce Ghost, a Mercades S-class, and a Bently Mulsane. The other being Yugo / Zastava missing out on producing a smaller model based on the Autobianchi A112 as a replacement for the Zastava 750, initially carrying over the existing Fiat 100 Series engines prior to using the Fiat FIRE engines. . An older Yugo, since the car hasn't been manufactured since its country went out of business. 459 tweaks (and 18 months) later, the Yugo was almost ready for launch. I would venture to guess that there are fewer than 500 running condition Yugos still on the road in the U.S. (most of which need a little TLC) Anybody that ever owned one of these little mobile gulags will tell you that there was nothing loveable, cute or endearing about them. Or maybe Bobby (Casey Affleck), Jeff's landscaping partner, killed her to save the embarrassment of having her create a scene at his wedding to Ellen (Neve Campbell), Chief Rash's daughter. But back to the subject, shortage of all kind of raw material was the main reason for poor quality, not drunken workers. He later served briefly as acting Secretary of State during the last months of the first Bush presidency). Although I tested it in the summer, the car sputtered and hesitated like it was cold. A "Fetzer valve" is a fictional part of an engine, introduced in the movie Fletch (1985). And often wins. They took in much more foreign revenue and as the economy began to fail more and more fundamentally, the leaders of those republics decided theyd be better off independent of Yugo. I test drove one of these brand new when they hit the market. . I saw one not long ago on the streets in Eugene, but couldnt catch it. Early oil changes, followed maintenance schedule. This is the same scenario as Chrysler- My parents always said that if you get a Dodge in town itll be a lemon, but in the country, itll be a good car because the smaller country dealer relies on repeat business and does a better PDI, ensuring bolts arent missing, and both sides identify the car correctly. The characters this time could be lightened up and dumbed-down versions of the confused drunks in "Laws of Gravity," their social lives centered on bars, their center of gravity the bartender. In regard to that old devil corrosion, an honest question: were there any cars of the seventies that DIDNT rust like mad? Now that its privatized, products have risen in quality to what the buyer expects for his money. They were an object lesson in the old adage that you get what you pay for. I probably still have it somewhere. It WAS a simple-to-work-on car; and in that regard I appreciated it. At inopportune times. Even here in the Land That Rust Forgot, I rarely see anything from the 70s. Another movie moment: Nick drives a Yugo in the film _Nick & Norahs Infinite Playlist_. If Germany had built it, would it have been called the Germ? Too many people in this country have this mentality that if its cheap, treat it as such and yes, a fulfilled prophesy. Drowning Mona is a 2000 American 'comedy' film starring Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Affleck, Melissa McCarthy, Brian Doyle-Murray, and box-office superstar Will Ferrell. I pampered and took extremely good care of it and maintained it very well, it just couldnt hold up to being pampered either. The ignition constantly gave out and so did the clutch. It has been a while since I have seen a Yugo on the road, but a local car wash has one with signs mounted on it. Learn how your comment data is processed. State ownership is generally coupled to some sort of coersion, such as a penalty tax on other makes. Modern kei cars are dimensionally similar to the old sidevalve english Fords tall and narrow hopefully they dont fall over as easily I see lots of elderly people driving used import keis here. They obviously do not run. A girl I knew in high school had one of these, it got rustier seemingly by the day, and this was in 1991-2 so it wasnt by any means an old car.