At only 20,000 miles it was worn out, fading, under powered, rusting, it wanted to die and be buried, it certainly didnt want to be a car! I did appreciate the way Yugo could make one part do what a western car needed three for. Hell, he only paid something like $500 for a beater commuter car and this was in the late 1990s. One day I put the key in and nothing happened, it was dead and wouldnt turn on. Kind of reminds me of a first generation Rabbit/Golf, which Ive always considered the gold-standard for the best styled small car. Honestly, I think Zastava should be commended for the amount of engineering they were able to do independently, modifying and developing Fiat cars. It helps to understand that everyone in Verplanck is dim to one degree or another, except for the Rash family. Around the same time we had a similar thing in Australia the FSM Niki, which was a Polish-built Fiat 126, so a ~700cc rear-engined s-box. The car she is driving is a Yugo, and the pic's locale is Verplanck, New York (north of New York City), that actually was a test market for the ill-fated economy car in the late 1970's. . As for the FloridaBricklin was itching to bring it in. No tinted glass or glove compartment. 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. I had two of them. Had the car been screwed together properly, and had there been an engineering department to iron out the bugs, it could have had a long run. One time the keys were out and the car was still on and would not turn off. He later served briefly as acting Secretary of State during the last months of the first Bush presidency). IIRC, David E Davis even tried to help move these things by stating in Automobile that he was going to send his daughter off to college in one. Your experience was exactly what my suspicions were about these cars. 500 left in running condition? 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. Wait, how am I still driving 24,000 reliable miles a year on a 28 year old yugo, if this article is accurate? This car had one genuine asset: ride quality. Dispose of the rest of the car. Ironically, if he had stuck it out with Subaru for the long haul, he might have done a whole lot better for himself. I was worried that shed make it. Agree with this last. The base GV had a 1.1L, SOHC motor that originated in the Fiat 128 and the GVX had the 1.3L\, SOHC, motor, also from the Fiat 128 and I think it had the 5spd manual in it but the base GV got the 4spd manual. The blue one had seen much more use than the red one, but it was still a good runner. 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. TRUCKEE, Calif. There was a dealer in Denver Colorado, called Apple Motors, who used to sell warmed up Yugos. I could be wrong there; but a surprising number of parts, including the airbox and cables, the steering column, the drivetrain, are all direct or modified parts from the 128. After highway driving the gear would refuse to shift, like it overheated being in gear so long, it refused to move. Motor Trend reported that their hand picked press ringer broke down during testing. This may seem shocking, but Yugos really dont rust badly. or all of the Ladas.As has been mentioned already this kind of cheap car ownership The early Japanese cars were not that different from the 360: Junk. A girl I hung out with in college had a Yugo. But before Bricklin made a virtue of safety, he all but made a mockery of same just a half decade before. Enterior wall panels were thin cardboard with painted on carpet flecks. They found problems in the assembly processone described was how the wiring harness to the rear liftgate and wiper, didnt fit the stamped holes allowed it. Like you can buy a car without a transmition. Only the Italians could design a car to be so much fun to drive so slowly. My cell phone was apparently assembled at gunpoint by drunk Yugoslavians in the year 1984 . My best friend had for a brief time, a rusted 1980 Civic DX hatchback that ultimately blew out its 2 upper gears in the 5spd manual tranny that did it in even though his mechanic could not get the bolts out to replace the clutch due to rust. I see one maybe twice a year. But then my wife (of all people) found a Yugo for $800. I had very good support for the Yugo as Atlanta is the home of Bayless, which is a big Fiat parts house. Renault has been in state ownership since the 50s, and has been a very profitable company. There are, to be fair, other theories about how Jeff (Marcus Thomas) lost his hand, although in every scenario he was reaching for a beer. Paid less than a thousand for it, thought at the time it was a good buy. At Zastava, these were foreign. My mother drove it to work at the high school one time. To say that the 360 was unsuited to American driving norms is to wildly overpraise the car. (At the same dealership on the window sticker above,actually). English tongues tended to read it JUG-oh not a saleable name. Yes it was 3990 excluding transmition and tax and delivery charges. 1. I think it's worth keeping them separate because it's a in-joke of the film that almost everyone has a Yugo. He lost his house, his fortuneAnd the dozens of Yugo GVs that he received as part of his settlement with his bankers. 3) The Yugo has a good reputation in the land of its birth. But youre right that would mean being a business man and not a con-artist. When the coroner first jumps into the water to check Mona's dead body, he is neck-deep in water. During the time the clutch cable was dying, I broke the shifter mechanism, due to the clutch cable dying. Found it! Screenwriter Peter Steinfeld says the film was originally going to be set in a mythical north. Our Mr. Bricklin also had an idea to start up another company fed by Zastava, this time to be called ZMW. Also in that time, poor workmanship wasnt exclusively Yugos problem. Here, it is well known that you change the timing belt every 40K miles. Diversity was their strength!!!!!!!!!!! He claimed the belt was good for 200,000-plus miles, often outlasting the pulleys. The only car known to have been blown off of the Mackinac Bridge. Always. Not having that one bit Clarkson divised a solution, buying a third-hand Yugo and for the rest of the episode refering to it as a Bently. Chief Wyatt Rash: My mother always used to say, "When life hands you potatoes, make potato salad!". The last Yugo I saw was 12 years ago, parked by a gas station in Truckee oh, and a restored Yugo was for sale on Craigslist a bit ago but I figured that would be a bad idea on the Subaru front: I heard a rumor, years ago, that Fuji bought all the American 360s and had them crushed any truth to that? About a year or so into owning the blue one, the clutch cable snapped (in traffic, of course). 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! Several actors in this film have ties to the Batman films. Even though the price was a come on (dealers larded as many options onto the car as they could get away with, see below), America was hooked. who collected Yugos for pennies on the dollar and used the collection as a parts supply to keep ONE of them running. Its not too late! Since my father was born in Vukovar and some of our family still lives in Croatia it was of great interest to me. Sloppy or ignorant engineering plays a part most times; but its MANAGEMENT thats supposed to identify problems and stop them as soon as possible. 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. It is a measure of the local intelligence that when the car and driver are dragged to shore some hours later, the doctor checks her pulse. The body and car belonging to Kiely Rodni, a missing 16-year-old girl, may have been found in a Califronia lake on Sunday, according to a search and rescue group. 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. And a failed clutchI have driven manual transmission cars my whole life. Ah yes, I can see it now. Well life handed me a whole pile a' shit! She claimed that once you knew and understood them, they were not bad cars for what they were. Your email address will not be published. Sales ended in the U.S. that year when a recall was ordered by the feds over emissions issues related to faulty carburetors. The Yugo got its biggest role in 2000, in Drowning Mona, starring Casey Affleck, Neve Campbell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Danny DeVito, and Bette Midler, with Will Farrell making a delightful cameo. Thank you for the history, it complements the story of the car well. What kind of car is in the movie Drowning Mona? It was a much more reliable and simple design than the 128 engine in States bound Yugos. That salty New England slush had its way with everything. 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. 2004-2023 IMCDb.org Managed by Controgest SPRL I have NEVER burned out a clutchexcept on a Yugo. ), it was quite good. } Ladas seem to be designed to be overhauled on the roadside these are probably the same. People that assumed any import is better than any American car, jumped on these. Zastava took over the American company. Almost everyone in town is a suspect. ), See all comments about this movie and its vehicles. The steel is much thicker than Fiat used, and although fit and finish wasnt great, it was no worse than on a Fiat. But they didnt have a CLUE. 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. Just finished Drowning Mona and came here for background. We heard of the Yugo here far away in South Africa, but now I know how it all came about and fell apart. At first glance, the car looked up to date- Front wheel drive, rack and pinion steering, decent mileage. Everyone in Verplanck, N.Y., drives a Yugo. You are my inhalation, I own few blogs and infrequently run out from brand :). This car didnt want to go into reverse at a standstill. I knew I wasnt buying a Lexus. Im guessing the sport badging is why the decimal point is so far to the right? UK Yugo dealers were often small garages in small towns, who really tried to do the prep work to get the cars out well. The worst of the Japaneese cars would rust in structural places that would make the car unsafe. It had become commonplace in the 1950s; and manufacturers first tried ignoring the problem; then dealing with it with superficial fixes like Zincrometal body panels. Now that its privatized, products have risen in quality to what the buyer expects for his money. Did it even come close? Then again, Ive always had a liking for the odd car or two over the years. Drowning Mona | 2000 | PG-13 | - 5.5.5. But the acquisition by Fiat in 2010 renders all of that as ancient history. The Yugo? I probably still have it somewhere. I think that for a 1992 car (perhaps it should be a Serb-o? It eventually developed a bad piston ring(s), and the blow by was enough to clog the carburetor so that it would stop running. The U.S. stuff was bad enough in that era, but the European cars were (by and large) even worse and the Japaneese were worse by orders of magnatude. . 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. It is difficult to overstate how rustprone 1970s Japaneese cars were. Regarding the rust: It was a myriad of factors. I think we need to re-evaluate the Yugo against 1986 standards instead of 2011 standards. how did Subaru make the transition from dangerous sardine can to granola FWD/AWD family compact in the US?. Yugo gave everybody in town one to have. Handling is sharp and the engine loves to rev. He drove them all fast and hard which no doubt shortened their operational life. And the gas cap would not come off. What a story! I went to an auto place for a part, and was so embarassed to even say Yugo to the clerk, that my voice stuttered and I replied Yugee. document.getElementById("unic-gdpr").style.display = 'inline'; But they did. Although it shares some similarities with the Fiat 127, it is actually based on the much more advanced Autobianchi. Especially on economy cars- Yugos often sold to High School girls, who would just turn up the stereo when their failure to add oil led to rod knocking. A Rolls-Royce Ghost, a Mercades S-class, and a Bently Mulsane. (https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2009/jan/14/cover/#) For Some Thematic Elements, Language and Brief Sexuality, Berlinale 2023 Highlights, Part Two: Reality, Manodrome, The Adults, Inside, Golda, Angela Bassett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Fraser, Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson Feted at SBIFF 2023, Revisiting Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Tragically Common: Jamie Dack, Lily McInerny and Jonathan Tucker on Palm Trees and Power Lines. Even getting touring car legend Peter Brock to put his name to a Deluxe Limited Edition wasnt enough to help sales. It was like, when you get in, what is next to give out or give you trouble. The man is Malcom Bricklin. Its avoidable with regular replacement, true. At that time, Bricklin was probably best known for the eponymous car that he launched amidst much fanfare in 1974. document.getElementById("unic-ccpa").style.display = 'inline'; 2) My wife (an engineer like yourself) has been to Dubrovnik and says that the beaches are incredible. I was sure youd have had one. Casey Affleck wore a blonde wig for this film. LIkewise, Yugo UK supported its dealers well. Its the manifestation of the postwar Japanese industrial culturepredicated on continuous quality improvement; and with the use of statistical controls to produce ever-higher quality items with fewer deviations from specification. I guess the major issue in my favor was the relatively inexpensive parts when I did need them, and the fact that Georgia is semi-arid, so no rust issues. 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. Of course not. Sorry, Jeff, but I dare to notice that you dont know so much about Zastava (factory and cars, their projects and people, its country and history) and dare to write about. View Cars. Now they are all scared by digital cameras and this are just some memories from the other side of the iron curtain. I wonder why they used the Yugos, To show the towns Quirkyness? 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. Todays story, though, has nothing to do with anybody like that. if (!readyGEO) { Zastava Zastava made Yugos even after they stopped selling in America. } Bricklin had formed Yugo of America to import the car and as was his custom, financial shenanigans were part of the mix. Sales quickly slowed when word of the myriad problems began to circulate in the media. It seems a good use of them. The civil war in the former Yugoslavia was the finishing blow, but wasnt the reason it wasnt brought over. Its not like Fiat designs were anything special, quite the contrary in many instances. You are probably also aware of the Honda Z or N360 which was existed around the same time. With just 25 horsepower (at a cacophonous 5500 RPM), the elfin 360 was the type of cynical exercise that would define Bricklins career in the car business. I would be *shocked* to see a single one moving under its own power in 2011. [SOUNDBITE - clip from Drowning Mona trailer, 2000] Every car in the movie, save for the police vehicle and a main character's landscaping pickup, is a . Detroit, also, but not so much. Its unfortunate that the vast majority of Yugo owners didnt even get that. It cut costs, and as was the concern then (as now) it was Green using the parlance of today. @Jeff Nelson: I think youre a bit dismissive of Zastava, they have been around for quite some time. parts are easy, I have a new driver side indoor handle ordered that will be here Tuesday. 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. Last Update: . 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(?) It, thought at the time it was a much more use than the 128 engine States... Shenanigans were part of the car looked up to date- Front wheel drive, and! Car without a transmition run out from brand: ) was like, when you get,! 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