Jalopy - in conversations about automobiles on other threads, I find myself using this word a lot. It means an older automobile that has seen better days, that was bought for basic transportation needs, and not as a status symbol. In the U.S., you get your driver's license at 16 and can sign contracts at 18, so at some point a young man is expected to buy a car as a rite of passage. The usual pattern is to buy an old jalopy for a few hundred dollars, spend a few hundred more to fix whatever is wrong with it, then spend more money from time to time when something goes wrong, until one can afford to buy a better car.
Such such a car may also be called a banger, beater, clunker, rattletrap, bucket of bolts, junker, wreck, crate, rustbucket, flivver, hooptie, tin Lizzie, or lemon. Some of these refer to the noises an old car makes; others have to do with its condition; and others, like "crate", "flivver", and "hooptie", are terms of endearment, as is the word "jalopy". "Tin Lizzie" originally referred to the Ford Model T, but now mostly means any kind of vintage automobile that's in poor condition. A "lemon" is a car of any age that is defective, but was sold as being in good condition. Most states have "lemon laws" to protect consumers when they unknowingly buy such a car.
The above cartoon is Gaston Lagaffe with his vintage Fiat 509 (which, when Gaston first bought it, would have been about 40 years old). When the car is running at top speed, you can pick flowers from the roadside; it emits large volumes of toxic smoke; you can "water ski" on the oil slick behind the car as it moves; and the seat belts have a tendency to wrap around the rear axle, among other interesting features. Many of the problems with the car are due to Gaston's badly-thought customizations. The paint job was his idea, too! Gaston might have called his car un carriole, a horse-drawn cart or sleigh; un tas de ferraille, a pile of rust, just like English "rustbucket"; or une guimbarde, which mean a jews harp, and also (it says right here) «une vieille automobile fatiguée» (an old, worn-out automobile). I believe guimbarde is what Gaston Lagaffe's jalopy was called.
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Jalopy - in conversations about automobiles on other threads, I find myself using this word a lot. It means an older automobile that has seen better days, that was bought for basic transportation needs, and not as a status symbol. In the U.S., you get your driver's license at 16 and can sign contracts at 18, so at some point a young man is expected to buy a car as a rite of passage. The usual pattern is to buy an old jalopy for a few hundred dollars, spend a few hundred more to fix whatever is wrong with it, then spend more money from time to time when something goes wrong, until one can afford to buy a better car.
Such such a car may also be called a banger, beater, clunker, rattletrap, bucket of bolts, junker, wreck, crate, rustbucket, flivver, hooptie, tin Lizzie, or lemon. Some of these refer to the noises an old car makes; others have to do with its condition; and others, like "crate", "flivver", and "hooptie", are terms of endearment, as is the word "jalopy". "Tin Lizzie" originally referred to the Ford Model T, but now mostly means any kind of vintage automobile that's in poor condition. A "lemon" is a car of any age that is defective, but was sold as being in good condition. Most states have "lemon laws" to protect consumers when they unknowingly buy such a car.
The above cartoon is Gaston Lagaffe with his vintage Fiat 509 (which, when Gaston first bought it, would have been about 40 years old). When the car is running at top speed, you can pick flowers from the roadside; it emits large volumes of toxic smoke; you can "water ski" on the oil slick behind the car as it moves; and the seat belts have a tendency to wrap around the rear axle, among other interesting features.