@Jeff Nelson: I think youre a bit dismissive of Zastava, they have been around for quite some time. You are my inhalation, I own few blogs and infrequently run out from brand :). In the 70s when I lived in Boston, I worked with a guy whose 5-year-old Pinto had big holes in the doors. I bought it in January because I figured it would be fun to see just how bad it could be. . While poor Yugo certainly was not the best car made, but it was hardly the worst either. Show more Yugo America. In 1975, Subaru began offering AWD. Big deal, huh? 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. One of the magazines rolled one on test, and they had a top speed of around 65mph. I actually checked out a Yugo about the same time I was looking at Sundances, Colts and similar vehicles and decided: No, I didnt have the time for the do-it-yourself maintenance it mightve required my current cars took care of that at the time! LOL The old fashioned radio was a piece of crap, and the speakers cracked and gave out after very little use. 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. Even in Western Europe, cars arent marketed as they are here. I drove it in Atlanta rush hour traffic, it got about 40MPG and I grew to really like the little beast. 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. Ive been around big rigs all of my life, but they never looked bigger than when I was next to them on the freeway. 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. Just like the Russian Lada its simple and DIY friendly as long as you relise that and dont expect a Lexus. A lot of Wehrmacht occupation troops went home in tiny little pieces because Zastava knew what they were doing. Visit Dealer Website. The cars were not labor or maintenance intensive at all, and in fact some things worked better on that car than did my dear old Lancer, like the A/C system. So, they set about seeing what was what with a road-trip around Romania in three cars they would be testing. Of course, as pointed out, it was more probable that hed have put the company out of business, too. For the rest of the scene, he is dry from the waist up. Theyre really a mishmash of the two; with their own unique body. (rolls eyes). But then my wife (of all people) found a Yugo for $800. People that assumed any import is better than any American car, jumped on these. FSO 125P: When I was living in Montana in 2001, some masochist/crusty old guy was using one as a daily driver and it looked new. She noted that while it wasnt much good past 65MPH (no overdrive), it never got less than 30MPG, and it handled beautifully. After we meet the local residents, we understand why they're driving them now: They can't afford to replace them. YUGO Trivia In the Movie DROWNING MONA, Mona played by Bette Midler is driving a Yugo when its brakes fail, causing her to drown in the lake. i found this article about the space: European manufactures give guarantee for lets say 50k-250k km (~30k-150k mi) and 5-10 years, whatever come first (in practice mileage is more important), but previous owner could use some product with shorter life thats why this saving of couple* Euros isnt worth a risk. View 9 images 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. 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. Everyone in Verplanck, N.Y., drives a Yugo. 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. What do you call a Yugo with twin exhausts? The displacement limit for kei cars was increased to 550cc some years ago. It is the cheapest person that spends the most. Substandard seatbelt anchors, collapsing seats, hard starting, no starting, the list was endless. His routine went something likeThe Yugo, what self respecting country would name a car that sorry after itself? France, to use your example, had a protected market with tariffs on American cars (disguised as a horsepower tax). Diversity was their strength!!!!!!!!!!! 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. How quickly they developed larger cars was a product of how well capitalized each company was and how much their senior management (some of which was deeply conservative, even by Detroit standards) was willing to make the investment in export-specific products. 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. So on the line, a worker would have to cut and install and tape it, with about a 25 percent failure rateincorrectly re-connected. To see mine riding on a tow truck was so humiliating. } Pictures provided by: garco, antp, ahight, Display options: Display as images Display as list 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. console.log(window['UnicI'].geo); English tongues tended to read it JUG-oh not a saleable name. Danny DeVito (Chief Wyatt Rash) and Tracey Walter (Clarence) appeared in Matilda (1996). \"Drowning Mona\" is bad . Doug DeMuro joyfully reviewed one a couple of years ago. American Brands: AMC, Jeep and All Others, Tractors, Lawn Mowers, Off-Road Equipment, Automotive History The Jokes On U.S.- The Short, Wild Ride Of The Yugo In America, TOAL:1974(?) She does figure in a quiet little in-joke. State ownership is generally coupled to some sort of coersion, such as a penalty tax on other makes. Back in 87, a cheerleader at my high school won one of these in a raffle. The Yugo became the default entry level car for people that knew the price of everything but the value of nothing. Many wars (holocausts, massacres) are blamed on religion, I can understand why some people no longer believe. But, its a tough sell to have someone take a car thats running fine, and pay $500 for a maintenance replacement and maybe screw something up in the process. I did appreciate the way Yugo could make one part do what a western car needed three for. The two-door chassis is, I understand, a 127. The early Japanese cars were not that different from the 360: Junk. 2) My wife (an engineer like yourself) has been to Dubrovnik and says that the beaches are incredible. Its not too late! -Because they have already been through hell. Bracket racing, of course. Yugo America The importer of the eponymous car that had been the talk of the industry just a few years earlier filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in 1991. YUGO caps and shirts and other fun car show displays. Also spare parts were inexpensive and any mechanic and his nephew would fix it. This is all fictional of course. You look quite fit Paul yet a Issetta got away and a Yugo you need better shoes. Possibly most accurate and realistic analysis I have heard yet regarding what happened in ex-Yugoslavia. 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 . Same thing was sold in the US as the Precis. Bricklin used franchise fees to run the company (a major accounting no-no) while the car was being modified for safety and emissions certification in the U.S. and dealerships were sold, territories assigned. This was enough to keep them afloat (even with such strange offerings as the BRAT and XT) until 1989, when they really hit their stride with the introduction of the Outback and the successful Paul Crocodile Dundee Hogan marketing campaign. A girl I knew in high school had one of these, it got rustier seemingly by the day, and this was in 1991-2 so it wasnt by any means an old car. Later I also replaced steering rack under warranty because of some slack inside. Wait, how am I still driving 24,000 reliable miles a year on a 28 year old yugo, if this article is accurate? Even on foot. Childrens toys are more dependable. Yugos are cars. (A former test site for the Yugo car company, we're told. In 1968, Bricklin thought that what America needed was an air cooled two cylinder car that could make zero to sixty in thirty seven agonizing seconds. 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. Money was a problem; but not the root problem. its a beautiful nineteenth century townhouse that was redesigned combining the 19th century iron front with a modern glass setback. 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. They were not standing still, by any means. I have often wondered why Bricklin didnt try to make a ploy for the tooling to be set up in a higher quality shop. Although it shares some similarities with the Fiat 127, it is actually based on the much more advanced Autobianchi. He sat in the front seat once and never again! The problem here was, first, poor management, as I noted; second, a workplace culture and a national culture that was absolute authoritarianism. (first posted 10/10/2011) Every once in a while, a visionary, iconoclastic automotive pioneer bursts on the scene and, bucking the long odds and naysaying conventional wisdom, delivers a disruptive new line of cars. Yes they were cheap, but it was a proper car, built properly. I may know the only satisfied Yugo owner in the U.S. I sold the car to a coworker of my BILs, who drove the car another three years before he totaled it. A quiet little in-joke indeed, but I mention it so the filmmakers will know their work was not in vain. 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(?) Yep, the N and Z360 from Honda, but when they made them for export, they dropped in a 600cc motor into what was essentially the same car so what we got as did Europe was the N and Z600 with a 600cc motor instead of the 360cc motor, which was the utmost limit in displacement for a Kei car then, and I think now. 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. Yes, a Deer. Kathleen Wilhoite (Lucinda) and Melissa McCarthy (Shirley) appeared on Gilmore Girls (2000). The worst of the Japaneese cars would rust in structural places that would make the car unsafe. 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. I guess I should note that I owned the cars 20+ years ago, I was a lot more enthusiastic about getting underneath the car for just about any reason. I was enrolled in a community class marketing course and the teacher brought up the Yugo, and was joking about it. I owned one. No argument with the political details of your well made point. 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 Yugo, new clutch, new exhaust, patched wiring and all, went into the trash. But there was one area that, frankly, I was impressed with, and that was the basic two-box design. The Proton is only a Malaysian Mitsubishi exactly the same awful car Hyundai built as trhe EXCEL. Some Japanese automakers seem to have been surprisingly resistant to the latter; that was a major complaint of Yutaka Katayama at Nissan. The car itself staggered on until early 1992, with steadily declining sales and a dealer network that was slowly (and then quickly) going bankrupt. Just started slipping, on a highway as flat as a calm oceanand over the next five hours I had to shift into lower and lower gears just to minimize slippage. When the Yugo GV was finally offered for sale in September 1985, (as an 86 model) , initial orders looked promising. 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. This was before the deal with Chery. But that's a whole other story.") 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. The Yugo was based on a mash up of models 127 and 128 built under license by a wildly unproductive workforce in an obsolete factory with assembly quality that made real mid 70s Fiats look hand built. FWIWYugo wasnt named for Yugoslavia, but its a phonetic of the name Jugo which is what the Mediterranean wind is called in their language. This is the real reason that Yugo failed in the US- a poor dealer network. Her brake lines had been cut. Lack of an automatic would hamper the car during all but the final year in the states. Drowning Mona, Movie, 2000 Pictures provided by: garco, antp, ahight Display options: Also known as: Todos la queran muerta (Spain) Mais qui a tu Mona ? Ah yes, I can see it now. Two cars are in the driveway of a glorious but faded Victorian mansion: The Bertone and a Yugo. 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