They had other third-world markets in mind. Jamie Lee Curtis' character looks like she has some colorful insights to share but isn't given the dialogue to do it--she's more a plot marker than a person. . Initially, I had my eyes set on a mid 80s Toyota Celica as the cheapest car I could find. But with enough TLC (something the average American consumer wasnt high on), maybe they werent so bad (at least a few of them, anyway). Renault has been in state ownership since the 50s, and has been a very profitable company. Parts are no problem, because it is basically a FIAT. And management, often put there through politics, has little interest in learning of customer dissatisfaction. As I understand it, Zastiva had the Yugo designed that way as its plan was, from the beginning, to export the car. I had two of them. 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. The one thing that the Yugo shared with its Fiat ancestry, was the fact that these things were biodegradable in the midwest. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. It was amazing (to me) how they found a solution so quickly. I really dont think that anyone has a competitive advantage in rust resistance any more. He soon discovers that her death was no accident. 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. 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 ? An accident has happened - the Yugo of one Mona Dearly has careened off the highway and plunged into the Hudson. 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. 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. At our Year 2000 track day at Lime Rock, one of the entries was a race-prepared Yugo. 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. Personally I would have gone for the Skoda. Also in that time, poor workmanship wasnt exclusively Yugos problem. I paid a lot of attention to new cars back then, and even then I dont know if I ever saw one. If Germany had built it, would it have been called the Germ? Every vehicle in town that is not a truck is a Yugo, except the police cruisers, which are Plymouth Horizons., And lastly, I recall seeing a comedian on TV talking about Yugos. Nude beaches usually are deprived of sexual context. Almost everyone in town is a suspect. Here is the text that opens Drowning Mona before we see the first shot: 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. It would take about eight years from apparent problem to engineered fix to failure of the fix and another engineered solution. Holy mackerel, Goe, what a story and experience! My dad is a bit of a FIAT nut so he would wrench on it from time to time. I recall seeing the garage full of yugos being worked on when Id take mine in and I recall seeing them dead on the side of the road everywhere. Paid less than a thousand for it, thought at the time it was a good buy. Before I moved to Atlanta in the early 90s, we sold off our other cars before moving. Lack of an automatic would hamper the car during all but the final year in the states. Now they are all scared by digital cameras and this are just some memories from the other side of the iron curtain. Since it had the potential to continue the well-regarded reputation of the Autobianchi A112 base car as a small model in markets like the US compared to the SWB Fiat 127 derived car that become the infamous half-baked small Yugo. A few things come to mind regarding the Yugo / Zastava Koral (and larger Yugo / Zastava Skala), mainly that it is a pity it never received similar developments such as 5-door hatchback, 2/4-door saloon and 3/5-door estate bodystyles as found on other Fiat 127-based variants like the SEAT 127 / SEAT Frua and Fiat 147 / Fiat Oggi / Fiat Panorama, along with larger 1372-1596cc+ versions of the Fiat SOHC engine. Purchased one year old cars for less than $1500 while attending college. Complete with opera lamps and padded roof. I owned one. I think that for a 1992 car (perhaps it should be a Serb-o? No regrets and better than any $1500 alternatives at the time. But there was one area that, frankly, I was impressed with, and that was the basic two-box design. 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. The faded red one in the piece is for sale- $750. (not that I cared that much about it I was in my mid-twenties and during summer season beaches were full of naked girls.) I was only ten, but knew they were junk. Yeah, theres no question on really poor build quality. NO. I cant think of another car that disappeared off the roads faster. Sales ended in the U.S. that year when a recall was ordered by the feds over emissions issues related to faulty carburetors. I mean, cmon, its an Eastern Bloc car. I test drove one of these brand new when they hit the market. 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. Sales quickly slowed when word of the myriad problems began to circulate in the media. But is an Audi as bad as a Yugo? 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. This was not a design fault, but like the Corvair, the company seriously underestimated the ability of the American motorist to neglect even basic maintenence. I saw one on the F4 so they did sell one.Those were a Polish Fiat 500 updated Just rubbish. 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. Thanks for your first hand account ! Generally what kills them is the cost of major systems repairs, to where its not economically justifiable. Seem like this article is just a mishmash of old articles written by people who never owned a Yugo, dont know anything about yugos, or who designed its engine. To see mine riding on a tow truck was so humiliating. 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. It eventually developed a bad piston ring(s), and the blow by was enough to clog the carburetor so that it would stop running. Our narrative today is of a modern P.T. During WWII, they built a few Jeeps. The first Mazda was also a kei-car, the R-360. She put about 50,000 miles on it without a problem-it was scrapped when she got rear-ended by a Camry. 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. English tongues tended to read it JUG-oh not a saleable name. Hers are always burned down precisely half an inch, and then we see her lighting a new one from the old one, and realize, yeah, she smokes them only for the first two puffs. They obviously do not run. To be sure, the car was primitive, even by 1980s standards. She claimed that once you knew and understood them, they were not bad cars for what they were. 1. 5 Yugo i know its a rare thing but should we park them together ? After the death of Marshal Tito in 1980, long simmering Balkan feuds became a way of life and continue there to this day. Here, it is well known that you change the timing belt every 40K miles. *shakes tiny fist*. It was so bad we couldnt even get it to start, so we took a few parts off it and then the scrap yard came and took it away. Youre welcome here anytime ! There where lots of Yugo's used in the movie, but this was my favorite scene. He was scarred sh*tless and begging me to not make him drive it. The cars in the movie were provided by Apple Motors in Denver, Colorado. The accident I referenced in my earlier post has adversely affected my overall health (lumbar damage), and Im nowhere near as ready to slide under a car as I used to be. Very well-maintained. Thank you for the history, it complements the story of the car well. } The Yugo became the default entry level car for people that knew the price of everything but the value of nothing. During the time the clutch cable was dying, I broke the shifter mechanism, due to the clutch cable dying. a special for the movie,an extended version,or just my failing memory? 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. He sat in the front seat once and never again! But recycled steel, for whatever reason, is overly prone to corrosion. Neve Campbell was also working on Party of Five (1994) and Scream 3 (2000) while shooting this film. Someone steeped in the maintenace required to keep something like a Trabant running would probably be right at home with a Yugo. 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. 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. The country was communist, but with good relations with the US and a cosmetically overhauled version of socialism, the idea was the Yugoslavia would compete in Western markets and as a result, the country took on a lot of debt throughout the 70s to update its capacity for making consumer goods, among other projects. or all of the Ladas.As has been mentioned already this kind of cheap car ownership This car had one genuine asset: ride quality. 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. Disc #1 -- Drowning Mona Play Feature Chapters Setup 5.1 Surround Stereo English SDH Subtitles: On Subtitles: Off Extras - Trailers Drowning Mona Eye Of The Beholder . 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. She was rather negligent about maintenance, so would have been tough on any vehicle, but her Yugo, like many of its kind, fell apart rather quickly, stressing a budget that was already tight. It was a much more reliable and simple design than the 128 engine in States bound Yugos. I wonder if he actually carried that threat out, and if his daughter ever forgave him if he did. But the little Yugo turned out to be a lot less than the sum of its parts. Kind of reminds me of a first generation Rabbit/Golf, which Ive always considered the gold-standard for the best styled small car. Show more Yugo America. They dumped em, too, as soon as they could afford something, anything, better. 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 . About a year or so into owning the blue one, the clutch cable snapped (in traffic, of course). But like so much of his other stuff, the deal fell through. And it tanked with the critics. Todays story, though, has nothing to do with anybody like that. 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. It would be interesting to see how the rear suspension was beefed up. -You know why Yugo drivers go to heaven? It's got an absolute star studded cast including Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Casey Affleck, William Fitchner, Neve Campbell, Jaime Lee Curtis, with a cameo, and even . My little red Yugo was dead. And that, sadly, is the point and the problem. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Blue in color. Bracket racing, of course. They start, get you to your destination in the dry, and thats about all you can saytheres no enjoyment in operating it and build quality was a joke. But then thats not what most folks are exactly looking for. Comments are property of their authors. 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. But the acquisition by Fiat in 2010 renders all of that as ancient history. Ah yes, I can see it now. Like you can buy a car without a transmition. Old joke. In fact, as it became evident that the Yugo was heading toward failure, Bricklin tried to modify and import the Proton from Malaysia to take advantage of low wage rates and favorable exchange valuations that would have made that car an asian version of the Yugo. 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. On the side fixed windows was lettered YuGo BIG or YuGo HOME. Why did Yugos have standard rear defrost? When the nastiest resident (Bette Midler) of a white-trash Westchester suburb is killed in a suspicious accident, everyone The story involves a local police chief from New York state who is charged with . IIRC, they licensed Fiat designs in the mid 50s and in 2008 they signed a Memorandum of Understanding to buy the auto assembly plant from Zastava. Or inherrent underdog status? I drove the blue one about three more years, but it did have some issues. There was a movie in 2000 entitled Drowning Mona where most of the people in a . The Yugo? But these Yugos aren't just a frivolous component of the storythey're essential to establishing the wacky tone of the film. "She's dead," he confirms to Chief Rash (Danny DeVito), who nods grimly and begins a murder investigation. An older Yugo, since the car hasn't been manufactured since its country went out of business. Bette Midler chops off son's hand. (At the same dealership on the window sticker above,actually). Critically, one of her co-workers loved Fiats, and he taught her their quirks-most of which the Yugo shared. Substandard seatbelt anchors, collapsing seats, hard starting, no starting, the list was endless. 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. I was enrolled in a community class marketing course and the teacher brought up the Yugo, and was joking about it. However, these engines have been known to go 200K with little bearing wear if maintained appropriately. And incompetence does not negate the political reasons, until and unless the failure of management becomes an unavoidable political embarrassment. Kathleen Wilhoite (Lucinda) and Melissa McCarthy (Shirley) appeared on Gilmore Girls (2000). 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. In my Country was make an attempt to import the Yugo Cabrio,rebadged as Innocenti Koral Cabrio,but homologation fiche wasn't approved for Italy,but if car was tested by Italian motor magazines(Italy will import Yugos twice,1986 to 1987 with origin name Zastava Yugo and 1990 to 1992 as Innocenti Koral 45 and 55--that rebadged for our Country), I like this movie. Learn how your comment data is processed. People who took care of some basic maintenance and corrosion protection could see 10 to 15 years of service without too much trouble. The Kei cars, like European microcars in the 1950s and early 60s, made car ownership possible for the masses. 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. The early Japanese cars were not that different from the 360: Junk. Copyright 2011 - 2023 Curbside Classics. A quiet little in-joke indeed, but I mention it so the filmmakers will know their work was not in vain. They would swap in the drivetrain from the Fiat X1/9 and put on the wider wheels tires from the X1/9 also. how did Subaru make the transition from dangerous sardine can to granola FWD/AWD family compact in the US?. I bought it in January because I figured it would be fun to see just how bad it could be. I know there were folks who collected Yugos for nothing, for running and parts cars. Very entertaining. Honestly, I think Zastava should be commended for the amount of engineering they were able to do independently, modifying and developing Fiat cars. })(); Pictures are property of movie companies owner of the respective movies. Enterior wall panels were thin cardboard with painted on carpet flecks. It really has all of the benefits of an Italian car with none of the drawbacks. Introduced at an offer price of just under $1300 , the little Subaru made much of its over 60 MPG fuel economy and low cost of ownership. Early oil changes, followed maintenance schedule. Although it shares some similarities with the Fiat 127, it is actually based on the much more advanced Autobianchi. 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. What a story! We heard of the Yugo here far away in South Africa, but now I know how it all came about and fell apart. Childrens toys are more dependable. 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? It was like, when you get in, what is next to give out or give you trouble. He got two large import operations going and he launched the SV-1. YUGO caps and shirts and other fun car show displays. But theres a difference between an easily-repaired car, and one that needs frequent repairs. 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. Your experience was exactly what my suspicions were about these cars. Drowning Mona | 2000 | PG-13 | - 5.5.5. 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. the building is used several times a month for exclusive private hip-hop dance parties. 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! . Other than the time the clutch cable broke, and getting the electrical issues sorted out, the car spent no time in the shop. 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. Not sure they sold very many. Parts were cheap due to the exchange rate, so there was not the pressure on dealers to deny problems and warranty claims, like Ford and Vauxhall put on their dealers. (Cracked distributor cap, IIRC.) The thing that I remember most was the shifter and the transmission. I think it's worth keeping them separate because it's a in-joke of the film that almost everyone has a Yugo. Yes, even a Saturn will rust in Detroit, but in less harsh climes, Yugos tend to last well. Jeff might have wanted to kill her. I blame the cost-cutters, whove put us in this positionspin the dice wrong, youre buying a new engine. There was something wrong with every single facet of this car. As a rule, Chrysler got worse as the 70s progressed where Ford and particularly GM got better. Ive been around big rigs all of my life, but they never looked bigger than when I was next to them on the freeway. The carpet was very loose fitting and curled up in spots along the edges. Its not unlike the relationship I have with my cockroaches of the road (TM). 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. There are like 100 YUGOs in the movie, which I think came out around 1998. There was a cheap-o daily rental car company that had a fleet of them, and they were in the process of changing out the Yugos for Hyundai Precis. Me and my friend Jerry (from Sam Bonds) drove a Yugo at a wrecker yard in Coburg some years back. I was worried that shed make it. Yes, a Deer. IIRC, when hers finally died, she said that she tried to find another but couldnt. Visit Dealer Website. When they came unglued from rot, there was no there there to support the structure. I would suggest you read Jason Vuics book on the Yugowhat he described the Yugo America advance men as finding, had little to do with shortages of raw materials. Zastava Zastava made Yugos even after they stopped selling in America. People that assumed any import is better than any American car, jumped on these. It took time, development, persuading of management that there WAS a problem (not an easy task in the Japanese culture) but bit by bit, the problems were resolved. [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 find it interesting that visionary vehicles still lists 172 duane st. in tribeca as their headquarters. Jamie Lee Curtis and Neve Campbell are both known as "Final Girls" or "Scream Queens", playing recurring heroines in their respective horror franchise films: Curtis in the "Halloween" franchise and Campbell in the "Scream" franchise--which is loosely based on the "Halloween" mythos. The worst of the Japaneese cars would rust in structural places that would make the car unsafe. 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. who collected Yugos for pennies on the dollar and used the collection as a parts supply to keep ONE of them running. My problem was that I didn't care who killed Mona Dearly, or why, and didn't want to know anyone in town except for Chief Rash and his daughter. In the end, its poor management. Its so interesting to think of how things couldve been different if the country survived Communisms collapse in one peace. Even so, Kei cars remain too small to be accepted by American consumers. France, to use your example, had a protected market with tariffs on American cars (disguised as a horsepower tax). They were not standing still, by any means. I know another-a lifelong car nut, married to another can nut. At least a Suzuki Samurai has a separate frame. 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! It wasnt my intention to advocate poor workmanship on the Yugo, it was all too obvious but i wanted to show that there were also other circumstances involved. In regard to that old devil corrosion, an honest question: were there any cars of the seventies that DIDNT rust like mad? 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. It just flat refused. I wonder why they used the Yugos, To show the towns Quirkyness? How did Danny DeVito die in Drowning Mona? 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. I think I remember this! console.log(window['UnicI'].geo); 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. I knew about their reputation, but I really needed a set of wheels that wasnt going to set me back a couple of thousand dollars. An unavoidable political embarrassment looking for, one of these brand new when they hit the market to share Yugos. 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