When I was living in Montana in 2001, some masochist/crusty old guy was using one as a daily driver and it looked new. And as any living myth, this one spreads into other areas as well: They were true babes in the woods, and they lacked the capital to deal with the investment and the costs of distributing cars. Our narrative today is of a modern P.T. They did not have such a bad reputation,at least not as bad as the rear engined Skodas 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. Worse, it was not just fenders and rocker panels that looked bad but did not affect the way the car drove. Handling is sharp and the engine loves to rev. Further, it was the only small car of the era that could be genuinely fun to drive. The problem is, there's not a single person in town who DIDN'T have a motive. After Mona Dearly (Bette Milder) dies in the movie's opening moments when her Yugo plows through a guardrail and into the Hudson River far below, Wyatt begins investigating her death. 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. Both were sold for more than I paid. Also i believe that the whole project couldnt last very long because Crvena Zastava never had economic strength to satisfy such demanding market, which requires first class quality, excellent dealer network and a newer and bigger model every year, just to stay in business. It is my understanding the latter Yugos were much better than their earlier counterparts, but still not up to snuff with the worst(?) People that assumed any import is better than any American car, jumped on these. ), See all comments about this movie and its vehicles. She put about 50,000 miles on it without a problem-it was scrapped when she got rear-ended by a Camry. My dad is a bit of a FIAT nut so he would wrench on it from time to time. After 330,000km with two Yugos, I must be destined to eternal vacation on BOra-Bora . Thanks for your detailed experience. I put about 20K miles on it per year. finally blown up. 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. An older Yugo, since the car hasn't been manufactured since its country went out of business. Too many people in this country have this mentality that if its cheap, treat it as such and yes, a fulfilled prophesy. I would love to find one of those. Hell, he only paid something like $500 for a beater commuter car and this was in the late 1990s. Before we wrap, lets sort them out. It was a nightmare. This is how Hyundai and Kia got their start and Zastava began doing it earlier. I see one maybe twice a year. . Finallywith a new clutch 400 miles oldit tossed the alternator belt. As far as ethnicity goes, Im Russian by birth, Belarus to be exact, and have that somewhat stocky build to prove it! Although I tested it in the summer, the car sputtered and hesitated like it was cold. She noted that while it wasnt much good past 65MPH (no overdrive), it never got less than 30MPG, and it handled beautifully. In fact, if anything, Americas foreign policy in the 80s encouraged Yugoslavia to manufacture and export finished goods to pay its debts. 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. 1987 brought about several other trims, the GVL, GVS, GVC,which were very similar other than the door panels and seat upholstery. While poor Yugo certainly was not the best car made, but it was hardly the worst either. So there you have it. Jason Vuic details this in his book The Yugo of how management refused plans for premiums for top-grade work or extra effort; of how primitive and shoddy were the paint booths, of how design goofs went uncorrected for years. I mean, cmon, its an Eastern Bloc car. lol, Yugos were marketed in USA 1985 to 1990 by Malcolm Bricklin's vehicle imports Firm. The story involves a local police chief from New York state who is charged with . Bracket racing, of course. There was something wrong with every single facet of this car. The possibility upsets Ellen, who explains in some of the movie's best dialogue: "I can't marry a murderer. It had nervousness built into it, it made people nervous and it was nervous. An accident has happened - the Yugo of one Mona Dearly has careened off the highway and plunged into the Hudson. 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. 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. . I knew a guy in the 90s, who was very smart (the grandson of a Nobel Prize winner in fact!) Of course a $800 car isnt worth shyte to the insurance company, so they gave me a token $1000 for my time and trouble (another story). Various ancillaries like alternators were replaced with real FIAT parts. Actually, the GM B body starting in 1977 was very, very resistant to corrosion. Bowfinger - The main character produced a documentary called The Yugo Story. Then again, Ive always had a liking for the odd car or two over the years. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. France, to use your example, had a protected market with tariffs on American cars (disguised as a horsepower tax). But that's a whole other story.") 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. 1. No parts fell off of it, the car generally was in good condition (other than some stains on the seats that I didnt care to speculate about). What is the purpose of door release handles if they break right away (they appeared to be bendable plastic molded around a paper clip), and how did they ever get installed in the first place if they didnt work to begin with? 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. I think I remember this! 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. Very easy installation 15 t0 20 minutes. The two-door chassis is, I understand, a 127. It just flat refused. Your experience was exactly what my suspicions were about these cars. It eventually developed a bad piston ring(s), and the blow by was enough to clog the carburetor so that it would stop running. 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. Fuji was pretty well aware that the car wasnt suitable for America circa 1969. 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. there used to be a sign on the front that said visionary vehicles but that came down at least two years ago. 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. The engine in mine was the old fiat 903 engine that dated back to the Fiat 600 of the 50s. 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. Im guessing the sport badging is why the decimal point is so far to the right? 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). In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. I probably still have it somewhere. The early Japanese cars were not that different from the 360: Junk. Lucinda (Kathleen Wilhoite), the local garage mechanic, checks out the death vehicle and confirms the sheriff's suspicions: The car was rigged. . Dubrovnik is kind of old fashion place with somewhat stricter rules about dressing on the beaches and elsewhere. But who? Before I moved to Atlanta in the early 90s, we sold off our other cars before moving. after about 30 years of having the car rust off of the frame. But they were cheap! } Trivia: Theres a fellow in the NorCal chapter of The Fiat Club first names Dan, I think who owns a pristine Yugo in a burnt orange color. YUGO caps and shirts and other fun car show displays. Like you can buy a car without a transmition. When the nastiest resident (Bette Midler) of a white-trash Westchester suburb is killed in a suspicious accident, everyone One of the sight gags is that everyone in town drives a Yugo, thereby using personalized license plates as a necessity more than anything else.) They are also heavily used rather than background or minor action vehicles. I saw this movie. Back in 87, a cheerleader at my high school won one of these in a raffle. Im affiliated with NECC Motorsports, a club that runs time trials at various sports car racing tracks in the eastern half of the USA. She picked them up for virtually nothing and was content with bare-bones transportation. 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. Not a bit ! The Yugo was a far superior car compared against a Chevette, or first generation Hyundai. Drowning Mona 2000 (PG-13)Strident comedy about the low-IQ denizens of small town Verplanck, New York, where everybody still drives a Yugo (the town was a test market). Had Bricklin given the tooling to the Koreans, and had it built to their standards under contracthed have had what he wanted. 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. Yes you read that right. http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_113306-Plymouth-Horizon-C2-1984.html setTimeout(waitGEO, 200); With the pullout of Fiat, Renault and the British makes just a few years before,. All Rights Reserved. if (!readyGEO) { These rear engined devices were a blast to drive, with tail-out shenanigans a-la Porsche 911 being easy to emulate. Its avoidable with regular replacement, true. I didnt mind helping friends and neighbor with problems they had with their cars. The worst of the Japaneese cars would rust in structural places that would make the car unsafe. At the very least, Bricklin didnt end up in a hotel room trying to arrange drug deals. Ive heard that by 1989, Malcolm Bricklin was kicked out and Zastava took over importing the cars to the US and made a substantial series of changes/improvements and the cars then came with fuel injection, the GV, GVL, GVC, and GVS and the sportier GVX were combined into one car, the GV Plus fitted with better seats (the fold and slide seats from the GVX), the larger 1.3L 4, the 5spd in a more basic interior and exterior trim package, adding the AC etc and Bosh fuel injection and I hear from Chris Vitale who runs Fiat 500 USA blog who owned a 1991 Yugo with FI until a couple of years or so ago that by then, their warranty claims were very good, but the war took its toll as did the emissions debacle in 1992 brought the cars run in the US to an end. I saw one on the F4 so they did sell one.Those were a Polish Fiat 500 updated Just rubbish. I was scarred for her to be driving it. Childrens toys are more dependable. 2. The last Yugo that we would recognize rolled off the assembly line in November 2008. She wrote something like, How cute, Ill be Lelo in her Yugo.. That salty New England slush had its way with everything. It really has all of the benefits of an Italian car with none of the drawbacks. Show more Yugo America. He was rather sad that after 170,000 miles it had In The Film, for some inexplicable reason, everyone who lives in the Catskill area towns seems to drive a YUGO. 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(?) 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. The steel is much thicker than Fiat used, and although fit and finish wasnt great, it was no worse than on a Fiat. We learn that Verplanck was selected as a test market when the Yugo was being introduced to the United States. State ownership is generally coupled to some sort of coersion, such as a penalty tax on other makes. Although it shares some similarities with the Fiat 127, it is actually based on the much more advanced Autobianchi. Here, it is well known that you change the timing belt every 40K miles. It has been a while since I have seen a Yugo on the road, but a local car wash has one with signs mounted on it. Im pretty sure that she kept her clothes on. \"Drowning Mona\" is bad . GM had tried to buy Zastava in 2007, but the deal fell through. 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. No argument with the political details of your well made point. I also started using Restore engine treatment, and that took care of that issue. The biggest thing Ive heard was the timing belts were supposedly good for 30K miles and many owners were caught off guard, mostly due to not reading and/or heeding the maintenance intervals and boom, they croaked as they were not non interference motors like most OHC motors arent. I knew I wasnt buying a Lexus. Why did Yugos have standard rear defrost? 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! With the pullout of Fiat, Renault and the British makes just a few years before, there was a general sense that room existed in the market for any european nameplate that could build a reasonably priced car that returned good fuel economy and high build quality. Secondly, I would be one of those people who had a good experience with a Yugo. 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