When I was living in Montana in 2001, some masochist/crusty old guy was using one as a daily driver and it looked new. Mine was an 86 and a half Yugo. The 360 fit in with the type of Japanese car that was (or would become) the Kei car class, which continues to this day within tightly-defined parameters. 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. My best friend had for a brief time, a rusted 1980 Civic DX hatchback that ultimately blew out its 2 upper gears in the 5spd manual tranny that did it in even though his mechanic could not get the bolts out to replace the clutch due to rust. 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. Critically, one of her co-workers loved Fiats, and he taught her their quirks-most of which the Yugo shared. Both were sold for more than I paid. Actually, Yugos timing belt is ~10$, and pretty easy to change. everything behind them. I mean, cmon, its an Eastern Bloc car. He lost his house, his fortuneAnd the dozens of Yugo GVs that he received as part of his settlement with his bankers. Show more Yugo America. Of course, not wanting to be associated with alleged members of the alleged Romanian Mafia, Bently pulled out. . The little cars--all Yugos--are almost identical; they only differ in color, and Rona's has a sunroof. It was amazing (to me) how they found a solution so quickly. Film Focus: Drowning Mona. The last ones left in my hometown got a stay of execution when the city received a good number of Bosnian refugees in the 90s; many of them bought Yugos and got mobile for next to nothing since they knew how to keep them running. I think that its important to remember that Subaru (Fuji Heavy Industries) itself didnt try to push the 360 into the American market-It was Bricklin looking for a lottery win and the little 360 was his ticket. The last Yugo I saw was 12 years ago, parked by a gas station in Truckee oh, and a restored Yugo was for sale on Craigslist a bit ago but I figured that would be a bad idea on the Subaru front: I heard a rumor, years ago, that Fuji bought all the American 360s and had them crushed any truth to that? Also, I think that first step after buying any used car in general should be changing of belt. Its unfortunate that the vast majority of Yugo owners didnt even get that. Several actors in this film have ties to the Batman films. 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. 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. the building is used several times a month for exclusive private hip-hop dance parties. Parts are no problem, because it is basically a FIAT. Now that its privatized, products have risen in quality to what the buyer expects for his money. VW, in its first days, had all the same problems as Zastavabut with a product that was continually improved, they overcame it inside of five years. 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! 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. No regrets and better than any $1500 alternatives at the time. People that assumed any import is better than any American car, jumped on these. Knobs came off in your hand, the sliding radio marker on a string would get stuck and not move off of from where it landed. At inopportune times. 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. Hell, I was 20 years younger, A lot can change in that time. or all of the Ladas.As has been mentioned already this kind of cheap car ownership Ah, the quintessential crap car. Because he SAYS he has a new belt on there, doesnt mean its so. @EdDan: How do you double the value of your Yugo? I was enrolled in a community class marketing course and the teacher brought up the Yugo, and was joking about it. I saw one not long ago on the streets in Eugene, but couldnt catch it. The interior was fading right from day one. To say that the 360 was unsuited to American driving norms is to wildly overpraise the car. . When a woman drives a car into the river to her death, everyone in town becomes a suspect.When a woman drives a car into the river to her death, everyone in town becomes a suspect.When a woman drives a car into the river to her death, everyone in town becomes a suspect. He drove them all fast and hard which no doubt shortened their operational life. } I did appreciate the way Yugo could make one part do what a western car needed three for. 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. It was as if the Yugo was being promoted as crap, but SUPERIOR crap. And was thus more expensive. At Zastava, these were foreign. Learn how your comment data is processed. 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. http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_113306-Plymouth-Horizon-C2-1984.html An automatic wouldnt fit in the Yugo engine bay, so the only thing shiftless about the Yugo would be the Zastava workers that routinely drank on the job. But youre right that would mean being a business man and not a con-artist. 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. And it was reasonably fast for a car with such a small displacement engine. parts are easy, I have a new driver side indoor handle ordered that will be here Tuesday. People who took care of some basic maintenance and corrosion protection could see 10 to 15 years of service without too much trouble. As far as ethnicity goes, Im Russian by birth, Belarus to be exact, and have that somewhat stocky build to prove it! Even getting touring car legend Peter Brock to put his name to a Deluxe Limited Edition wasnt enough to help sales. 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. It would take about eight years from apparent problem to engineered fix to failure of the fix and another engineered solution. 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. 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. So there you have it. i found this article about the space: He got two large import operations going and he launched the SV-1. But these Yugos aren't just a frivolous component of the storythey're essential to establishing the wacky tone of the film. There was a guy that was racing a Yugo in SCCA competition, but thats been a long time ago. 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. 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. Although it shares some similarities with the Fiat 127, it is actually based on the much more advanced Autobianchi. It wasnt ancient ethnic hatreds, it was more a perfect storm. 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 1975, Subaru began offering AWD. Its not too late! Cool Cruise CAR SHOW Cruisin' Brea CAR SHOW Cruisin' La Verne CAR SHOW Brea Holiday CAR SHOW Project Home America Flying Deuces is a production, marketing, booking and advertising company. I presume the folding roof is there just in case the doors jam shut because of a sagging body! I must admit that I own a Yugo. It is my understanding the latter Yugos were much better than their earlier counterparts, but still not up to snuff with the worst(?) Various ancillaries like alternators were replaced with real FIAT parts. I really believe that the cars were treated as disposable, and in that way expectations were met. The car itself rattled and shook upon starting. But that's a whole other story.") R/S AUTOLINE INC. (1.3 miles away) 1215 W IMPERIAL HWY, Suite 213, BREA, CA 92821. 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. 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. I think I remember this! About two years ago there was a Wall Street Journal article about a guy who drag races a Yugo. The two-door chassis is, I understand, a 127. By the 90s Japan had it totally nailed. DROWNING MONA 1/2 Tasteless but sporadically uproarious black comedy. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. Even in Western Europe, cars arent marketed as they are here. (* 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). Its essentially a Fiat, and the same thing applied to them. [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 . Regarding the rust: It was a myriad of factors. 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. State ownership is generally coupled to some sort of coersion, such as a penalty tax on other makes. It really has all of the benefits of an Italian car with none of the drawbacks. Im guessing the sport badging is why the decimal point is so far to the right? Even on foot. Yup, Im gonna go for a ride in my Ford Fester., I mentioned Drowning Mona below, before I read this. The running gear would be the 1.1 Litre straight four that Zastava had learned to build from Fiat and the transmission would be a truly nasty four speed manual. there used to be a sign on the front that said visionary vehicles but that came down at least two years ago. She does figure in a quiet little in-joke. After 330,000km with two Yugos, I must be destined to eternal vacation on BOra-Bora . And management, often put there through politics, has little interest in learning of customer dissatisfaction. Id actually like to have another one, but beef it up with Fiat parts. 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. But then thats not what most folks are exactly looking for. The car itself staggered on until early 1992, with steadily declining sales and a dealer network that was slowly (and then quickly) going bankrupt. Early oil changes, followed maintenance schedule. I sold the car to a coworker of my BILs, who drove the car another three years before he totaled it. 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. . Danny DeVito and Bette Midler appeared in Ruthless People (1986). Could you imagine if another country decided to do that? if (window['UnicI'].geo === 'EU') { 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. Americans are a funny lot.I am not sure what $4000 in 2016 money equates to but you can these days get plenty on the used car lot if you look carefully for roughly the same money as anything in the light car class or it can be can be a car you dreamed about when it was new but couldnt afford at the time.We Australians never saw the Yugo but $12,000 before you factor in things like automatics and on roads plus good condition gets you better than most of these cars from foreign lands and brands which dont exist anymore.I suppose the modern day equivalent of this would be something like a Suzuki Celerio or a Mitsubishi Mirage in my part of the world new,used equivalent buying gets you a three year old Corolla or Pulsar or one size smaller a well kept Yaris or Mazda 2. An older Yugo, since the car hasn't been manufactured since its country went out of business. The Italian Government and the Unions forced Fiat to cooperate. 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. Found it! The characters this time could be lightened up and dumbed-down versions of the confused drunks in "Laws of Gravity," their social lives centered on bars, their center of gravity the bartender. With a State-owned automobile plant, management is there for political reasons which may have nothing to do with competence. 500 left in running condition? readyGEO = true; Or inherrent underdog status? A quiet little in-joke indeed, but I mention it so the filmmakers will know their work was not in vain. The possibility upsets Ellen, who explains in some of the movie's best dialogue: "I can't marry a murderer. And the A/C system on the Yugo was an add on! But before Bricklin made a virtue of safety, he all but made a mockery of same just a half decade before. The first year all those repairs were paid for, so it wasnt as miserable then. 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. I was listening one Saturday to Car Talk and one of the callers that day to the show was a Catholic priest who drove a Yugo and commented on all the flak he received for his choice of automotive transportation. Reviewed in . But the Japanese companies focused; and today its almost unheard of to find a Toyota or Honda ruined from corrosion. She put about 50,000 miles on it without a problem-it was scrapped when she got rear-ended by a Camry. So, they set about seeing what was what with a road-trip around Romania in three cars they would be testing. Why did so many Fiat designs get recycled and built behind the Iron Curtain? 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