Decrepit car

A decrepit car is a car that is often old and damaged and is in a barely functional state. Numerous slang terms are used to describe such cars, which vary by country and region, including hoopty, jalopy, shed, clunker, lemon, banger, bomb, beater, rust bucket, voodoo, wreck, or rattletrap.

Age, neglect and damage tend to increase the expense of maintaining a vehicle. The vehicle may reach a point where this expense would be considered to outweigh the value of keeping it. Such vehicles are generally stripped for parts or abandoned; however, some owners choose to keep the vehicle. These old, neglected and often barely functional cars have been used not only for transport but also as racing vehicles. Their use has earned them a place in popular culture.

History

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.