Dealers there are order-takers. 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. Copyright 2011 - 2023 Curbside Classics. Two YUGO watches, new. During lunch the high schoolers came out and lifted it up so the front tires were up on the sidewalk. (* 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). 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. Though set in Verplanck, "Drowning Mona" was shot entirely within an hour's commute of Los Angeles. The problems with Audisare RELATIVE to other brands; and RELATIVE to past experiences. 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. France, to use your example, had a protected market with tariffs on American cars (disguised as a horsepower tax). The story involves a local police chief from New York state who is charged with . This, the paring of weight, was even evident in Japanese trucks. Yeah, theres no question on really poor build quality. Your experience was exactly what my suspicions were about these cars. I also started using Restore engine treatment, and that took care of that issue. We learn that Verplanck was selected as a test market when the Yugo was being introduced to the United States. alignments. . Someone around my area with a perverse sense of humor drove a Yugo stretch limo for a few years, those being about 20 years ago. I may know the only satisfied Yugo owner in the U.S. after about 30 years of having the car rust off of the frame. DROWNING MONA 1/2 Tasteless but sporadically uproarious black comedy. Film Focus: Drowning Mona. Tracey Walter appeared in the original Tim Burton Batman, Danny DeVito appeared as The Penguin in Batman Returns and William Fichtner appeared in The Dark Knight. I also have to say that state ownership does not always lead to poor business. What kind of car is in the movie Drowning Mona? Now they are all scared by digital cameras and this are just some memories from the other side of the iron curtain. This is the real reason that Yugo failed in the US- a poor dealer network. The Little SuBARu Wow!, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLPp-NFInXw. Do not sell my data It just flat refused. Very easy installation 15 t0 20 minutes. Generally what kills them is the cost of major systems repairs, to where its not economically justifiable. That's not what I'm about." The result is that the UK Yugo was a far superior car to the US one, with its dealership network out to make a quick buck. Also, the GM Colonades from 73-77 were pretty rust resistant as well. An accident has happened - the Yugo of one Mona Dearly has careened off the highway and plunged into the Hudson. 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. Old joke. 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.) Too many people in this country have this mentality that if its cheap, treat it as such and yes, a fulfilled prophesy. That said, the most maintenance I did on the car(s) were oil changes and other mundane regular maintenance. They were incredibly simple mechanically. @Zackman: No the real experience was driving that thing in Atlanta rush hour traffic at 80+ MPH. I recall A caddy dealer in the Cleveland area who gave away a free Yugo with the purchase of a Cadillac! 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. (As you said JustPassinThru). Even in Western Europe, cars arent marketed as they are here. The character name, Wyatt Rash, was intentionally chosen by writer, Peter Steinfeld, to reflect the underlying premise of the movie -- said fast enough, it sounds like yup, White Trash! i find it interesting that visionary vehicles still lists 172 duane st. in tribeca as their headquarters. Honestly, I think Zastava should be commended for the amount of engineering they were able to do independently, modifying and developing Fiat cars. Danny DeVito (Chief Wyatt Rash) and Tracey Walter (Clarence) appeared in Matilda (1996). I know of no explanation for the garbage experience my dad had with his Audi, which broke down regularly. 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. The Tipo 145 was developed in the early 1970s (IIRC), and it showed. As noted, Bricklin first noticed the subcompact Yugo on the streets of London and within a couple of months, he had set up his first meet and greet with the management at Zastava . 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. 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. I was only ten, but knew they were junk. 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. 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. 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. 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. @Jeff Nelson: I think youre a bit dismissive of Zastava, they have been around for quite some time. Secondly, I would be one of those people who had a good experience with a Yugo. At that time, Bricklin was probably best known for the eponymous car that he launched amidst much fanfare in 1974. 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. Bricklins old nemesis Consumer Reports weighed in on the cars many shortcomings in its February 1986 issue and refused to recommend it at any price. Perhaps they were sabotaged so the poor workers wouldnt have to slave to make them for america? She noted that while it wasnt much good past 65MPH (no overdrive), it never got less than 30MPG, and it handled beautifully. 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. 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. Drowning Mona Trailer - Yugo Cars 7,448 views May 7, 2014 The NZ Yugo 1.66K subscribers 26 Dislike Share In Drowning Mona everyone drives Yugo Cars and one day Mona borrows her sons. 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. In the end, its poor management. Someone steeped in the maintenace required to keep something like a Trabant running would probably be right at home with a Yugo. . Source for information on Drowning Mona: VideoHound's Golden Movie . 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. The Italian Government and the Unions forced Fiat to cooperate. I think that was true of most of the Japanese automakers the early passenger cars evolved from tiny commercial trucks and three-wheelers, sharing engines with motorcycles. 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. lol, Yugos were marketed in USA 1985 to 1990 by Malcolm Bricklin's vehicle imports Firm. In 1969, Subaru started producing a larger, much more traditional (well, mostly) car, the 1000. Very well-maintained. As it turns out, the same rental car place was STILL selling surplus Yugos, and I bought a blue one this time. Had Bricklin given the tooling to the Koreans, and had it built to their standards under contracthed have had what he wanted. I owned one. 500 left in running condition? Kathleen Wilhoite (Lucinda) and Melissa McCarthy (Shirley) appeared on Gilmore Girls (2000). NO. Nuff said? My guess is that many of his critics could not have done as much. I knew a guy in the 90s, who was very smart (the grandson of a Nobel Prize winner in fact!) Show more Yugo America. 1) Wise observation that Yugoslavia needed hard currency (without which it could not import needed consumer or industrial goods) during those years. Only other thing it needed to be roadworthy was front tires. It cut costs, and as was the concern then (as now) it was Green using the parlance of today. This article, like many here, evoked some fond memories. The worst of the Japaneese cars would rust in structural places that would make the car unsafe. I recall taking my younger brother out to teach him how to drive. With a State-owned automobile plant, management is there for political reasons which may have nothing to do with competence. You are my inhalation, I own few blogs and infrequently run out from brand :). a special for the movie,an extended version,or just my failing memory? var readyGEO; The other Eastern European lemon sold in Australia at the same time as the Niki was the Lada Samara. The local news interveiwed some and they were going for $4000 Id end up with used junk, but now I got a new import!. Well, as they say, two out of three aint bad. Zastava took over the American company. You know, we have a joke here in ex-Yugoslavia about Yugo: First of all, thanks to Perry Shoar for a very well written explanation of the events of the 70s and 80s that led to the meltdown of Yugoslavia. or all of the Ladas.As has been mentioned already this kind of cheap car ownership And management, often put there through politics, has little interest in learning of customer dissatisfaction. Since my father was born in Vukovar and some of our family still lives in Croatia it was of great interest to me. The New Brunswick government pulled the plug in September of 1975 and the Bricklin was finished. He was a statistician in the War Department who became interested in using statistical controls to produce higher-quality manufactured goods. I've owned so many other cars so why not? Sure some of the plastic trim was suspect, but dont forget that GM was still doing rubbermaid doors then, and the Japanese were still stapling vinyl over cardboard for door trims. The Yugo became the default entry level car for people that knew the price of everything but the value of nothing. I would love to find one of those. A revised constitution in the mid 70s turned the country into a loose confederation and as Croatia/Slovenia were more developed due to being part of Austria Hungary, there was only so much that approx thirty years of prosperity after WWII could reverse. There were surely other goofs that were institutionalized. 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 the very least, Bricklin didnt end up in a hotel room trying to arrange drug deals. Mona Dearly: Yeah? Likewise the Toyotas and Datsuns. My BIL and I popped out the axles, but that was more of a preventative move, rather than a necessity. Actually, the GM B body starting in 1977 was very, very resistant to corrosion. (Eagleburger had been U.S. ambassador to Yugoslvia and had spent almost all of his foreign service career in southeast europe. Every vehicle in town that is not a truck is a Yugo, except the police cruisers, which are Plymouth Horizons. Of course, as pointed out, it was more probable that hed have put the company out of business, too. and lso two Horizon ? If youre familiar with the descent of that once-vaunted company into its current sorry state, appears as if they had too many of this type in management. Ford was really hit and miss the Granada was horrible, but the Lincoln Town Cars and Mark Vs were pretty good against the tinworm. 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). Mine was still only about a year old, so I was in denial about its performance. Ive got a couple of rusted out British cars one of which I repaired The rust was caused by poor window sealing on both water rusted it way out however the spares one was driven full of rust which spread it all through the unpainted box sections. 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. . (https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2009/jan/14/cover/#) But then my wife (of all people) found a Yugo for $800. } Its essentially a Fiat, and the same thing applied to them. This car had one genuine asset: ride quality. But then thats not what most folks are exactly looking for. Drowning Mona is a 2000 American crime comedy film starring Danny DeVito as Wyatt Rash, a local police chief from Verplanck, New York, who investigates the mysterious death of Mona Dearly ( Bette Midler ), a spiteful, hard-drinking, loud-mouthed, abusive woman, hated by all who knew her, who drove her son's car off a cliff and drowned in a river. We learn that Verplanck was selected as a test market when the Yugo was being introduced to the United States. As for the FloridaBricklin was itching to bring it in. The effort collapsed along with Yugo sales in America. In this black comedy, everyone in a small town becomes a suspect when a much-despised woman not-so-accidentally drives her Yugo off a cliff. 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. Enterior wall panels were thin cardboard with painted on carpet flecks. No argument with the political details of your well made point. Your email address will not be published. Another factor was that Subaru managed to kick Bricklin out on the street and take over distribution and marketing before he ran it into the ground. 500 Yugo cabrio were imported to the States. } That brochures more collectible than its car. 2. See production, box office & company info, Siskel & Ebert: Drowning Mona/My Dog Skip/What Planet Are You From?/The Next Best Thing/Miss Julie. Except that the belt managed to get into the TIMING BELT caseand pop THAT off. He was rather sad that after 170,000 miles it had Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, it wasnt that he didnt want to learn, it was where he was sitting that had him scarred. I think we need to re-evaluate the Yugo against 1986 standards instead of 2011 standards. I owned two. Why are there so many Yugo in this movie? The cars WERE crap, you concede; and uncompetitive in a world market. What kind of sicko lives there? With the pullout of Fiat, Renault and the British makes just a few years before,. 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. I probably still have it somewhere. 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. She is a bit of a contrarian anyhow, and has a mechanic-relative. If Germany had built it, would it have been called the Germ? During the time the clutch cable was dying, I broke the shifter mechanism, due to the clutch cable dying. 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. But there was one area that, frankly, I was impressed with, and that was the basic two-box design. As I understand it, Zastiva had the Yugo designed that way as its plan was, from the beginning, to export the car. One day I put the key in and nothing happened, it was dead and wouldnt turn on. His last notable brush with the automotive world (in 2004) involved a vague alliance with (uh-oh) Chinese auto maker Chery. Yes it was 3990 excluding transmition and tax and delivery charges. I remember seeing new Yugos at the (I think 1990) Chicago Auto Show. All four brake drums were tampered with, the brake fluid was drained, and the perp also drained some other fluids just to be on the safe side. And if it WAS done, thats $500 WASTED. as long as you didnt try to get away with normal American car owner maintenance. 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. The civil war in the former Yugoslavia was the finishing blow, but wasnt the reason it wasnt brought over. It couldnt be trusted just sitting in the parking lot. Warranty claims were dreadful. 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. 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. In fact, if anything, Americas foreign policy in the 80s encouraged Yugoslavia to manufacture and export finished goods to pay its debts. It helps to understand that everyone in Verplanck is dim to one degree or another, except for the Rash family. The 71-76 GM full-sizers were better than average on this count. Im trying to remember, she actually, may have owned two of them. But of course, a parking lot fender bender would be enough to total these cars. Since mine had been in a rental fleet, it was actually pretty well taken care of, it had an OK aftermarket radio and A/C. Purchased one year old cars for less than $1500 while attending college. So we come to the end of the Yugo saga in America. But outside of regular tourist routes and specially on the outer islands, unofficial nude beaches were everywhere. In the beginning they had some brief text ( "Years ago, the Yugo Car Company chose Verplanck, New York, to test market its new breed of vehicle. So there you have it. Or maybe Bobby (Casey Affleck), Jeff's landscaping partner, killed her to save the embarrassment of having her create a scene at his wedding to Ellen (Neve Campbell), Chief Rash's daughter. But they were cheap! 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. 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 process, alone, of a car manufacturer as a unit of government, is suspect. I guess this is so the company could find out how the car is before releasing it to the general public. For my family and me back in the eighties, fuel economy was king, so I drove K-Cars and assorted used vehicles that were cheap we never really struggled, but cash and monetary resources were scarce, hence my missing out on the larger, more deluxe offerings of GM, Ford and Chrysler. But the reason it hit the Japanese cars harderwas that while many American cars were still frame-on-platform, and had some beef in the underbellyand even the unibody models were over-engineered for rigiditythe Japanese models had pared weight and beef to a minimum. 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. View 9 images The first year all those repairs were paid for, so it wasnt as miserable then. The battery required water to be poured into it.

10 Gorgeous Retreats Perfect For A Quiet Reading Weekend, Articles D