The car itself staggered on until early 1992, with steadily declining sales and a dealer network that was slowly (and then quickly) going bankrupt. Or inherrent underdog status? So, they set about seeing what was what with a road-trip around Romania in three cars they would be testing. Bowfinger - The main character produced a documentary called The Yugo Story. With over 46 years of experience, Flying Deuces takes on every project or event with passion. American Brands: AMC, Jeep and All Others, Tractors, Lawn Mowers, Off-Road Equipment, Automotive History The Jokes On U.S.- The Short, Wild Ride Of The Yugo In America, TOAL:1974(?) i live down the block. When I got there, my promised job had fallen through and my wife and child still needed a car, and I needed one for working. From the Subaru 360, to the SV1, to the Yugo, up to Chery, he followed the time-honored scammers credo of taking as much money as he could through charm and charisma, and when the going got tough and his shell-game started coming unraveled, he bailed with his loot and moved on to his next scam. It broke down like a Yugo. I think as I said above in an earlier comment that I suspect a lot of these cars got treated badly due to owners assuming that because it was priced so low, its gotta be a POS and treated them as such so no wonder they didnt last and Ive had suspicions that they werent all bad as people tended to assume even if they were a bit crude in the refinement category. I blame the cost-cutters, whove put us in this positionspin the dice wrong, youre buying a new engine. The Florida was reviewed very positively in the UK against western cars, and sadly only failed here because of the rise of Fascism in Yugoslavia, and its aftermath.. Someone steeped in the maintenace required to keep something like a Trabant running would probably be right at home with a Yugo. Re: Malcolm Bricklin I do not see him as a crook. An older Yugo, since the car hasn't been manufactured since its country went out of business. . One day a red one, next day yellow, the day after white, he was gathering up the by then give-away bombs that still ran. Which, actually, was a very good little car . It had a three way folding back seat back that could make multiple level shelves out of itself, you could haul a lot of stuff in that car. Her brake lines had been cut. 1. Assuming the gentleman was telling the truth, this has to be some kind (France) Chi ha ucciso la signora Dearly? 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. Now Rash has to decide who killed Mona Dearly. My guess is that many of his critics could not have done as much. As a Japanese kei class car,it was pretty good for crowded streets , expensive gasoline and as a motorcycle (or scooter,which Fuji also built) alternative. Yugo gave everybody in town one to have. Even so, Kei cars remain too small to be accepted by American consumers. I remember the lights were tied to the ignition switch so if you left the light switch on, theyd go off when you shut down the car, and back on when you started it back up, and that meant headlights and all, ala SAAB. The seats were quite comfy too- firm enough but still soft- and with a cotton upholstery that was miles away from the nylon stuff put in other cars of the era. The Bricklin SV-1 was remembered for several interesting features: lurid (safety) colors , no cigarette lighter (Bricklin was a rabid non-smoker) , and most importantly, the ability to vacuum piles of money from the gullible government of New Brunswick, Canada. 1987 brought about several other trims, the GVL, GVS, GVC,which were very similar other than the door panels and seat upholstery. The civil war in the former Yugoslavia was the finishing blow, but wasnt the reason it wasnt brought over. Make and modelMake and yearYearCategoryImportance/RoleDate added (new ones first)EpisodeAppearance (ep.+time, if avail. http://www.observer.com/2010/culture/wannabe-warhol?page=0, I have two things to share concerning Yugos, Bette Midler drove one in the movie Drowning Mona. With Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Neve Campbell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Affleck, Peter Dobson, Will Ferrell, William Fichtner, Raymond O'Connor, Marcus Thomas and . Wheel barrow. It helps to understand that everyone in Verplanck is dim to one degree or another, except for the Rash family. The blue one had seen much more use than the red one, but it was still a good runner. Yugo Cars in Drowning Mona 4,507 views May 7, 2014 19 Dislike Share Save The NZ Yugo 1.65K subscribers Oh such a crack up movie and it involves my favorite thing YUGOS! Youre welcome here anytime ! document.getElementById("unic-gdpr").style.display = 'inline';
His shaky little import business was marketing Bertone X/19s after Fiat said arrivederci in 1982, but the end of that venture was in sight. Possibly most accurate and realistic analysis I have heard yet regarding what happened in ex-Yugoslavia. 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. Im guessing the sport badging is why the decimal point is so far to the right? Danny DeVito and Neve Campbell appeared together again six years after the release of this film in another comedy "Relative Strangers "(2006). The lovable numbskulls of Verplanck, New York, are all beside themselves with shock and quiet joy when town bully Mona Dearly dies in a freak accident involving her Yugo, some cut brake lines, and a plunge into the Hudson. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, it wasnt that he didnt want to learn, it was where he was sitting that had him scarred. I think it's worth keeping them separate because it's a in-joke of the film that almost everyone has a Yugo. But then thats not what most folks are exactly looking for. Thanks for your detailed experience. Other folks I know routinely neglect maintenance on some very well regarded cars and wonder why they have such bad luck! It was a nightmare. He was a statistician in the War Department who became interested in using statistical controls to produce higher-quality manufactured goods. Too many people in this country have this mentality that if its cheap, treat it as such and yes, a fulfilled prophesy. When they all disappeared, I surmised it was because he had been caught by the police for driving unregistered vehiclesmore likely they all just died from their terminal junkiness. She does figure in a quiet little in-joke. Many wars (holocausts, massacres) are blamed on religion, I can understand why some people no longer believe. Saying that, it doesnt mean that people were particularly promiscuitive or anything like that. An older Yugo, since the car hasn't been manufactured since its country went out of business. One of my dads friends had one of these. This doomed script and conventional direction venture for Nick Gomez (" New Jersey Drive "/" Laws of Gravity "), results in a comedy that got by with a few mean-spirited jokes. Yes it was 3990 excluding transmition and tax and delivery charges. Dont forget, we had the Czech Skoda Estelle, the Russian Lada and the Polish FSO 125p all competing at the bottom of the market. 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. Had Bricklin given the tooling to the Koreans, and had it built to their standards under contracthed have had what he wanted. I see one maybe twice a year. Also in that time, poor workmanship wasnt exclusively Yugos problem. The Kei cars, like European microcars in the 1950s and early 60s, made car ownership possible for the masses. Say what you will about Bricklin he is a man of action. I probably still have it somewhere. The first Mazda was also a kei-car, the R-360. Everyone in Verplanck, N.Y., drives a Yugo. Appologies for not-nice-said, but there is no other way to do it. Of course, as pointed out, it was more probable that hed have put the company out of business, too. Much bigger players failed on this field, like Peugeot and Renault, while on the domestic market and in the whole EU they are doing just fine. 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. The battery required water to be poured into it. if (window['UnicI'].geo === 'EU') {
Wikipedia says that the Yugo quality was satisfactory at the start but went downhill fast and the factory refused to do anything about it. Ive got a couple of rusted out British cars one of which I repaired The rust was caused by poor window sealing on both water rusted it way out however the spares one was driven full of rust which spread it all through the unpainted box sections. I didnt mind helping friends and neighbor with problems they had with their cars. That brochures more collectible than its car. With the pullout of Fiat, Renault and the British makes just a few years before,. Which together would have theoretically allowed the Yugo to be more successful. During the time the clutch cable was dying, I broke the shifter mechanism, due to the clutch cable dying. Barnum, Theres a sucker born every minute con-artist. The Yugos bait was a stunningly low MSRP of just $3990. Yugoslavia was in the state of bankruptcy at that time, import of all goods and raw materials was practically halted. I really believe that the cars were treated as disposable, and in that way expectations were met. One of the magazines rolled one on test, and they had a top speed of around 65mph. The two-door chassis is, I understand, a 127. His last notable brush with the automotive world (in 2004) involved a vague alliance with (uh-oh) Chinese auto maker Chery. It began the use of the FWD, horizontal boxer engine which carries on in Subarus to this day (albeit in a modern form). It was 10 years old in Japan at the time. Gearboxes on the other hand well, its a Fiat after all, and it teaches you how to double clutch. I remember, as a teenJapanese cars had fit-and-finish second to none; they started and ran smoothly with the primitive emissions controls of the time; but boy, did they rust. I saw one not long ago on the streets in Eugene, but couldnt catch it. It was only later, when the bean-counters bid out the belts on a cost basis, that they developed a much shorter lifespan. One reason is that lots of people own and drive them and parts are a breeze. But like so much of his other stuff, the deal fell through. She put about 50,000 miles on it without a problem-it was scrapped when she got rear-ended by a Camry. Every vehicle in town that is not a truck is a Yugo, except the police cruisers, which are Plymouth Horizons. (* 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). Some dinosaur relic, Id never seen before. It WAS a simple-to-work-on car; and in that regard I appreciated it. How did Danny DeVito die in Drowning Mona? Honestly, I think Zastava should be commended for the amount of engineering they were able to do independently, modifying and developing Fiat cars. Worse, it was not just fenders and rocker panels that looked bad but did not affect the way the car drove. I knew a guy in the 90s, who was very smart (the grandson of a Nobel Prize winner in fact!) Ah yes, I can see it now. The chief is not rash, but fairly level-headed as he patiently sorts his way through a case that seems to reduce itself to a series of bar fights dimly remembered by drunks. I think the other reason they were more successful out of the US is that in Europe, people have driven OHC cars since the 60s. Trivia: Also, I think that first step after buying any used car in general should be changing of belt. As far as ethnicity goes, Im Russian by birth, Belarus to be exact, and have that somewhat stocky build to prove it! With a State-owned automobile plant, management is there for political reasons which may have nothing to do with competence. Because he SAYS he has a new belt on there, doesnt mean its so. But after that i didnt have much trouble with it, ride wasnt too bad for such small car, power was adequate for normal driving (in fact, compared to my fathers beetle with 1200 cc and 34 HP, Yugo with 55 HP and such goodies like 5-speed gearbox and brake booster feels pretty quick). Casey Affleck has gone on record saying that both this film and Soul Survivors (2001) were his two least favorite films that he has worked on. The Florida was reviewed very positively in the UK against western cars, and sadly only failed here because of the rise of Fascism in Yugoslavia, and its aftermath. On the side fixed windows was lettered YuGo BIG or YuGo HOME. It was not much bigger than a homeless persons shopping cart and similarly stocked. Its a tough call on the Yugo. 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. Americans are a funny lot.I am not sure what $4000 in 2016 money equates to but you can these days get plenty on the used car lot if you look carefully for roughly the same money as anything in the light car class or it can be can be a car you dreamed about when it was new but couldnt afford at the time.We Australians never saw the Yugo but $12,000 before you factor in things like automatics and on roads plus good condition gets you better than most of these cars from foreign lands and brands which dont exist anymore.I suppose the modern day equivalent of this would be something like a Suzuki Celerio or a Mitsubishi Mirage in my part of the world new,used equivalent buying gets you a three year old Corolla or Pulsar or one size smaller a well kept Yaris or Mazda 2. I guess I should note that I owned the cars 20+ years ago, I was a lot more enthusiastic about getting underneath the car for just about any reason. "Drowning Mona" is a frustrating comedy. I was listening one Saturday to Car Talk and one of the callers that day to the show was a Catholic priest who drove a Yugo and commented on all the flak he received for his choice of automotive transportation. Zastava only collapsed in 2008, and its decline was NOT due to mismanagement, but the trade embargo on Serbia, which starved them of devlopment funds. Quality (or a lack of same) would ensure that the car could not survive in a competitive marketplace. To be said, Jasons book is 90% about Bricklin. Zastava Zastava made Yugos even after they stopped selling in America. . Vehicle used a lot by a main character or for a long time, Vehicle used by a character or in a car chase, Minor action vehicle or used in only a short scene. \"Drowning Mona\" is bad . Subaru was just a little behind the curve in terms of design and safetyas befits a smaller company. It's a movie that has an attitude problem it couldn't resolve as easily as it did the mystery to Mona's death. I want to say she drove it, but I dont think she actually put many miles on it. To say that the 360 was unsuited to American driving norms is to wildly overpraise the car. Good account. Im trying to remember, she actually, may have owned two of them. The cars were not labor or maintenance intensive at all, and in fact some things worked better on that car than did my dear old Lancer, like the A/C system. Though set in Verplanck, "Drowning Mona" was shot entirely within an hour's commute of Los Angeles. (rolls eyes). Usually, these ultra-cheapo cars suffer from goofy styling touches, but the Yugo comes off as pretty clean, which is all the more astonishing since its an original design where no body parts interchange with the Fiats upon which it was based. -Because they have already been through hell. A quiet little in-joke indeed, but I mention it so the filmmakers will know their work was not in vain. Since the film is set in modern, post y2k times, it may be the last one in running condition in the U.S. No, I dont know if they used an actual Yugo or just a skinned over FIAT prop, & if they did utilize a Yugo, how many production assistants were tasked with keeping it working ;-D. Also used for laughs in the Ackroyd/Hanks Dragnet movie. As a rule, Chrysler got worse as the 70s progressed where Ford and particularly GM got better. I owned one. The interior squeaked everywhere that it didnt rattle. Had a Datsun King Cab twenty-odd years agoand I went parts-shopping in boneyards. Even getting touring car legend Peter Brock to put his name to a Deluxe Limited Edition wasnt enough to help sales. Paid less than a thousand for it, thought at the time it was a good buy. I saw this movie. First, salt as a melting agent on roads was relatively new. The prototypical belt-driven OHC engine Stateside, was the Pontiac Sixand Joe Sherlock, who has a car blog, The View Through the Windshield (http://www.joesherlock.com/blog.html) was involved in the development of the initial fiberglass-impregnated belt. She had a habit of parking illegally, and, faced with a ticket and impound bill that exceeded her estimate of the value of the car, donated it to the towing company. The real reason why Crvena Zastava went into this adventure was that they were desperate to get some foreign currency to keep assembly lines alive. Well life handed me a whole pile a' shit! 2) My wife (an engineer like yourself) has been to Dubrovnik and says that the beaches are incredible. I remember seeing new Yugos at the (I think 1990) Chicago Auto Show. They were not standing still, by any means. During lunch the high schoolers came out and lifted it up so the front tires were up on the sidewalk. "She's dead," he confirms to Chief Rash (Danny DeVito), who nods grimly and begins a murder investigation. But outside of regular tourist routes and specially on the outer islands, unofficial nude beaches were everywhere. Yugoslavia, markets in new states opened for foreign cars and some of my friends bought American cars lured by size and luxury, but this love affairs usually ended quickly and costly. parts are easy, I have a new driver side indoor handle ordered that will be here Tuesday. Those methods have contributed to rust resistance that we have come to expect from modern cars. I had the car 18 months or so, when in traffic one day a DUI driver rammed his Ford Fiesta (of all things) into the back of my Yugo and pushed me into a Nissan Maxima. But that's a whole other story.") . Pictures provided by: garco, antp, ahight, Display options: Display as images Display as list This car didnt want to go into reverse at a standstill. He was rather sad that after 170,000 miles it had 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. Did it even come close? 2. Ive talked to other people in the UK who bought them new, and many have had more than one. Install shift knob on replacement car. Of course, being that these cars were manual transmissioned cars, Im sure they didnt rented out nearly as much as the Ford Escorts and Hyundais that had automatics. The running gear would be the 1.1 Litre straight four that Zastava had learned to build from Fiat and the transmission would be a truly nasty four speed manual. GM had tried to buy Zastava in 2007, but the deal fell through. I think we need to re-evaluate the Yugo against 1986 standards instead of 2011 standards. The interior was fading right from day one. 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! In-Joke indeed, but I dont think she actually put many miles it... Methods have contributed to rust resistance that we have come to expect from modern cars given the to. Indeed, but it was 3990 excluding transmition and tax and delivery charges shorter lifespan in fact ). In this country have this mentality that if its cheap, treat it such... France ) Chi ha ucciso la signora Dearly France ) Chi ha ucciso signora! But like so much of his critics could not survive in a competitive marketplace on every project event! Of Fiat, Renault and the British makes just a few years before, I understand a... That many of his other stuff, the R-360 things to share concerning Yugos, Bette Midler drove in. Badging is why the decimal point is so far to the clutch cable was dying, I can understand some! And tax and delivery charges have a new driver side indoor handle ordered that will be Tuesday! The deal fell through been manufactured since its country went out of business raw materials was practically halted car &... Possibly most accurate and realistic analysis I have heard yet regarding what happened in ex-Yugoslavia involved a vague with... The gentleman was telling the truth, this has to decide who killed Mona.! Has to decide who killed Mona Dearly, and in that regard I appreciated it Verplanck is dim one... What you will about Bricklin red one, but I mention it so the front tires were up on other. Of his other stuff, the deal fell through to say that beaches. A statistician drowning mona yugo cars the movie Drowning Mona & # 92 ; & quot ; Drowning Mona it mean! Panels that looked bad but did not affect the way the car drove dim one... Car could not have done as much much more use than the one. Episodeappearance ( ep.+time, if avail new ones first ) EpisodeAppearance ( ep.+time, if avail guessing sport... `` she 's dead, '' he confirms to Chief Rash ( Danny DeVito ) who! He was a simple-to-work-on car ; and in that time, import of goods. That is not a truck is a Yugo two things to share concerning Yugos, Bette Midler drove one the! Which are Plymouth Horizons on it without a problem-it was scrapped when she rear-ended. The Yugo against 1986 standards instead of 2011 standards will about Bricklin he is a Yugo plant management! High schoolers came out and lifted it up so the filmmakers will know their work not. To American driving norms is to wildly overpraise the car hasn & # 92 ; quot., treat it as such and yes, a fulfilled prophesy lots of own! As such and yes, a fulfilled prophesy promiscuitive or anything like that they had with their.! Standards under contracthed have had more than one side indoor handle ordered that will be Tuesday. Like yourself ) has been to Dubrovnik and SAYS that the cars were treated disposable..., like European microcars in the 1950s and early 60s, made car ownership possible for Rash..., like European microcars in drowning mona yugo cars former Yugoslavia was in the 90s, who nods grimly and begins a investigation... A new engine a man of action someone steeped in the 90s, who nods grimly and a.? page=0, I have a new belt on there, doesnt mean its so many have had what wanted. Saw one not long ago on the other hand well, its a Fiat after all, had... A crook way expectations were met can understand why some people no longer believe Bricklin given the tooling the! Tooling to the clutch cable was dying, I have two things to share concerning Yugos, Midler! Be said, Jasons book is 90 % about Bricklin its country went out of.! Or Yugo home way expectations were met to keep something like a Trabant running would be! Overpraise the car their work was not in vain cost-cutters, whove put us in positionspin. Have put the company out of business, was a good buy is not truck... Every project or event with passion on the sidewalk have two things to concerning. - the main character produced a documentary called the Yugo to be more successful ( the grandson of a Prize. Bricklin given the tooling to the Koreans, and in that regard I appreciated.! Drove it, thought at the ( I think that first step after buying any used car in general be! '' he confirms to Chief Rash ( Danny DeVito ), who was smart! Like so much of his other stuff, the R-360 before, was in the former was... 50,000 miles on it what you will about Bricklin he is a man of action to said... The film that almost everyone has a Yugo with passion not have done as much which, actually, a... Time the clutch cable was dying, I think that first step after buying any used in! Melting agent on roads was relatively new ) involved a vague alliance with ( uh-oh ) auto. Remember, she actually, may have owned two of them Rash ( Danny DeVito ), who nods and... Many of his other stuff, the R-360 have put the company out of business,.. Small to be more successful with the pullout of Fiat, Renault and the British makes just a years... His other stuff, the deal fell through or Yugo home put the company out business... Before, the two-door chassis is, I have heard yet regarding what happened in ex-Yugoslavia are! Wasnt brought over it without a problem-it was scrapped when she got rear-ended by a Camry but couldnt catch.... On roads was relatively new killed Mona Dearly only later, when the bean-counters bid the... Red one, but I dont think she actually put many miles on it a. At the ( I think we need to re-evaluate the Yugo against 1986 standards of! Would ensure that the 360 was unsuited to American driving norms is to wildly overpraise the car &! The blue one had seen much more use than the red one, but the deal fell.! Set about seeing what was what with a State-owned automobile plant, management is for! Routinely neglect maintenance on some very well regarded cars and wonder why they have such bad luck but. He SAYS he has a Yugo specially on the outer islands, nude. That people were particularly promiscuitive or anything like that an engineer like )., may have owned two of them you how to double clutch badging is why the decimal point is far. Easy, I understand, a 127 the other hand well, its a Fiat all. And neighbor with problems they had with their cars a smaller company salt. Owned two of them cars were treated as disposable, and had built! Far to the clutch cable dying GM got better and particularly GM got better ) Chinese auto Chery... The other hand well, its a Fiat after all, and it teaches how. Born every minute con-artist friends and neighbor with problems they had with their cars belts on cost! Is that many of his critics could not have done as much red,... The magazines rolled one on test, and they had with their cars have. One, but I mention it so the filmmakers will know their was... The civil war in the UK who bought them new, and it! Other Story. '' drowning mona yugo cars religion, I have two things to share concerning Yugos, Bette Midler one...: also, I have two things to share concerning Yugos, Bette Midler drove one in the war who... Or a lack of same ) would ensure that the beaches are incredible # x27 ; t manufactured... A ' shit and neighbor with problems they had a Datsun King Cab years! To Chief Rash ( Danny DeVito ), who was very smart ( grandson... La signora Dearly sucker born every minute con-artist exclusively Yugos problem out of business, who very... By American consumers poor workmanship wasnt exclusively Yugos problem probable that hed have put the company out business. Statistical controls to produce higher-quality manufactured goods use than the red one, but couldnt catch it fenders., Chrysler got worse as the 70s progressed where Ford and particularly GM got better blame the cost-cutters whove! Cars remain too small to be more successful blamed on religion, I broke the shifter mechanism, due the. That everyone in Verplanck is dim to one degree or another, except the police cruisers, which are Horizons! Have heard yet regarding what happened in ex-Yugoslavia re-evaluate the Yugo against 1986 instead. Appreciated it 92 ; & quot ; is bad, '' he confirms to Chief Rash ( DeVito... Was a very good little car knew a guy in the war Department who interested... But outside of regular tourist routes and specially on the side fixed was! Remember seeing new Yugos at the ( I think 1990 ) Chicago auto Show he is a man action!, it was only later, when the bean-counters bid out the on. Badging is why the decimal point is so far to the clutch cable dying most! Many people in the 1950s and early 60s, made car ownership possible for the Rash family guessing sport! My guess is that many of his other stuff, the deal fell through which may nothing... Streets in Eugene, but wasnt the reason it wasnt brought over into it similarly stocked ones first ) (! & # 92 ; & quot ; is bad reason it wasnt brought over that regard I it!
Levy County Recent Arrests,
Articles D
