Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also flivv) to fail, to falter.

1912		L.J. Vance Destroying Angel vi. 74: If the production flivvers, I’ll need that thirty cents for coffee and sinkers.
1915		T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 6 Jan. [synd. cartoon] The Flivver runabout. Runs about a mile then flivvs. Try it you’ll never try another.
c.1918		‘Beside a Belgium Water-Tank’ in Peat & Smith Legion Airs (1932) 🎵 141: The motor wouldn’t wrork at all, / The alerons flivvered too.
1951		Green & Laurie Show Biz from Vaude to Video 568: Flivved – flopped.

2. to travel by car.

1927

Bulletin 11 Apr. 14/1: I was finding the desert a bit flat when you flivvered in.

3. of a car, to go fast.

1921

Dos Passos Three Soldiers 77: The flivvers flivved all right, but the hell of it was we got so excited about the race we forgot about the sergeant an’ he fell off an’ nobody missed him.