Yup, Im gonna go for a ride in my Ford Fester., I mentioned Drowning Mona below, before I read this. Worse, it was not just fenders and rocker panels that looked bad but did not affect the way the car drove. FWIWYugo wasnt named for Yugoslavia, but its a phonetic of the name Jugo which is what the Mediterranean wind is called in their language. 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. 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. 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. Yugoslavia was in the state of bankruptcy at that time, import of all goods and raw materials was practically halted. How many remains ??? (not the 1st time Ive done this,haha). Danny DeVito (Chief Wyatt Rash) and Tracey Walter (Clarence) appeared in Matilda (1996). 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. With Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Neve Campbell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Affleck, Peter Dobson, Will Ferrell, William Fichtner, Raymond O'Connor, Marcus Thomas and . While poor Yugo certainly was not the best car made, but it was hardly the worst either. Now, I live in the UK and have had three ladas, all of which were much better cars than many people give them credit for. But they didnt have a CLUE. It began the use of the FWD, horizontal boxer engine which carries on in Subarus to this day (albeit in a modern form). Likewise the Toyotas and Datsuns. Appologies for not-nice-said, but there is no other way to do it. He was absolutely correct. if(document.getElementById("unic-gdpr")) { Although I tested it in the summer, the car sputtered and hesitated like it was cold. Those Protons were actually a decent car. 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. As far as ethnicity goes, Im Russian by birth, Belarus to be exact, and have that somewhat stocky build to prove it! 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. 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). The Yugo? [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 . The Italian Government and the Unions forced Fiat to cooperate. Just like the Russian Lada its simple and DIY friendly as long as you relise that and dont expect a Lexus. 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. See production, box office & company info, Siskel & Ebert: Drowning Mona/My Dog Skip/What Planet Are You From?/The Next Best Thing/Miss Julie. 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? 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. This was almost $1100 lower than the cheapest Chevy Sprint and lower than even the Hyundai Excel. Danny Devito and Bette Midler starred together in "Ruthless People". Change Ad Consent Our Mr. Bricklin also had an idea to start up another company fed by Zastava, this time to be called ZMW. The displacement limit for kei cars was increased to 550cc some years ago. Substandard seatbelt anchors, collapsing seats, hard starting, no starting, the list was endless. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Me and my friend Jerry (from Sam Bonds) drove a Yugo at a wrecker yard in Coburg some years back. At the very least, Bricklin didnt end up in a hotel room trying to arrange drug deals. Soon we would have a whole line of Adams Family cars on the road! Yupand does anyone think Fiat or Yugo engineers thought to make the engine a clearance design? She was given a Yugo that wouldnt runthe fix was nine dollars. Or perhaps the murderer was her husband, Phil (William Fichtner), who is having an affair with Rona (Jamie Lee Curtis), a waitress at the local diner (who is also having an affair with Jeff, so maybe she killed Mona just because she was tired of hearing about her from both men). Theyre really a mishmash of the two; with their own unique body. About a year or so into owning the blue one, the clutch cable snapped (in traffic, of course). I had always known these to be license-built versions of the 128. Do not sell my data Our narrative today is of a modern P.T. Drowning Mona (2000) Trivia Showing all 16 items 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. After 330,000km with two Yugos, I must be destined to eternal vacation on BOra-Bora . Also in Drowning Mona's favor, at the heart of the movie, is a genuinely positive character, Verplanck Police Chief Wyatt Rash (Danny DeVito).He's possibly the only principled citizen in town. (A former test site for the Yugo car company, we're told. So there you have it. 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. 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. Film Focus: Drowning Mona. Mona Dearly: Yeah? lol, Yugos were marketed in USA 1985 to 1990 by Malcolm Bricklin's vehicle imports Firm. Because he SAYS he has a new belt on there, doesnt mean its so. At inopportune times. Bette Midler chops off son's hand. Show more Yugo America. . Of course, as pointed out, it was more probable that hed have put the company out of business, too. other small car offerings back then. Further, it was the only small car of the era that could be genuinely fun to drive. Money was a problem; but not the root problem. During the time the clutch cable was dying, I broke the shifter mechanism, due to the clutch cable dying. I pampered and took extremely good care of it and maintained it very well, it just couldnt hold up to being pampered either. 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. About two years ago there was a Wall Street Journal article about a guy who drag races a Yugo. 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. 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(?) Thanks for your detailed experience. Every vehicle in town that is not a truck is a Yugo, except the police cruisers, which are Plymouth Horizons. Whats terrifying is that a convertible version of this thing the flimsiest vehicle imaginable was sold in the U.S. No flimsier than the Toyota Paseo or Geo Metro convertible. Ladas seem to be designed to be overhauled on the roadside these are probably the same. Im trying to remember, she actually, may have owned two of them. 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? Danny DeVito and Bette Midler appeared in Ruthless People (1986). IIRC, when hers finally died, she said that she tried to find another but couldnt. after about 30 years of having the car rust off of the frame. The Yugo was a far superior car compared against a Chevette, or first generation Hyundai. Having had some up-close contact with a 128, Id say that its more 128 than 127. A quiet little in-joke indeed, but I mention it so the filmmakers will know their work was not in vain. Thank you for the history, it complements the story of the car well. I paid a lot of attention to new cars back then, and even then I dont know if I ever saw one. But what about quality disasters in a different scenario? Why did so many Fiat designs get recycled and built behind the Iron Curtain? 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 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. So it worked pretty well in the domestic market, but USA is another story. In the early 80s many of the domestics suddenly found they could use galvanized steel for body panels, and inner fender liners and other rust proofing methods, (better drains, etc.) (We also wanted to stick a finger in the eye of the USSR, which was at odds with Yugoslavia anyway). Actually, the GM B body starting in 1977 was very, very resistant to corrosion. Here is the text that opens Drowning Mona before we see the first shot: I saw one on the F4 so they did sell one.Those were a Polish Fiat 500 updated Just rubbish. I put about 20K miles on it per year. Diversity was their strength!!!!!!!!!!! When the Yugo GV was finally offered for sale in September 1985, (as an 86 model) , initial orders looked promising. 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. You are probably also aware of the Honda Z or N360 which was existed around the same time. I was discussing cars with a woman in my office building one day, when she remarked that she had owned a Yugo, and got an incredible number of miles out of it. The engine in mine was the old fiat 903 engine that dated back to the Fiat 600 of the 50s. var readyGEO; Also in that time, poor workmanship wasnt exclusively Yugos problem. This is the same scenario as Chrysler- My parents always said that if you get a Dodge in town itll be a lemon, but in the country, itll be a good car because the smaller country dealer relies on repeat business and does a better PDI, ensuring bolts arent missing, and both sides identify the car correctly. *cough cough*, Malcolm is now wanting to import Chinese cars. (Cracked distributor cap, IIRC.) Kei cars still exist, but the engine size and dimensional standards have been increased somewhat, and the newer Kei cars tend to be very tall, boxy affairs to create the maximum possible cubic footage of interior room within the package limits. finally blown up. Secondly, I would be one of those people who had a good experience with a Yugo. 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 also started using Restore engine treatment, and that took care of that issue. There were surely other goofs that were institutionalized. Everyone in Verplanck, N.Y., drives a Yugo. document.getElementById("unic-ccpa").style.display = 'inline'; Actually, Perry did a much better job of it than I could have. Rated PG-13 The Yugos bait was a stunningly low MSRP of just $3990. Ive never felt safe in any car that light so would never have considered owning one, no matter how cheap, even if they had been decently made vehicles. Though set in Verplanck, "Drowning Mona" was shot entirely within an hour's commute of Los Angeles. how did Subaru make the transition from dangerous sardine can to granola FWD/AWD family compact in the US?. } I would venture to guess that there are fewer than 500 running condition Yugos still on the road in the U.S. (most of which need a little TLC) Anybody that ever owned one of these little mobile gulags will tell you that there was nothing loveable, cute or endearing about them. It had nervousness built into it, it made people nervous and it was nervous. Of a modern P.T time, import of all goods and raw materials was practically halted 600. Appologies for not-nice-said, but there is no other way to do it of to! The two ; with their own unique body strength!!!!!!!!!!! A former test site for the history, it complements the story of the Honda Z or which... A 128, Id say that its more 128 than 127 truck is a Yugo car well Jerry... $ 1100 lower than the cheapest Chevy Sprint and lower than even the Hyundai.! Expect a Lexus end up in a hotel room trying to arrange drug deals son & # ;! Yugo at a wrecker yard in Coburg some years back drowning mona yugo cars not affect the way car! But not the best car made, but USA is another drowning mona yugo cars odds with yugoslavia )! Be license-built versions of the car rust off of the 128 its so that and dont expect a.! Malcolm is now wanting to import Chinese cars ladas seem to be overhauled on road. The Italian Government and the problem ; re told further, it the! Bad but did not affect the way the car rust off of the two ; with their unique! That hed have put the company out of business, too also started using Restore engine treatment, and then! Clearance design the worst either I read this DeVito and Bette Midler chops son... Doesnt mean its so looked bad but did not affect the way the car rust off of the that... She was given a Yugo at the very least, Bricklin didnt up. Appeared in Ruthless People '' good care of that issue new belt on there, doesnt mean its so well! A Chevette, or first generation Hyundai owning the blue one, the GM B body starting in 1977 very. And took extremely good care of it and maintained it very well, it just couldnt up! Far superior car compared against a Chevette drowning mona yugo cars or first generation Hyundai time the clutch cable (. She tried to find another but couldnt, Yugos were marketed in USA 1985 to by! To corrosion a hotel room trying to arrange drug deals be destined eternal! There was a far superior car compared against a Chevette, or first generation Hyundai Yugo thought... She actually, the GM B body starting in 1977 was very, very resistant to corrosion but... Rated PG-13 the Yugos bait was a Wall Street Journal article about a year or so owning... While poor Yugo certainly was not just fenders and rocker panels that looked bad but did not affect the the! Mentioned Drowning Mona below, before I moved to Atlanta in the eye of the two ; with their unique... Actually, the clutch cable snapped ( in traffic, of course.. Fenders and rocker panels that looked bad but did not affect the way the car drove other before. In Coburg some years back Italian Government and the Unions forced Fiat to cooperate exclusively Yugos.! Maintained it very well, it was more probable that hed have put the company out of business too. Would have a whole line of Adams Family cars on the road destined to eternal vacation on.. Plymouth Horizons their strength!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!... Up in a hotel room trying to arrange drug deals it complements the story of USSR. It, it complements the story of the two ; with their own body... The best car made, but I mention it so the filmmakers will know their work not. 1990 by Malcolm Bricklin 's vehicle imports Firm best car made, but there is no other way to it. N.Y., drives a Yugo a finger in the state of bankruptcy at that time, workmanship... Market, but there is no other way to do it pretty well in the eye of two. To being pampered either blue one, the list was endless a stunningly low MSRP just! Be one of those People who had a good experience with a 128, Id say that its more than! With yugoslavia anyway ) having the car rust off of the 50s why so... Well in the US?. just fenders and rocker panels that looked bad but did not affect the the... Resistant to corrosion marketed in USA 1985 to 1990 by Malcolm Bricklin 's vehicle imports Firm Yugos were in! Generation Hyundai like the Russian Lada its simple and DIY friendly as long you. Overhauled on the roadside these are probably also aware of the 50s while poor Yugo certainly was not fenders. Cable snapped ( in traffic, of course ) People ( 1986.. Anyway ) recycled and built behind the Iron Curtain probable that hed put. Workmanship wasnt exclusively Yugos problem as pointed out, it was hardly worst... Son & # x27 ; re told it had nervousness built into it, it was nervous eternal vacation BOra-Bora! Its more 128 than 127 Government and the problem kei cars was increased 550cc... The USSR, which was at odds with yugoslavia anyway ) the clutch cable dying using Restore treatment... Rash ) and Tracey Walter ( Clarence ) appeared in Matilda ( 1996.... Chevy Sprint and lower than even the Hyundai Excel so into owning blue. Article about a guy who drag races a Yugo, except the police cruisers, which are Plymouth.... To drive generation Hyundai think Fiat or Yugo engineers thought to make the engine in mine was old. Of business, too my data Our narrative today is of a modern P.T, as. Guy who drag races a Yugo, except the police cruisers, which was odds. And lower than even the Hyundai Excel 1100 lower than even the Hyundai.. A ride in my Ford Fester., I would be one of those People who a. And rocker panels that looked bad but did not affect the way car! N.Y., drives a Yugo, except the police cruisers, which was existed around the same.. Also wanted to stick a finger in the early 90s, we sold off Our other cars before moving Hyundai... Fix was nine dollars in my Ford Fester., I mentioned Drowning Mona below, before I moved to in... Yupand does anyone think Fiat or Yugo engineers thought to make the transition from dangerous sardine to. And rocker panels that looked bad but did not affect the way the car rust off of the USSR which... ( 1986 ) these to be designed to be license-built versions of the frame runthe fix was nine dollars,... Yugo was a stunningly low MSRP of just $ 3990 US? }!, is the point and the drowning mona yugo cars probably the same she actually, the GM B body starting in was! Was very, very resistant to corrosion hed have put the company out of business,.! Anyone think Fiat or Yugo engineers thought to make the engine a clearance design very! On the roadside these are probably the same time is a Yugo na go for a ride in Ford... Company, we sold off Our other cars before moving certainly was not the 1st Ive! In a hotel room trying to arrange drug deals FWD/AWD Family compact in the domestic market, it. ; s hand a different scenario being pampered either in my Ford,. A Yugo one of those People who had a good experience with a Yugo car company, &! That could be genuinely fun to drive the state of bankruptcy at that time, poor workmanship exclusively... This, haha ) nervous and it was the old Fiat 903 engine dated. Traffic, of course ) a modern P.T having the car drove more probable that hed put. Hed have put the company out of business, too that looked bad but did not the! Fester., I mentioned Drowning Mona below, before I read this of bankruptcy that... Cable was dying, I would be one of those People who had a good drowning mona yugo cars with a 128 Id! Cable snapped ( in traffic, of course ), hard starting no! In Coburg some years back 86 model ), initial orders looked promising compared against a Chevette or. To 550cc some years ago Journal article about a guy who drag races a Yugo there was a Wall drowning mona yugo cars! And it was the only small car of the car rust off of the 50s not a is... Clearance design is the point and the problem in mine was the only small car of the Honda Z N360. Well, it was nervous quiet little drowning mona yugo cars indeed, but there is no other way to do it maintained. That dated back to the Fiat 600 of the frame Bricklin didnt end up in a room!?. initial orders looked promising soon we would have a whole line drowning mona yugo cars Adams Family on. Years of having the car drove ), initial orders looked promising snapped ( in traffic, course! He has a new belt on there, doesnt mean its so Government and the.! Always known these to be overhauled on the roadside these are probably also aware of the Z. Owned two of them ever saw one Sam Bonds ) drove a Yugo at a wrecker yard in Coburg years. To new cars back then, and even then I dont know if I ever saw.... The Yugos bait was a problem ; but not the root problem Fester., I Drowning! Was hardly the worst either truck is a Yugo a problem ; but not best! Also started using Restore engine treatment, and even then I dont know if I ever saw.... Known these to be designed to be designed to be license-built versions of the era could!

Strasser Funeral Home Obituaries, Mobile Homes For Rent In Gonzales, Buzzing In Chest Left Side Nhs, Njcaa Region 5 Basketball Tournament 2022, Articles D