Thanks for your first hand account ! I have often wondered why Bricklin didnt try to make a ploy for the tooling to be set up in a higher quality shop. Of course, not wanting to be associated with alleged members of the alleged Romanian Mafia, Bently pulled out. Only with the threat of armed intervention by Nato and the UN is an uneasy peace maintained. Comments are property of their authors. When the Yugo GV was finally offered for sale in September 1985, (as an 86 model) , initial orders looked promising. He was rather sad that after 170,000 miles it had Id actually like to have another one, but beef it up with Fiat parts. (We also wanted to stick a finger in the eye of the USSR, which was at odds with Yugoslavia anyway). The philosophy behind Drowning Mona is not good clean fun, or even intelligent nasty fun. Renault has been in state ownership since the 50s, and has been a very profitable company. Subaru was just a little behind the curve in terms of design and safetyas befits a smaller company. But they didnt have a CLUE. There was something wrong with every single facet of this car. Ive talked to other people in the UK who bought them new, and many have had more than one. The Yugos bait was a stunningly low MSRP of just $3990. . 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. Ive always had a soft spot for these little cars from Yugoslavia. The displacement limit for kei cars was increased to 550cc some years ago. And when longtime resident Mona Dearly (BETTE MIDLER) drove her Yugo into the river to her death, no one really seemed to care. One of my dads friends had one of these. Why are there so many Yugo in this movie? Had Bricklin been a true industrialist instead of a con-man, the winning idea might have been to buy out the Yugo tooling (Zastava was setting up for the Florida at the time, they might have been open to this) and moved the whole plant to a place where workmen were conscientious and quality control accepted. Complete with opera lamps and padded roof. There are like 100 YUGOs in the movie, which I think came out around 1998. 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. @EdDan: How do you double the value of your Yugo? } There was a dealer in Denver Colorado, called Apple Motors, who used to sell warmed up Yugos. Could not resist seeing what a piece of crap would look like with no tin on the top. But the little Yugo turned out to be a lot less than the sum of its parts. There were surely other goofs that were institutionalized. In fact, if anything, Americas foreign policy in the 80s encouraged Yugoslavia to manufacture and export finished goods to pay its debts. She claimed that once you knew and understood them, they were not bad cars for what they were. In fact, it was through the good offices of Lawrence Eagleburger that all of the political red tape was navigated in order to make the project feasible. 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. Any idea where the Fiat 128 stopped and the 127 started in the Yugo? Now that its privatized, products have risen in quality to what the buyer expects for his money. 2004-2023 IMCDb.org Managed by Controgest SPRL He sat in the front seat once and never again! During lunch the high schoolers came out and lifted it up so the front tires were up on the sidewalk. 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. Almost everyone in town is a suspect. 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. She wrote something like, How cute, Ill be Lelo in her Yugo.. And, with such an unsatisfying ending and its inability to capitalize on a potentially funny situation, it's a film that you probably shouldn't rush to see on DVD. \"Drowning Mona\" is bad . 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. http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_113306-Plymouth-Horizon-C2-1984.html 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. (Eagleburger had been U.S. ambassador to Yugoslvia and had spent almost all of his foreign service career in southeast europe. Mona, played by Midler, drowns when the brakes in her Yugo fail and she catapults through a guardrail into the lake below. I put about 20K miles on it per year. 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. 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. The Yugos are a literal running joke throughout the movie. 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. It failed, of all places, on the Bonneville salt flats area in Utah. Zastava took over the American company. At least a Suzuki Samurai has a separate frame. Also in that time, poor workmanship wasnt exclusively Yugos problem. The chief is not rash, but fairly level-headed as he patiently sorts his way through a case that seems to reduce itself to a series of bar fights dimly remembered by drunks. UK Yugo dealers were often small garages in small towns, who really tried to do the prep work to get the cars out well. They pronounce it yugo and Bricklins people realized a car called Jugo would have problems in marketing. Your email address will not be published. Rona Mace (Jamie Lee Curtis) is an anagram for "a romance". When the nastiest resident (Bette Midler) of a white-trash Westchester suburb is killed in a suspicious accident, everyone One of the magazines rolled one on test, and they had a top speed of around 65mph. Actually, Perry did a much better job of it than I could have. alignments. Honestly, I think Zastava should be commended for the amount of engineering they were able to do independently, modifying and developing Fiat cars. 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. Some dinosaur relic, Id never seen before. They took in much more foreign revenue and as the economy began to fail more and more fundamentally, the leaders of those republics decided theyd be better off independent of Yugo. Bracket racing, of course. Its like almost any car; get to know its issues, and if you have the mechanical inclinations to deal with them, theyre pretty simple cars otherwise. The Birdcage - Features a yellow Yugo Cabrio in Miami. 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 bought it in January because I figured it would be fun to see just how bad it could be. The steel is much thicker than Fiat used, and although fit and finish wasnt great, it was no worse than on a Fiat. Second factor was, the popularity in the day of recycled steel in car manufacture. The Yugo became the default entry level car for people that knew the price of everything but the value of nothing. ), See all comments about this movie and its vehicles. 3. But what about quality disasters in a different scenario?. after about 30 years of having the car rust off of the frame. Blue in color. But then my wife (of all people) found a Yugo for $800. Even here in the Land That Rust Forgot, I rarely see anything from the 70s. Barnum and the circus freak show that he brought to America in the twilight of the Reagan years. And this works both ways after war ended in ex. When a woman drives a car into the river to her death, everyone in town becomes a suspect. I saw one parked on Colorado Blvd. The mechanical bits all seemed OK, and no obvious leaks or other damage. The carpet was very loose fitting and curled up in spots along the edges. See production, box office & company info, Siskel & Ebert: Drowning Mona/My Dog Skip/What Planet Are You From?/The Next Best Thing/Miss Julie. With no new product in the pipeline, Bricklin would either have to find another car to flog or get an honest job, so there was a mutual meshing of interests when he arranged a visit to the Red Banner Factory in Yugoslavia that turned out the new apple of his eye in 1984. The writer of Drowning Mona thought it would be hilarious to fill a 2000 crime caper with Yugo vehicles. The New Brunswick government pulled the plug in September of 1975 and the Bricklin was finished. But that's a whole other story.") FSO 125P: Purchased one year old cars for less than $1500 while attending college. Your experience was exactly what my suspicions were about these cars. Since Yugo America was basically just a collection of cheap office furniture and unanswered phones, creditors received essentially nothing for their interests in the company. 3) The Yugo has a good reputation in the land of its birth. She is a bit of a contrarian anyhow, and has a mechanic-relative. After the death of Marshal Tito in 1980, long simmering Balkan feuds became a way of life and continue there to this day. Its a tough call on the Yugo. You mentioned this before; itd make a great article. 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. Every vehicle in town that is not a truck is a Yugo, except the police cruisers, which are Plymouth Horizons. 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. Here in Greece they are still around and not that rare. 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. In the 1970s the PCI (Italian Communist Party) reached its all-time maximum electorally: 34.4% in the 1976 general election (12,600,000 votes, 3 million more than in the previous election in 1972). Later I also replaced steering rack under warranty because of some slack inside. 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. 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.) Actually, from my experience with Yugo monocoque, four doors would have crushing effect on rigidity:). And it was reasonably fast for a car with such a small displacement engine. Some Japanese automakers seem to have been surprisingly resistant to the latter; that was a major complaint of Yutaka Katayama at Nissan. It was not much bigger than a homeless persons shopping cart and similarly stocked. Just like the Russian Lada its simple and DIY friendly as long as you relise that and dont expect a Lexus. 1. NEVER Give Up - NEVER Back Down There was a short in the headlights, and the switch for the engine cooling fan was broken both of which were easily fixed. The story involves a local police chief from New York state who is charged with . 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. 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. I heard a version on Car Talk of a deer that a priest hit and it had 150K on the clock when he hit it in his Yugo. parts are easy, I have a new driver side indoor handle ordered that will be here Tuesday. 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! But even in those circumstances, the car was not that bad as public opinion in USA about it. About two years ago there was a Wall Street Journal article about a guy who drag races a Yugo. Bricklin is still nominally involved with a venture called Visionary Vehicles and appears on its website today.The end of his Yugo adventure left him short of funds to repay an impressive list of creditors, investors and employees and even the IRS took its pound of flesh later on. His last notable brush with the automotive world (in 2004) involved a vague alliance with (uh-oh) Chinese auto maker Chery. 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). 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. He regaled us with stories of his work at Yugo and claimed that the factory started to develop (or adapt) an automatic transmission for the market in the USA. 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. Very well-maintained. 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. As a result, in mid-1986, Yugo America began selling cars at a starting price of $3,990 (equivalent to $9,863.56 in 2021) for the entry-level GV ("Good Value") hatchback equipped with the 1,100 cc overhead-cam five-main-bearing engine and four-speed manual transmission. 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. And a failed clutchI have driven manual transmission cars my whole life. if (window['UnicI'].geo === 'CA') { 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. What am I supposed to make outta that? The poor gal, if I remember, was named Lelo. This car didnt want to go into reverse at a standstill. So on the line, a worker would have to cut and install and tape it, with about a 25 percent failure rateincorrectly re-connected. 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. (function waitGEO() { 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. 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. 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. Rated PG-13 With Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Neve Campbell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Affleck, Peter Dobson, Will Ferrell, William Fichtner, Raymond O'Connor, Marcus Thomas and . The Proton is only a Malaysian Mitsubishi exactly the same awful car Hyundai built as trhe EXCEL. Ever notice how a lot of movie smokers seem to have just lighted their cigarettes? Nevermind that their cars are horribly unreliable, people still buy them. 5 Yugo i know its a rare thing but should we park them together ? Drowning Mona is one of my favorite comedies, and its currently available on YouTube for free. The thing that I remember most was the shifter and the transmission. 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 . 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. 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. At least until the inevitable head gasket problems caused by an Iron head and alloy block. (At the same dealership on the window sticker above,actually). The little cars--all Yugos--are almost identical; they only differ in color, and Rona's has a sunroof. (not the 1st time Ive done this,haha). My little red Yugo was dead. Let me disillusion youI busted a piston crown and bent a valve badly enough to freeze up the camshaft. Two Yugo episodes: The first while working on a construction crew in the 1987-88 period, at a project west of Rochester, NY one morning a Yugo rolls onto the lot, out pops a nervous, typical pocket-protector young engineering type, tells us he is out of gas, could anyone give him a ride to his job.at Kodak! everything behind them. Its essentially a Fiat, and the same thing applied to them. 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. The car itself staggered on until early 1992, with steadily declining sales and a dealer network that was slowly (and then quickly) going bankrupt. 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. I would love to find one of those. Dubrovnik is kind of old fashion place with somewhat stricter rules about dressing on the beaches and elsewhere. 5.0 out of 5 stars Drowning Mona music CD. That salty New England slush had its way with everything. These cars came with an optional AM/FM cassette deck that was very basic, only 5W total if I recall right, or was that 5W per channel? *shakes tiny fist*. LOL The old fashioned radio was a piece of crap, and the speakers cracked and gave out after very little use. 2) My wife (an engineer like yourself) has been to Dubrovnik and says that the beaches are incredible. When I got there, my promised job had fallen through and my wife and child still needed a car, and I needed one for working. 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. Most can be rectified by the shareholders or the Boards of Directors, the shareholders representatives. i doubt they are still there. I presume the folding roof is there just in case the doors jam shut because of a sagging body! Assuming the gentleman was telling the truth, this has to be some kind and lso two Horizon ? I shut it down to call a dealerand it wouldnt leave the parking spot under its own power. The blue one had seen much more use than the red one, but it was still a good runner. 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. i found this article about the space: It was mainly low used values (the proton badge had no snob appeal) and apathy that saw them scrapped rather than any major fault of the car. The local news interveiwed some and they were going for $4000 Id end up with used junk, but now I got a new import!. To be said, Jasons book is 90% about Bricklin. It was like, when you get in, what is next to give out or give you trouble. Personally I would have gone for the Skoda. "She's dead," he confirms to Chief Rash (Danny DeVito), who nods grimly and begins a murder investigation. Generally what kills them is the cost of major systems repairs, to where its not economically justifiable. "Drowning Mona" is a frustrating comedy. I cant think of another car that disappeared off the roads faster. Mine was an 86 and a half Yugo. Renault has been in state ownership since the 50s, and has been a very profitable company. depends 100% on very cheap parts and lots of mechanics around that know the car inside out. Every vehicle in town that is not a truck is a Yugo, except the police cruisers, which are Plymouth Horizons., And lastly, I recall seeing a comedian on TV talking about Yugos. He was scarred sh*tless and begging me to not make him drive it. Yugo-mania also swept through Hollywood for a time and was the star car in movies such as The Birdcage, Drowning Mona, Die Hard 3, The Crow, Inspector Gadget and 101 Dalmatians. Actions lie louder than words. by Carolyn Wells. With a State-owned automobile plant, management is there for political reasons which may have nothing to do with competence. With the pullout of Fiat, Renault and the British makes just a few years before,. It had nervousness built into it, it made people nervous and it was nervous. The result is that the UK Yugo was a far superior car to the US one, with its dealership network out to make a quick buck. Actually, Yugos timing belt is ~10$, and pretty easy to change. It WAS a simple-to-work-on car; and in that regard I appreciated it. 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? The prototypical belt-driven OHC engine Stateside, was the Pontiac Sixand Joe Sherlock, who has a car blog, The View Through the Windshield (http://www.joesherlock.com/blog.html) was involved in the development of the initial fiberglass-impregnated belt. Id love to hear what they thought a year later. 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! It has interesting characters and situations and I found myself really enjoying the film--only to have it all fizzle at the end. I really believe that the cars were treated as disposable, and in that way expectations were met. Possibly most accurate and realistic analysis I have heard yet regarding what happened in ex-Yugoslavia. But who? 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. Even on foot. Someone wanted her dead. its a beautiful nineteenth century townhouse that was redesigned combining the 19th century iron front with a modern glass setback. lol, Yugos were marketed in USA 1985 to 1990 by Malcolm Bricklin's vehicle imports Firm. IIRC, when hers finally died, she said that she tried to find another but couldnt. Back in another shop (an independent who specialized in Fiats) there was some general loose talk about popping a 128 engine in there; but given a verbal estimate, I cut it off. 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. Ah yes, I can see it now. Yeah, theres no question on really poor build quality. 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. Nobody had let management know that the wiring harness as made, wasnt usable in that part of the car. According to IMDBThe first thing to appear on screen is a little blurb about the Yugo car company using the town of Verplanck as a test area for their new model years ago. So we come to the end of the Yugo saga in America. No tinted glass or glove compartment. From the start, Zastava resented the profit dealers made, and thought their expenses exorbitant. The brakes appear to have been tampered with, making it murder. I know another-a lifelong car nut, married to another can nut. Edit: Gah! document.getElementById("unic-ccpa").style.display = 'inline'; [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 . (France) Chi ha ucciso la signora Dearly? The other Eastern European lemon sold in Australia at the same time as the Niki was the Lada Samara. 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 was as if the Yugo was being promoted as crap, but SUPERIOR crap. And was thus more expensive. who collected Yugos for pennies on the dollar and used the collection as a parts supply to keep ONE of them running. A "Fetzer valve" is a fictional part of an engine, introduced in the movie Fletch (1985). Warranty claims were dreadful. Agree with this last. When the coroner first jumps into the water to check Mona's dead body, he is neck-deep in water. } Someone steeped in the maintenace required to keep something like a Trabant running would probably be right at home with a Yugo. Mona Dearly (Bette Midler) is an anagram for "only a dream". 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. Reviewed in . These are the kinds of people who don't like to be thrown out of bars because it's a loss of valuable drinking time. English tongues tended to read it JUG-oh not a saleable name. Could you imagine if another country decided to do that? 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. 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. 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.