jalopy

You could patch up the car, which could make it an unreliable jalopy that breaks down — leading to you having to pour more money into fixing it.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026

Many of us have experienced the insurance-rate sticker shock of upgrading from a beloved old jalopy to something newer and nicer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026

But they’ll get there—in the same way a young car-shopper starts with a beat-up old jalopy, he argued, eventually they’ll walk onto the lot in middle age looking for a pricey new Cadillac.

From Slate ● May 25, 2025

After all, the whole reason I drive a jalopy manufactured during George W. Bush’s presidency is to have an easier time paying for food.

From Salon ● Nov. 4, 2023

As we approached our cabin, I knew no one was home because our Carcachita, our old jalopy, was not parked in front.

From "The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child" by Francisco Jiménez

If there are racecars, sports cars, and beat-up jalopies alike, are the cars born into their occupation?

From Salon ● Jun. 6, 2026

No one today any longer wishes to hear jokes about nagging mothers-in-law, spendthrift wives or old jalopies, and the men and women who once told them to hardy plaudits are now forgotten.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025

Kelce has gone the extra mile, buying a onetime muffler shop to expand Operation Breakthrough’s campus and create the Ignition Lab, in which students convert dilapidated jalopies into lacquered, showroom-ready electric vehicles.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2024

Over there was the junkyard where their father fixed up jalopies, and the sheds where the family raised pigs and cows and chickens.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 3, 2023

There was no traffic on my side of the street and only a few lastminute straggling jalopies, loaded down with shameless bedding and bundles, coughed their way frantically eastward.

From Greener Than You Think by Ward Moore