An American couple explores the beaches and coastal towns of the west coast of Mexico driving a jalopy. The story ends with the start of WWII, compelling them to return to the States. I read this as a kid in the mid-1960s. I’m not sure whether it was intended for young adults or grown-ups, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
If the jalopy was called “Old Croupy”, then these are part of the exploits of Ginger and Dana Lamb. They seem to have written two books. ‘Enchanted Vagabonds’ 1938 and ‘Quest for the Lost City’ 1951.
A book detailing their lives, ‘The Enchanted Quest of Dana and Ginger Lamb’ can be consulted on the Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/enchantedquestof0000huff/mode/1up?q=%22west+coast%22+%22jalopy%22