Not a bit ! . Japanese rust problems are designed in the cars are only meant to last 6-7 years and were poorly protected in the factory. Why are there so many Yugo in this movie? But even before then, Subarus had features that endeared them to snow-belt climates, like dual radiators that got the car to warm up quickly. (Italy) 1989 Chrysler TC 1983 Dodge Omni 1991 Dodge Ram 1980 Ford F - 350 Ford Ranger 1993 Ford Ranger GMC C / K - Series 1992 Honda Civic 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. Handling is sharp and the engine loves to rev. It wasnt ancient ethnic hatreds, it was more a perfect storm. 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. The car she is driving is a Yugo, and the pic's locale is Verplanck, New York (north of New York City), that actually was a test market for the ill-fated economy car in the late 1970's. . Now Rash has to decide who killed Mona Dearly. @Jeff Nelson: I think youre a bit dismissive of Zastava, they have been around for quite some time. In the end, its poor management. DROWNING MONA 1/2 Tasteless but sporadically uproarious black comedy. 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. Of course, I was charmed by that, as it reminded me very much of the original A1 Golf, and seemed to share the same utility that the original A1 did. You are right.I found it here: It was owned by a gentleman named Dave Benton who claimed to be the former engineering manager for Yugo North America. These rear engined devices were a blast to drive, with tail-out shenanigans a-la Porsche 911 being easy to emulate. Its hard to pinpoint a weak spot on a Yugo because every system in the car was so badly designed and assembled that the whole car was a no contact accident. 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(?) 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. Competing econoboxes included the Chevy Chevette,. Ford was really hit and miss the Granada was horrible, but the Lincoln Town Cars and Mark Vs were pretty good against the tinworm. He sat in the front seat once and never again! 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. The one thing that the Yugo shared with its Fiat ancestry, was the fact that these things were biodegradable in the midwest. Most can be rectified by the shareholders or the Boards of Directors, the shareholders representatives. 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 . -You know why Yugo drivers go to heaven? Like all good European cars used to do, it came with its own tool kit and (owner) service manual. But then my wife (of all people) found a Yugo for $800. Jeff might have wanted to kill her. Dont forget, we had the Czech Skoda Estelle, the Russian Lada and the Polish FSO 125p all competing at the bottom of the market. At that time, Bricklin was probably best known for the eponymous car that he launched amidst much fanfare in 1974. When the nastiest resident (Bette Midler) of a white-trash Westchester suburb is killed in a suspicious accident, everyone (We also wanted to stick a finger in the eye of the USSR, which was at odds with Yugoslavia anyway). I think we need to re-evaluate the Yugo against 1986 standards instead of 2011 standards. At least a Suzuki Samurai has a separate frame. The best part was they all had the same license plates on them to just have a semblance of legality! 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. He was absolutely correct. Dan beat me to it. After we meet the local residents, we understand why they're driving them now: They can't afford to replace them. So there you have it. There where lots of Yugo's used in the movie, but this was my favorite scene. And the gas cap would not come off. Motor Trend reported that their hand picked press ringer broke down during testing. See production, box office & company info, Siskel & Ebert: Drowning Mona/My Dog Skip/What Planet Are You From?/The Next Best Thing/Miss Julie. UK Yugo dealers were often small garages in small towns, who really tried to do the prep work to get the cars out well. 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. 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. NO. View Cars. That's not what I'm about." . 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. So on the line, a worker would have to cut and install and tape it, with about a 25 percent failure rateincorrectly re-connected. The civil war in the former Yugoslavia was the finishing blow, but wasnt the reason it wasnt brought over. The Italian Government and the Unions forced Fiat to cooperate. From the start, Zastava resented the profit dealers made, and thought their expenses exorbitant. It was a nightmare. 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. *cough cough*, Malcolm is now wanting to import Chinese cars. 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. Someone wanted her dead. Enterior wall panels were thin cardboard with painted on carpet flecks. FWIWYugo wasnt named for Yugoslavia, but its a phonetic of the name Jugo which is what the Mediterranean wind is called in their language. She claimed that once you knew and understood them, they were not bad cars for what they were. To see mine riding on a tow truck was so humiliating. Yes, a Deer. In the small, white-trash town of Verplanck, N.Y., a loathsome woman named Mona Dearly (a dour and ugly Bette Midler) drives her car over a cliff and into the river. Honestly, I think Zastava should be commended for the amount of engineering they were able to do independently, modifying and developing Fiat cars. Youre welcome here anytime ! 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. ), it was quite good. https://chrisoncars.com/yugo-victim-or-victimizer/: (Time Magazine said it best: The Yugo has the distinct feeling of something assembled at gunpoint), I found quite a few articles from later years, quoting the same sentence over and over again (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/), And there you have it: everybody knows for fact that Yugo was actually assembled at gunpoint. And it tanked with the critics. I would love to find one of those. The Yugo, new clutch, new exhaust, patched wiring and all, went into the trash. Yup, Im gonna go for a ride in my Ford Fester., I mentioned Drowning Mona below, before I read this. And a failed clutchI have driven manual transmission cars my whole life. His routine went something likeThe Yugo, what self respecting country would name a car that sorry after itself? I saw one on the F4 so they did sell one.Those were a Polish Fiat 500 updated Just rubbish. 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. But back to the subject, shortage of all kind of raw material was the main reason for poor quality, not drunken workers. There were surely other goofs that were institutionalized. There was a guy that was racing a Yugo in SCCA competition, but thats been a long time ago. 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. This is the real reason that Yugo failed in the US- a poor dealer network. and lso two Horizon ? 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. Why Fiat? Director Nick Gomez Writer Peter Steinfeld Stars Danny DeVito Bette Midler Neve Campbell To this day I have never felt a more imprecise,balky shifter. Then again, Ive always had a liking for the odd car or two over the years. Ive been around big rigs all of my life, but they never looked bigger than when I was next to them on the freeway. As my old profesor of economics said: War is the best economic valve Unfortunately, Ive learned that from personal experience. 3. An older Yugo, since the car hasn't been manufactured since its country went out of business. 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. If Germany had built it, would it have been called the Germ? Holy mackerel, Goe, what a story and experience! 2. When a woman drives a car into the river to her death, everyone in town becomes a suspect. The steel is much thicker than Fiat used, and although fit and finish wasnt great, it was no worse than on a Fiat. Amidst mutual finger pointing, the deal collapsed in July 2008 as the erstwhile partners took turns suing one another in federal court. It failed, of all places, on the Bonneville salt flats area in Utah. Finallywith a new clutch 400 miles oldit tossed the alternator belt. Because he SAYS he has a new belt on there, doesnt mean its so. 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