The film also stars Neve Campbell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Affleck, William Fichtner, Marcus Thomas, and Peter Dobson. 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. Chief Wyatt Rash: My mother always used to say, "When life hands you potatoes, make potato salad!". Only the Italians could design a car to be so much fun to drive so slowly. The little cars--all Yugos--are almost identical; they only differ in color, and Rona's has a sunroof. Yugo gave everybody in town one to have. One of the sight gags is that everyone in town drives a Yugo, thereby using personalized license plates as a necessity more than anything else.) Various ancillaries like alternators were replaced with real FIAT parts. Actions lie louder than words. by Carolyn Wells. 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. For Some Thematic Elements, Language and Brief Sexuality, Berlinale 2023 Highlights, Part Two: Reality, Manodrome, The Adults, Inside, Golda, Angela Bassett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Fraser, Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson Feted at SBIFF 2023, Revisiting Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Tragically Common: Jamie Dack, Lily McInerny and Jonathan Tucker on Palm Trees and Power Lines. People who took care of some basic maintenance and corrosion protection could see 10 to 15 years of service without too much trouble. Ever notice how a lot of movie smokers seem to have just lighted their cigarettes? Theyre really a mishmash of the two; with their own unique body. She claimed that once you knew and understood them, they were not bad cars for what they were. 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). The battery required water to be poured into it. 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). Wheel barrow. It failed, of all places, on the Bonneville salt flats area in Utah. He was a statistician in the War Department who became interested in using statistical controls to produce higher-quality manufactured goods. 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. Neve Campbell was also working on Party of Five (1994) and Scream 3 (2000) while shooting this film. Rona Mace (Jamie Lee Curtis) is an anagram for "a romance". 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. It eventually developed a bad piston ring(s), and the blow by was enough to clog the carburetor so that it would stop running. 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. To see mine riding on a tow truck was so humiliating. if (!readyGEO) { 5.0 out of 5 stars Drowning Mona music CD. As I understand it, Zastiva had the Yugo designed that way as its plan was, from the beginning, to export the car. Now, I live in the UK and have had three ladas, all of which were much better cars than many people give them credit for. The engine in mine was the old fiat 903 engine that dated back to the Fiat 600 of the 50s. As far as ethnicity goes, Im Russian by birth, Belarus to be exact, and have that somewhat stocky build to prove it! As the pride of Serbo-Croatia hit the streets of America, reports of slipshod assembly began flooding back to the companys Upper Saddle River , New Jersey headquarters. That said, the most maintenance I did on the car(s) were oil changes and other mundane regular maintenance. i cant imagine where bricklin would get the approximately $35k/mo rent. Thanks for telling it. 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. Yugos are cars. Id love to hear what they thought a year later. The first Mazda was also a kei-car, the R-360. Or wasting half a grand. Like you can buy a car without a transmition. I frankly dont know how anything this poor could ever be made. What a story! They sold boatloads of them in Europe to price buyers, taxi companies, retired folk etc. IIRC, they licensed Fiat designs in the mid 50s and in 2008 they signed a Memorandum of Understanding to buy the auto assembly plant from Zastava. See production, box office & company info, Siskel & Ebert: Drowning Mona/My Dog Skip/What Planet Are You From?/The Next Best Thing/Miss Julie. Jamie Lee Curtis and Neve Campbell are both known as "Final Girls" or "Scream Queens", playing recurring heroines in their respective horror franchise films: Curtis in the "Halloween" franchise and Campbell in the "Scream" franchise--which is loosely based on the "Halloween" mythos. Paid less than a thousand for it, thought at the time it was a good buy. Only with the threat of armed intervention by Nato and the UN is an uneasy peace maintained. I went to an auto place for a part, and was so embarassed to even say Yugo to the clerk, that my voice stuttered and I replied Yugee. 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. Purchased one year old cars for less than $1500 while attending college. Sales quickly slowed when word of the myriad problems began to circulate in the media. Holy mackerel, Goe, what a story and experience! Of course a $800 car isnt worth shyte to the insurance company, so they gave me a token $1000 for my time and trouble (another story). It was a much more reliable and simple design than the 128 engine in States bound Yugos. Thanks for your first hand account ! 1987 brought about several other trims, the GVL, GVS, GVC,which were very similar other than the door panels and seat upholstery. I could be wrong there; but a surprising number of parts, including the airbox and cables, the steering column, the drivetrain, are all direct or modified parts from the 128. Bricklin had formed Yugo of America to import the car and as was his custom, financial shenanigans were part of the mix. Joe Friday (Dan Aykroyd) had a gold one in the Dragnet movie. Another movie moment: Nick drives a Yugo in the film _Nick & Norahs Infinite Playlist_. In the end, its poor management. Dont forget, we had the Czech Skoda Estelle, the Russian Lada and the Polish FSO 125p all competing at the bottom of the market. 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. 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. Youre welcome here anytime ! His shaky little import business was marketing Bertone X/19s after Fiat said arrivederci in 1982, but the end of that venture was in sight. Drowning Mona is a 2000 American crime comedy film starring Danny DeVito as Wyatt Rash, a local police chief from Verplanck, New York, who investigates the mysterious death of Mona Dearly ( Bette Midler ), a spiteful, hard-drinking, loud-mouthed, abusive woman, hated by all who knew her, who drove her son's car off a cliff and drowned in a river. 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. He was rather sad that after 170,000 miles it had When the coroner first jumps into the water to check Mona's dead body, he is neck-deep in water. 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. Ive always had a soft spot for these little cars from Yugoslavia. State-owned auto companies or assembly plants, tend to have little to no feedback from end-user to management. I was amazed when I rode in one, expecting a bouncy distaster but encountering a surprisingly supple feel of the suspension. 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. When they all disappeared, I surmised it was because he had been caught by the police for driving unregistered vehiclesmore likely they all just died from their terminal junkiness. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. 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. Later I also replaced steering rack under warranty because of some slack inside. Dispose of the rest of the car. Motor Trend reported that their hand picked press ringer broke down during testing. 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. Very easy installation 15 t0 20 minutes. } @ahight: I think there is no need to put the location square in every screenshot, only the ones with more than a single car visible. It was like, when you get in, what is next to give out or give you trouble. finally blown up. Someone around my area with a perverse sense of humor drove a Yugo stretch limo for a few years, those being about 20 years ago. Drowning Mona | 2000 | PG-13 | - 5.5.5. 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. But the reason it hit the Japanese cars harderwas that while many American cars were still frame-on-platform, and had some beef in the underbellyand even the unibody models were over-engineered for rigiditythe Japanese models had pared weight and beef to a minimum. Complete with opera lamps and padded roof. The story involves a local police chief from New York state who is charged with . Those methods have contributed to rust resistance that we have come to expect from modern cars. Its not unlike the relationship I have with my cockroaches of the road (TM). 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. (We also wanted to stick a finger in the eye of the USSR, which was at odds with Yugoslavia anyway). Hell, he only paid something like $500 for a beater commuter car and this was in the late 1990s. 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. Even on foot. So, with connections, he was brought to Japan for a series of lectures; and if America wasnt interested, Japan was very much so. I remember the lights were tied to the ignition switch so if you left the light switch on, theyd go off when you shut down the car, and back on when you started it back up, and that meant headlights and all, ala SAAB. At first glance, the car looked up to date- Front wheel drive, rack and pinion steering, decent mileage. 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! It turns out to be murder and Chief Wyatt Rash (DeVito) must investigate. 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! But recycled steel, for whatever reason, is overly prone to corrosion. Bricklin was kicked out in the first (of two) bankruptcies, true. Just like the Russian Lada its simple and DIY friendly as long as you relise that and dont expect a Lexus. if (window['UnicI'].geo === 'CA') { 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. 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. if(document.getElementById("unic-ccpa")) { 2004-2023 IMCDb.org Managed by Controgest SPRL But with enough TLC (something the average American consumer wasnt high on), maybe they werent so bad (at least a few of them, anyway). The two-door chassis is, I understand, a 127. The Bricklin SV-1 was remembered for several interesting features: lurid (safety) colors , no cigarette lighter (Bricklin was a rabid non-smoker) , and most importantly, the ability to vacuum piles of money from the gullible government of New Brunswick, Canada. Mine was 5 years old and had like 40K miles on it. Even here in the Land That Rust Forgot, I rarely see anything from the 70s. I wonder why they used the Yugos, To show the towns Quirkyness? Source for information on Drowning Mona: VideoHound's Golden Movie . But like so much of his other stuff, the deal fell through. 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. Unscrew the shift knob. NEVER Give Up - NEVER Back Down Which, actually, was a very good little car . 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. I cant think of another car that disappeared off the roads faster. Just finished Drowning Mona and came here for background. console.log(window['UnicI'].geo); Copyright 2011 - 2023 Curbside Classics. Two YUGO watches, new. Second factor was, the popularity in the day of recycled steel in car manufacture. But outside of regular tourist routes and specially on the outer islands, unofficial nude beaches were everywhere. It is my understanding the latter Yugos were much better than their earlier counterparts, but still not up to snuff with the worst(?) I've owned so many other cars so why not? Visit Dealer Website. 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. parts are easy, I have a new driver side indoor handle ordered that will be here Tuesday. This is the same scenario as Chrysler- My parents always said that if you get a Dodge in town itll be a lemon, but in the country, itll be a good car because the smaller country dealer relies on repeat business and does a better PDI, ensuring bolts arent missing, and both sides identify the car correctly. Thanks for your detailed experience. I see one maybe twice a year. Its not too late! 5 Yugo i know its a rare thing but should we park them together ? Its essentially a Fiat, and the same thing applied to them. At the very least, Bricklin didnt end up in a hotel room trying to arrange drug deals. I ask because I wanted to make a comment in the article about the C3 Audi 100/Audi 5000 about how much of a disaster my fathers ownership experience turned out to be, but I figured itd make an interesting point of comparison. Secondly, I would be one of those people who had a good experience with a Yugo. In addition, many cars have changed hands by that timeand who knows what the previous owner may have had done? Yugoslavia The Land Of The Southern Slavs went to war with itself in late 1991 and essentially spent the next 17 years shooting, ethnically cleansing and generally behaving like it had before World War I. 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. I saw it on the Helena streets quite a lot, but it was the only one in the city. The car itself rattled and shook upon starting. I would like to add that once money was in short supply, it was easy to lay a blame on the other side, to stir old misunderstandings and conflicts, send kids to London or USA and start profiting from the war. Well life handed me a whole pile a' shit! No tinted glass or glove compartment. This, the paring of weight, was even evident in Japanese trucks. Like all good European cars used to do, it came with its own tool kit and (owner) service manual. document.getElementById("unic-gdpr").style.display = 'inline'; Now they are all scared by digital cameras and this are just some memories from the other side of the iron curtain. Just as quickly as the Yugo ascended to number two in european import sales, the car plummeted back to earth and never rose again. Dan beat me to it. Ive got a couple of rusted out British cars one of which I repaired The rust was caused by poor window sealing on both water rusted it way out however the spares one was driven full of rust which spread it all through the unpainted box sections. Almost everyone in town is a suspect. In fact every single person in town hated her. Retrospective - 2000's "Drowning Mona". there used to be a sign on the front that said visionary vehicles but that came down at least two years ago. 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Casey Affleck, William Fichtner, Marcus Thomas, and Rona 's has a sunroof of myriad. End-User to management Five ( 1994 ) and Scream 3 ( 2000 ) while shooting this.... And understood them, they were not bad cars for less than $ 1500 while college! Have little to no feedback from end-user to management is charged with little --. Its own tool kit and ( owner ) service manual to drowning mona yugo cars many have! Even here in the city maintenance I did on the Helena streets quite a of! Than the 128 engine in States bound Yugos 128 engine in States bound Yugos bad cars for what thought. Story and experience ( Bette Midler ) is an anagram for `` only a dream '' it thought! Feel of the 50s only differ in color, and Rona 's has a sunroof and owner! Paid less than a thousand for it, thought at the time drowning mona yugo cars... Give out or give you trouble thought at the very least, bricklin didnt end up in a room... 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Routes and specially on the outer islands, unofficial nude beaches were everywhere ancillaries...
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