Definition of "jalopy"

Dean is the perfect guy for the road because he was actually born on the road, when his parents were passing through Salt Lake City in 1926, in a jalopy, on their way to Los Angeles.

1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 1, in On the Road, Viking Press

There's only a rough track and I doubt if that jalopy of yours will make it.

2003, Terrance Dicks, Barry Letts, chapter 22, in Deadly Reunion

Through most of those early years of restless travel, he dragged his two children and his long-suffering wife, Maryann […] behind him like tin cans tied to the bumper of a jalopy that no car dealer in his right mind would take in trade.

2009 November 20, Stephen King, “Raymond Carver’s Life and Stories”, in The New York Times‎