Jalopy

"Old car" redirects here. Note, however, this article is about old, rusty, dilapidated, damaged or dysfunctional cars rather than well kept antique cars.

a typical decrepit car

a decrepit Ford Festiva

A jalopy (American English), bomb (Australian English) or banger (British English) is a decrepit car, often old and in a barely functional state. A jalopy is not a well kept antique car, but a car which is mostly rundown or beaten up.

When a vehicle gets to a state in which its maintenance becomes too expensive, its owner can be required to make a decision about its fate. Some owners abandon it on the road as a parked car (an action forbidden by law in many jurisdictions). If it remains parked the local authority commonly tows it to the scrapyard. Other people may then sell it (or deliver it) to be stripped for spare parts for use in other vehicles.

During the 1930s, the market for used cars first started to grow, and decrepit cars were often a poor man's form of transport. Cheap dealers could obtain the cars for very little, make aesthetic adjustments, and sell the car for much more. Early hot rodders also purchased decrepit cars as the basis for racers, and early stock car racing was called banger racing in the United Kingdom and "jalopy racing" in the United States.

Terminology

Australian English

In Australian slang the terms rust bucket, old bomb or bomb are used to refer to old, rusty and/or rundown cars.

British English

In British slang the terms clunker, old rust bucket or simply bucket are used to refer to decrepit cars but the favored term is old banger, often shortened to banger. The origin of the word is unknown, but could refer to the older poorly maintained vehicles' tendency to back-fire.

American English

In American slang clunker, old rust bucket and bucket are also used. So too are beater and the more urban hooptie, which gained some popularity from the humorous song My hooptie by Sir Mix-a-Lot. The word jalopy was once common but is now somewhat archaic. Jalopy seems to have replaced flivver (1910), which in the early decades of the twentieth century also simply meant "a failure". Other early terms for a wreck of a car included heap, tin lizzy (1915) and crate (1927), which probably derived from the WWI pilots' slang for an old, slow and unreliable aeroplane.

Of unknown origin, jalopy was noted in 1924. It is possible that the non Spanish-speaking New Orleans-based longshoremen, referring to scrapped autos destined for scrapyards in Jalapa, Mexico, pronounced the destination on the palettes "jalopies" rather than multiples or possessive of Jalapa.

A 1929 definition of jalopy reads as follows: "a cheap make of automobile; an automobile fit only for junking". The definition has stayed the same, but it took a while for the spelling to standardize. Among the variants have been jallopy, jaloppy, jollopy, jaloopy, jalupie, julappi, jalapa and jaloppie.

Jalopy was is frequent use in the 1930s^{[citation needed]} but is now slightly passé. The term was used extensively in the book On the Road by Jack Kerouac, first published in 1957, although written from 1947. John Steinbeck spelled it gillopy in In Dubious Battle (1936):

"Sam trotted off toward the bunk houses, and London followed more slowly. John Weir the Great, King of the Nords and Jim circled the building and went to the ancient Ford touring car. 'Get in, Jim. You drive the gillopy.' A roar of voices came from the other side of the bunk house. Jim turned the key and retarded the spark lever. The coils buzzed like little rattlesnakes."

The term was also used throughout the history of Archie Comics, specifically referring to Archie Andrews' red, open-top antique car.

North American Native slang

A rez car (short for reservation car) is a form of jalopy in use on Indian reservations in the United States and Indian reserves in Canada. The culture of the rez car was explored in the documentary film Reel Injun, and also figured briefly in the feature film Smoke Signals.

Racing class

A jalopy was an old-style class of stock car racing, often raced on dirt American ovals. It was originally a beginner class behind midgets, but vehicles became more expensive with time. Jalopy races began in the 1930s and ended in the 1960s. The race car needed to be from before around 1941. Notable racers include Parnelli Jones.

See also

• Banger racing
• Cash for Clunkers
• Depreciation
• Lemon (automobile)
• Demolition Derby

External links

How to Get Rid of an Old Car - WikiHow article on getting rid of a decrepit car