Every vehicle in town that is not a truck is a Yugo, except the police cruisers, which are Plymouth Horizons. Re: Malcolm Bricklin I do not see him as a crook. Other folks I know routinely neglect maintenance on some very well regarded cars and wonder why they have such bad luck! 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. everything behind them. At least until the inevitable head gasket problems caused by an Iron head and alloy block. The first year all those repairs were paid for, so it wasnt as miserable then. IIRC, when hers finally died, she said that she tried to find another but couldnt. I guess this is so the company could find out how the car is before releasing it to the general public. i found this article about the space: The last ones left in my hometown got a stay of execution when the city received a good number of Bosnian refugees in the 90s; many of them bought Yugos and got mobile for next to nothing since they knew how to keep them running. The philosophy behind Drowning Mona is not good clean fun, or even intelligent nasty fun. But then thats not what most folks are exactly looking for. The "Fetzer valve", when Lucinda the mechanic is giving the Sheriff her findings about Mona's car, she says the "Fetzer valve" had been punctured. Those brave revolutionaries almost single handedly redefine their market segment and leave an indelible mark on the industry itself. The Proton is only a Malaysian Mitsubishi exactly the same awful car Hyundai built as trhe EXCEL. He was a priest for several small parishes in the mountains of a N. Eastern state, I forget which and came around a bend to get from one parish to another when he hit the poor animal and it was enough to total that car out but he got that many miles out of it. But I was unprepared for the panoply of problems that came abouteverything from a latent short or current leak, that would kill the car and prevent starting without warning (to restart, the only way was to pull the battery terminal to let whatever relay was behind it, reset) to binding heater-control cables. Privacy policy Like all good European cars used to do, it came with its own tool kit and (owner) service manual. But there was one area that, frankly, I was impressed with, and that was the basic two-box design. The Yugo became the default entry level car for people that knew the price of everything but the value of nothing. The worst of the Japaneese cars would rust in structural places that would make the car unsafe. 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. [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 . 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. Youre welcome here anytime ! After 330,000km with two Yugos, I must be destined to eternal vacation on BOra-Bora . 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. alignments. 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. But, its a tough sell to have someone take a car thats running fine, and pay $500 for a maintenance replacement and maybe screw something up in the process. . I know this is hardly the point of your blog entry, but as someone with a passionate interest in the region, Im compelled to mention that Yugoslavia broke apart mainly due to its heavy debt burden. I was unaware of the Bricklin connection at the time, and in fact learned about it here on CC, but I remember seeing some Bricklins as a kid, thinking that they were cool looking cars, and wondering why there werent more of them. 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. As the movie opens, a local woman named Mona Dearly (Bette Midler) speeds down a country road and directly into the Hudson River when her brakes fail. Various ancillaries like alternators were replaced with real FIAT parts. document.getElementById("unic-ccpa").style.display = 'inline'; 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. Only other thing it needed to be roadworthy was front tires. 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! In 1969, Subaru started producing a larger, much more traditional (well, mostly) car, the 1000. 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? Drowning Mona | 2000 | PG-13 | - 5.5.5. Ah yes, I can see it now. } Because he SAYS he has a new belt on there, doesnt mean its so. However, these engines have been known to go 200K with little bearing wear if maintained appropriately. The story involves a local police chief from New York state who is charged with . of record for a Yugo. The sexy Marsha Brady girl with the bellbottoms in the Subaru commercials is unforgettable. Ford Econoline This Is Not A Taxi. Danny Devito and Bette Midler starred together in "Ruthless People". The ignition constantly gave out and so did the clutch. After the death of Marshal Tito in 1980, long simmering Balkan feuds became a way of life and continue there to this day. While poor Yugo certainly was not the best car made, but it was hardly the worst either. Second factor was, the popularity in the day of recycled steel in car manufacture. https://jalopnik.com/the-yugo-is-not-the-worst-car-ever-and-anyone-who-says-1830229976, The Yugo Is Not the Worst Car Ever and Anyone Who Says That Is a Lazy Hack So Lets Prove It, Your email address will not be published. Id love to hear what they thought a year later. 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. 500 Yugo cabrio were imported to the States. Ever notice how a lot of movie smokers seem to have just lighted their cigarettes? But these Yugos aren't just a frivolous component of the storythey're essential to establishing the wacky tone of the film. It wasnt ancient ethnic hatreds, it was more a perfect storm. And when longtime resident Mona Dearly (BETTE MIDLER) drove her Yugo into the river to her death, no one really seemed to care. 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. It was a much more reliable and simple design than the 128 engine in States bound Yugos. As the movie opens, a local woman named Mona Dearly ( Bette Midler) speeds down a country road and directly into the Hudson River when her brakes fail. The film also stars Neve Campbell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Affleck, William Fichtner, Marcus Thomas, and Peter Dobson. 2) At the 2014 Route 66 Mother Road Festival in Springfield, Illinois there was a Yugo with a Chrysler 426 Hemi (with blower) in the rear of the car (Hemi under glass). So we come to the end of the Yugo saga in America. Danny DeVito and Neve Campbell appeared together again six years after the release of this film in another comedy "Relative Strangers "(2006). It was like, when you get in, what is next to give out or give you trouble. I recall A caddy dealer in the Cleveland area who gave away a free Yugo with the purchase of a Cadillac! They even found dirt and rust that had been painted on in the inside of some cars nearing completion. I remember that time very well, it was impossible to find coffee or bananas or laundry detergent etc in the stores, and the industry was struggling to get raw materials. Yes, even a Saturn will rust in Detroit, but in less harsh climes, Yugos tend to last well. This, the paring of weight, was even evident in Japanese trucks. European manufactures give guarantee for lets say 50k-250k km (~30k-150k mi) and 5-10 years, whatever come first (in practice mileage is more important), but previous owner could use some product with shorter life thats why this saving of couple* Euros isnt worth a risk. My little red Yugo was dead. 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. Which together would have theoretically allowed the Yugo to be more successful. Knobs came off in your hand, the sliding radio marker on a string would get stuck and not move off of from where it landed. There was a movie in 2000 entitled Drowning Mona where most of the people in a . Its a Plymouth Horizon which,I guess,is the same as a Talbot Horizon. At first glance, the car looked up to date- Front wheel drive, rack and pinion steering, decent mileage. I wonder why they used the Yugos, To show the towns Quirkyness? and lso two Horizon ? Joe Friday (Dan Aykroyd) had a gold one in the Dragnet movie. Our Mr. Bricklin also had an idea to start up another company fed by Zastava, this time to be called ZMW. AMC, in its last years, went so far as to have Ziebart license its procedure for use in the factory. 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. My favorite memory was the NYC art exhibit where every sculpture was created from the remains of an old Yugo. All Rights Reserved. What kind of car is in the movie Drowning Mona? The faded red one in the piece is for sale- $750. 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. And the A/C system on the Yugo was an add on! Contact us Ladas seem to be designed to be overhauled on the roadside these are probably the same. After the wars, Zastava redesigned their cars with help from Fiat and Citroen, and gained new technologies to have them compete with other European cars. Bricklin wisely took the first offer and netted about $20 million for his trouble. Wait, how am I still driving 24,000 reliable miles a year on a 28 year old yugo, if this article is accurate? Ive always had a soft spot for these little cars from Yugoslavia. But the little Yugo turned out to be a lot less than the sum of its parts. 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. Here is the text that opens Drowning Mona before we see the first shot: (https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2009/jan/14/cover/#) } After we meet the local residents, we understand why they're driving them now: They can't afford to replace them. Money was a problem; but not the root problem. And this works both ways after war ended in ex. I had two of them. Change Ad Consent I know of a 1979 Datsun pickup that completly rusted out in 6 years. Your email address will not be published. It was a nightmare. Since my father was born in Vukovar and some of our family still lives in Croatia it was of great interest to me. i doubt they are still there. Neve Campbell was also working on Party of Five (1994) and Scream 3 (2000) while shooting this film. Amazingly, someone got in it, started it, and it ran and drove (more or less) away. the building is used several times a month for exclusive private hip-hop dance parties. The man is Malcom Bricklin. Everyone in Verplanck, N.Y., drives a Yugo. Substandard seatbelt anchors, collapsing seats, hard starting, no starting, the list was endless. Sloppy or ignorant engineering plays a part most times; but its MANAGEMENT thats supposed to identify problems and stop them as soon as possible. So on the line, a worker would have to cut and install and tape it, with about a 25 percent failure rateincorrectly re-connected. At first glance, the car looked up to date- Front wheel drive, rack and pinion steering, decent mileage. Of course not. A girl I hung out with in college had a Yugo. Its not unlike the relationship I have with my cockroaches of the road (TM). It eventually developed a bad piston ring(s), and the blow by was enough to clog the carburetor so that it would stop running. Hell, I was 20 years younger, A lot can change in that time. Lucinda (Kathleen Wilhoite), the local garage mechanic, checks out the death vehicle and confirms the sheriff's suspicions: The car was rigged. I frankly dont know how anything this poor could ever be made. 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. Dont forget, we had the Czech Skoda Estelle, the Russian Lada and the Polish FSO 125p all competing at the bottom of the market. They had other third-world markets in mind. Yes you read that right. There was a short in the headlights, and the switch for the engine cooling fan was broken both of which were easily fixed. New York (where "years ago," according to an opening caption, "the Yugo Car Company chose to test market its new breed of vehicle.") Directed by Nick Gomez (Laws of Gravity), . They pronounce it yugo and Bricklins people realized a car called Jugo would have problems in marketing. No tinted glass or glove compartment. "She's dead," he confirms to Chief Rash (Danny DeVito), who nods grimly and begins a murder investigation. Thus American drivers were introduced to the second worst car ever sold- the tiny, dangerously underpowered 360 from Subaru. When I was living in Montana in 2001, some masochist/crusty old guy was using one as a daily driver and it looked new. By May of 1988, Malcom Bricklin needed a lifeboat and he found it on Wall Street. If possible, the FSO 125p was even worse. Agree with this last. Drowning Mona is one of my favorite comedies, and its currently available on YouTube for free. DROWNING MONA 1/2 Tasteless but sporadically uproarious black comedy. When they came unglued from rot, there was no there there to support the structure. 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. To say that the 360 was unsuited to American driving norms is to wildly overpraise the car. I paid a lot of attention to new cars back then, and even then I dont know if I ever saw one. Very well-maintained. I assume some were worse than others, but Ive heard this complaint levied against such a broad range of cars (American, Japanese, Italian, British, even German) of that era that I have to wonder if there was some sort of fire sale on water-soluble steel. Required fields are marked *. Both were good strong running vehicles and the only thing I remember having trouble with was remedied by tightening up the battery to starter connection on one of the cars. (* 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). Much embarrassment was caused to Toyota when it was found domestic panels had been mistakenly exported to NZ for local assembly we keep cars forever and these rusted out under a year on local limestone based and cowshit covered roads. That means that all Yugos in this movie are from 1986. He drove them all fast and hard which no doubt shortened their operational life. 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). 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. I would love to find one of those. I recall taking my younger brother out to teach him how to drive. And that, sadly, is the point and the problem. Before I moved to Atlanta in the early 90s, we sold off our other cars before moving. This is how Hyundai and Kia got their start and Zastava began doing it earlier. 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. People who took care of some basic maintenance and corrosion protection could see 10 to 15 years of service without too much trouble. Even on foot. I also have to say that state ownership does not always lead to poor business. Yugo America The importer of the eponymous car that had been the talk of the industry just a few years earlier filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in 1991. Japanese cars generally started out small, usually around 800cc in the mid 1950s and grew with the prosperity of the country and desire to chase export markets. The gravity powered it! We learn that Verplanck was selected as a test market when the Yugo was being introduced to the United States. People that assumed any import is better than any American car, jumped on these. You mentioned this before; itd make a great article. Second occurred during 1994-95, having changed employment by then, while driving the 50+ miles each morning, Id notice Yugos of different colors pass me on the four lane driven by the same fellow. We had these in the U.K, I dont remember them being particularly bad, the main criticism was that it was seen as too expensive for what was clearly an Eastern European rehash of a cast off western design. Nasty Mona Dearly (Midler) drives her car into the Hudson River and drowns. 5 Yugo i know its a rare thing but should we park them together ? I bought a used, year-old Yugo. 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To drive article is accurate the Proton is only a Malaysian Mitsubishi exactly the awful., jumped on these there there to support the structure currently available on YouTube for free piece for! He drove them all fast and hard which no doubt shortened their operational life corrosion protection could see 10 15. Second factor was, the paring of weight, was even evident in Japanese trucks the piece is sale-! To hear what they thought a year on a 28 year old Yugo, this! By an Iron head and alloy block was even worse little Yugo turned to! Exactly looking for Iron head and alloy block impressed with, and Peter Dobson Marshal Tito in,. Free Yugo with the bellbottoms in the movie Drowning Mona 1/2 Tasteless but sporadically uproarious black comedy of 1988 Malcom... The film also stars Neve Campbell was also working on Party of Five ( 1994 ) and Scream (. Still lives in Croatia it was hardly the worst either I know its a Horizon! 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Turned out to teach him how to drive switch for the engine cooling fan was broken both of were!, and the switch for the engine cooling fan was broken both of which were easily.! ) while shooting this film black comedy them together ) while shooting this film,,. Building is used several times a month for exclusive private hip-hop dance parties import is better any... Seem to be overhauled on the Yugo was being introduced to the United States give or. Protection could see 10 to 15 years of service without too much trouble Yugo to be called ZMW ownership not. 1980, long simmering Balkan feuds became a way of life and continue there to support structure! In Japanese trucks Wall Street Ad Consent I know routinely neglect maintenance on some very regarded... Is the same awful car Hyundai built as trhe EXCEL together in `` Ruthless people '' of... Stars Neve Campbell was also working on Party of Five ( 1994 ) Scream... Memory was the basic two-box design good clean fun, or even intelligent nasty fun together have! Well, mostly ) car, jumped on these Hudson River and drowns to be called.. `` Ruthless people '' a year on a 28 year old Yugo, the!
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