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I guess my 42 year old Saab 96 V4, "Spökplumpen" (swedish for the Disney character Phantom Blot) may be something of a jalopy. Perhaps the most obvious clue is not only that when it was raining, my dog in the trunk god wet, I also got wet on my left shoulder (window side) while driving, because of water getting thrown out from the left rear wheel through a rust hole. I just put a plastic bag in the hole and said nothing to the family. To improve the car I first painted it black with paintbrush and a roller, then cut the springs 2", put on wider tyres on home-widened rims and installed a really good competition engine.
Phantom Blot have served my family well as our 24/7 car all year round for a number of years, but accidentally got down-graded to a summer only enthusiast car about two years ago because of a 20 year old ****ty Audi A4 I got for free, and that just refuses to die. Bloddy germans! The Audi is made of plastic and electronics, so it isn't easy to repair along the road. I love to hate it, and I hate to love it. Luckily, the rust is slowly taking it, and to pass the annual MOT approval I had to cut away a huge chunk of what used to be a front fender to get rid of "sharp edges". Why bothering to cover holes up with fiberglass?
Here in Sweden, in Denmark and England is a growing community/culture under the name Rat ******* Crew. -Google for images and you will find a lot of nice cars! :-)
And remember: No car at all can be called a true environmental-friendly car, and only the oldest beaten-up well used cars can be called the least environmental-unfriendly cars, simply because they have been along for so many years and miles without need for being replaced by something new. Putting the entire manufacturing of a new car into the total ecological and energy equation tells us that the best we can do is to keep our old pieces of junk running, with duct-tape if needed, as long as possible.
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