Yugo Dealerships Caught in Middle of Ethnic Clash
Pity the Yugo. Auto writers greeted with sneers the introduction in August, 1985, of the $3,990 subcompact. Now here come the Croatians.
You’ve never heard of the Croatians?
A small band of expatriates fighting for the independence of their tiny region in northwestern Yugoslavia has taken the struggle to Yugo dealerships across America. Unsuspecting car shoppers confront horror stories of Croatia’s alleged oppression by Serbians, another Yugoslav ethnic group. But Yugo America, the car’s U.S. distributor, denies that pickets have hurt sales.
Six California auto dealerships have stopped selling the Yugoslav-made car this year, including three dealerships that the Croatian National Congress has picketed. But all three say the Yugoslav separatists’ objections did not figure in the decision to give up their franchises.
“I simply more than anything else didn’t have the space--the picketers didn’t have any effect.” said Philip Young, co-owner of Crossroads Chevrolet. “I was selling cars with them dancing up and down the other side of the street.”
The North Hollywood dealership was picketed early this year, together with Ron Greenspan VW/Subaru in San Francisco and Ogner Motors in Woodland Hills. Young said he made a significant profit selling his Yugo signs and other equipment to Saunders Ford Yugo in Mission Hills, which began selling Yugos on May 12.
In the last 11 months, the Croatian National Congress has staged protests outside two dozen dealerships nationwide and distributed 250,000 fliers quoting auto writers critical of the car, said Nikola Jurisic, a spokesman for the group.
“The person who takes our flyer in their hand will never buy a Yugo,” he said.
Yugo America, headquartered in Upper Saddle River, N.J., nonetheless sold 27,031 cars in the first six months of 1987, up 128.3% from the first half of 1986, said Fran Jacobs, vice president of public relations. The company has expanded from 255 to 313 dealerships so far this year, she said.
The parent firm is a workers’ cooperative, Jacobs said, whose members vote their own wages and fringe benefits.
Protests by the Croatian National Congress have not hurt sales much if at all, she added. “Our dealers have not complained that they have had any dire effects.”
Yugoslavia is a southeast European country the size of Wyoming with a patchwork of 16 ethnic groups, she said. Croatia is a region in northwestern Yugoslavia whose historic center is the city of Zagreb.
“We think that Croatia is an occupied country,” Jurisic said, arguing that Serbians from the area around the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade have dominated the country’s government and army for decades. The Croatian National Congress seeks the creation of an independent country in Croatia.
The group has a U.S. membership of about 2,000 and does not protest Yugoslavia’s current socialist government for ideological reasons, he said. “Maybe some of the Croatians are anti-Communist, but we don’t think in these terms.”
Jurisic said 10 to 12 Croatians living in Southern California would picket Westway Lincoln Mercury in Van Nuys this weekend. West-way began selling Yugos on May 1.
Ron Berman, part owner and general manager of the dealership, said he was not worried about Jurisic’s protest and hoped the publicity would increase sales. “I’m not in politics, especially Yugoslavian politics.”
He added: “If he tells me how many people are coming, I’ll have food for them.”
