To sum up Vuic’s work, good things come to those who wait. I wanted that book the day I read the review in C&D. (I actually ended up waiting over a month after the public debut, but that was to get the best price—another story in itself!)
Not unlike the Yugo (0 – 60 in 14 seconds), this book starts off slow, but eventually it gets moving. The first few chapters present a lot of history behind the development and industry of Communist Eastern Europe. Many names and places are introduced. You know what would be great? A persons guide, perhaps near the index. So often I find myself asking, “Ok, now who’s Frank again?” when a character reappears after his or her initial intro.
One person I couldn’t forget after reading this book is the man who made Yugo of America happen: Mr. Malcom Bricklin. Bricklin’s life is the sad tale of one failed business venture (usually in automotive / heavy machinery) after another. Yet somehow the man always seems to rebound from bankruptcy and failure to start some new off-the-cuff company and round up big-pocket investors.
One of Brickin’s early ventures was bringing the Subaru 360 to America. While decried even in the 1960s as an unsafe little car, once Bricklin gave up control, Subaru of America grew into the prosperous automaker that it is today. Thanks Brickin, you’re the reason I drive a 2009 Legacy.
The Yugo officially went on sale in America just 13 days after I made my debut: August 26, 1985. It had taken roughly nine months to turn the squalid manufacturing operation in Zastava, Yugoslavia into a shop capable of putting out vehicles in line with (on a razor-thin margin) U.S. safety and emissions standards.
The initial buzz, public relations efforts, and eventual bad press for the Yugo all made for a very interesting case study in integrated marketing communications. Consider this: all the buzz built around the Yugo came in the days before Al Gore had invented the Internet, before Facebook, Twitter, and social media. It was a day when television and newspaper advertising reached far more people. The company’s ad agency put together some clever spots for the little car too. TV commericals can still be found on YouTube, while one print spot that portrayed the Yugo alongside the Model T and Volkswagen Beetle was particularly clever.
As Yugo began to unravel in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Vuic presents yet another case study. This one is in bad investments, the savings and loan crisis, and the recession of the early 90s. Being about five at the time, I was alive, but remember none of this. In some ways, it parallels the economic problems of today, and definitely makes for some interesting and informative reading.
The Yugo is a thoroughly researched and well-written book on a business venture gone bad. The little Yugoslavian-built hatchback undoubtedly provided late-night comedians with fodder, case studies in how not to build a car, and cheap transportation (when the car would actually start) for America. The book is divided into short, easy-reading chapters. Each begins with a pithy little Yugo joke, such as the one scrawled across the Yugo on the cover art (see photo below). A center spread provides black-and-white photographs and puts a face on some of the book’s interesting characters. My take in a Yugo-shell: Get it. Read it. It’s a good one.
The Yugo is available as a hardcover, e-book, or audio book.
MODERN DAY IRONIES
I’ve mentioned several ironies that came about in reading The Yugo. Here are a couple more. First, the Zastava-built automobile Americans knew as the Yugo was a sorely dated Fiat underneath. At one point, Chrysler expressed interest in buying Yugo of America, but had its bid rejected. Today, Fiat owns a stake in Chrysler, with options to eventually own a majority of the once-iconic Pentastar. What goes around comes around…
One more irony and I’m done. Zastava, despite being nearly destroyed in the late 1990s, continues to churn out cars today. In 2002 Bricklin jumped in and hoped to begin importing Zastava Motor Works cars under the name ZMW. There was talk of a Yugo comeback. Boravian Motor Works threatened lawsuit, and ZMW never happened. However, years ago I used to see a little car parked on my street with a BMW badge slapped on the grill. It was a Yugo. Scary thing was, having never really seen a Yugo before, I thought it may have been some old Bimmer model. Like a forerunner to today’s 1 Series. BMW would be proud, I’m sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment