Its not like Fiat designs were anything special, quite the contrary in many instances. It would be interesting to see how the rear suspension was beefed up. 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. He lost his house, his fortuneAnd the dozens of Yugo GVs that he received as part of his settlement with his bankers. The thing that I remember most was the shifter and the transmission. Gearboxes on the other hand well, its a Fiat after all, and it teaches you how to double clutch. My little red Yugo was dead. There was a movie in 2000 entitled Drowning Mona where most of the people in a . Yugoslavia, markets in new states opened for foreign cars and some of my friends bought American cars lured by size and luxury, but this love affairs usually ended quickly and costly. It failed, of all places, on the Bonneville salt flats area in Utah. It was 10 years old in Japan at the time. Rated PG-13 But the little Yugo turned out to be a lot less than the sum of its parts. The poor gal, if I remember, was named Lelo. FWIWYugo wasnt named for Yugoslavia, but its a phonetic of the name Jugo which is what the Mediterranean wind is called in their language. About a year or so into owning the blue one, the clutch cable snapped (in traffic, of course). Yugo gave everybody in town one to have. Ive always had a soft spot for these little cars from Yugoslavia. . 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. Yeah, theres no question on really poor build quality. 2) My wife (an engineer like yourself) has been to Dubrovnik and says that the beaches are incredible. as long as you didnt try to get away with normal American car owner maintenance. I presume the folding roof is there just in case the doors jam shut because of a sagging body! Vehicle used a lot by a main character or for a long time, Vehicle used by a character or in a car chase, Minor action vehicle or used in only a short scene. I saw it on the Helena streets quite a lot, but it was the only one in the city. 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? Only other thing it needed to be roadworthy was front tires. 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. Nevermind that their cars are horribly unreliable, people still buy them. Ah yes, I can see it now. After the 1973 oil shock and protracted period of economic stagnation globally, Western markets had less incentive to buy anything from Yugoslavia. couple of months ago when I was in Athens. Japanese rust problems are designed in the cars are only meant to last 6-7 years and were poorly protected in the factory. In the 70s when I lived in Boston, I worked with a guy whose 5-year-old Pinto had big holes in the doors. 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(?) The carpet was very loose fitting and curled up in spots along the edges. This has been true of: Renault in its government-ownership days; And, now, Government Motors, which is thumbing its nose at old GM customers who have warranty claims. At first glance, the car looked up to date- Front wheel drive, rack and pinion steering, decent mileage. I took all of the fun stuff off of the red one (Italian Cromodora wheels and the AM/FM Cassette) and put it on the blue one. 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. Could you imagine if another country decided to do that? I was sure youd have had one. And management, often put there through politics, has little interest in learning of customer dissatisfaction. This was almost $1100 lower than the cheapest Chevy Sprint and lower than even the Hyundai Excel. 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. The collapse of Communism removed any perceived legitimacy left in the public who thought their future under capitalism would reflect a standard of living like W Germanys. Why Fiat? That salty New England slush had its way with everything. The car was a modest success with just under 8000 sold in the first year, but when the 360 was pilloried by Consumer Reports as being unacceptable because of its numerous safety issues, the bottom dropped out of the venture and the last few cars sat on dealers lots for years before they were practically given away. 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. 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. } I probably still have it somewhere. What he saw was an operation that turned out a car designed (and abandoned) by Fiat years before. It is difficult to overstate how rustprone 1970s Japaneese cars were. The best part was they all had the same license plates on them to just have a semblance of legality! The problem here was, first, poor management, as I noted; second, a workplace culture and a national culture that was absolute authoritarianism. I think the other reason they were more successful out of the US is that in Europe, people have driven OHC cars since the 60s. And the A/C system on the Yugo was an add on! Its unfortunate that the vast majority of Yugo owners didnt even get that. Once I figured out what was happening to the carb, I developed an oil trap that kept motor oil from getting past the PC valve and being sucked into the carb. Too many people in this country have this mentality that if its cheap, treat it as such and yes, a fulfilled prophesy. Mine was an 86 and a half Yugo. And if it WAS done, thats $500 WASTED. Your experience was exactly what my suspicions were about these cars. Bowfinger - The main character produced a documentary called The Yugo Story. 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. Saw a lot of Datsuns with the box off, and the tiny size of the frame on those thingsthey were half-ton trucks only by extreme optimism. 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. And this works both ways after war ended in ex. I know of no explanation for the garbage experience my dad had with his Audi, which broke down regularly. English tongues tended to read it JUG-oh not a saleable name. Copyright 2011 - 2023 Curbside Classics. Zastava Zastava made Yugos even after they stopped selling in America. But then my wife (of all people) found a Yugo for $800. They were incredibly simple mechanically. 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. Could not resist seeing what a piece of crap would look like with no tin on the top. They probably would have found a customer base in the U.S. The last Yugo that we would recognize rolled off the assembly line in November 2008. Hers are always burned down precisely half an inch, and then we see her lighting a new one from the old one, and realize, yeah, she smokes them only for the first two puffs. Drowning Mona is a 2000 U.S. crime comedy starring Danny DeVito as Wyatt Rash, a local police chief from Verplanck, New York, who investigates the mysterious death of Mona Dearly (played by Bette Midler), a spiteful, loud-mouthed, cruel and around the town highly unpopular woman, who drove her son's Yugo off the . Of course, being that these cars were manual transmissioned cars, Im sure they didnt rented out nearly as much as the Ford Escorts and Hyundais that had automatics. Sales quickly slowed when word of the myriad problems began to circulate in the media. Unscrew the shift knob. There are, to be fair, other theories about how Jeff (Marcus Thomas) lost his hand, although in every scenario he was reaching for a beer. I pampered and took extremely good care of it and maintained it very well, it just couldnt hold up to being pampered either. He soon discovers that her death was no accident. But there was one area that, frankly, I was impressed with, and that was the basic two-box design. I drove it in Atlanta rush hour traffic, it got about 40MPG and I grew to really like the little beast. 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. 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. 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. When a woman drives a car into the river to her death, everyone in town becomes a suspect. Jeff might have wanted to kill her. 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. And when longtime resident Mona Dearly (BETTE MIDLER) drove her Yugo into the river to her death, no one really seemed to care. The gravity powered it! But what about quality disasters in a different scenario?. To keep your hands warm while you pushed. Thanks for your detailed experience. His routine went something likeThe Yugo, what self respecting country would name a car that sorry after itself? Of course, as pointed out, it was more probable that hed have put the company out of business, too. If possible, the FSO 125p was even worse. 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. The Tipo 145 was developed in the early 1970s (IIRC), and it showed. There was something wrong with every single facet of this car. After we meet the local residents, we understand why they're driving them now: They can't afford to replace them. The effort collapsed along with Yugo sales in America. Yes it was 3990 excluding transmition and tax and delivery charges. View 9 images In regard to that old devil corrosion, an honest question: were there any cars of the seventies that DIDNT rust like mad? Damn that X1/9 still looks beautiful just like mine the 81 behind the new Abarth. The man is Malcom Bricklin. Everyone in Verplanck, N.Y., drives a Yugo. Danny Devito and Bette Midler starred together in "Ruthless People". I shut it down to call a dealerand it wouldnt leave the parking spot under its own power. and lso two Horizon ? 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. I was only ten, but knew they were junk. There was a short in the headlights, and the switch for the engine cooling fan was broken both of which were easily fixed. Frequently, that new model sets the status quo on its ear and forever changes the way we think about (and react to) our transportation needs. I saw it on the Bonneville salt flats area in Utah often put through. Says that the beaches are incredible they 're driving them now: they ca n't afford to them. The people in a different scenario? oil shock and protracted period of stagnation... 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