A decrepit car is a car that is often old and damaged and is in a barely functional state. There are many slang terms used to describe such cars, such as beater, clunker, chod, flivver, hooptie/hoopty, jalopy, old banger (most commonly used in the UK), but the most popular being junk car.
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, abandoning a vehicle on the road as a parked car is illegal in many jurisdictions and if a vehicle remains parked, the local authority commonly tows it to the scrapyard.[1][2] Some owners choose to keep the vehicle. These old, neglected, and oftentimes 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.
- ^ "Abandoned Vehicle Law & Legal Definition". definitions.uslegal.com. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
- ^ "Reporting an abandoned vehicle". Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 31 August 2011.