City mechanics regularly struggle to find repair parts for Windsor's aging and often rundown transit buses that are well overdue for replacement.

Transit Windsor has fallen so far behind in buying new buses, it would need to spend $13.9 million to bring its fleet up to industry standards.

Forty-eight of its buses are 15 years or older, well past the projected life expectancy of 12 years, while two buses still operating daily date back to 1986, according to city staff.

Because manufacturers no longer make parts for some of the older buses, the city has been squirrelling away parts from decommissioned buses, just to keep its fleet on the road.

"When we do scrap our buses, we strip them right down so that we've got the available parts that may be needed in the future," said Pat Delmore, executive director at Transit Windsor. "It's something we regularly do, so that when a bus is scrapped and it's finished, we've gotten everything out of it that we can."

That practice doesn't instill a lot of confidence in riders like Chanel Howard. She's been on buses several times when they broke down on the side of the road. Hearing about how the city uses salvaged parts for repairs took her by surprise.

"You're putting more old-fashioned pieces to something that already doesn't run properly," she said. "I mean, what are you doing? You don't replace the old and put in more old, you replace the old and put in the new."

The city has fallen far behind in its fleet replacement. Delmore attributes a large part of the financial struggle to the elimination of federal and provincial funding for new buses, which stopped a couple years ago.

Without support from senior levels of government, coming up with the estimated $450,000 for one new bus can be a challenge. Of the city's 112 buses, an estimated 85 are on the road daily.

The city's 2016 budget indicates Transit Windsor spent between $3 million and $5 million a year on new buses since 2008, but there is no projected spending for the next three years.

Instead, the city is working with a private firm to come up with a new plan that will bring in new vehicles on a regular schedule. Researchers will estimate how much money will be needed to update the fleet in a reasonable time frame.

A draft of that report is ready and an official document could be going to council as early as January, according to Delmore.

"What we want to really do is put ourselves onto a fleet replacement plan that sees us replacing buses on a regular basis," he said.

Older buses often lead to bumpier rides, say several riders who spoke to CBC News.

"You get to those bumps and (you're) just all over the bus. You're just up and down and sideways," said Takei Jeche, a mathematics and statistics student at the University of Windsor. "They do need to replace some of the buses."

Winter can be particularly rough because the older buses let in more of the cooler temperatures," explained Layla Saumore.

"It kind of gets cold with the doors that just flap open," she said, while waiting for a bus downtown Friday.

Despite the lack of funding, the city hopes it can still get help in the coming years. Staff will be asking for money from the New Building Canada Fund to help replace buses that "have exceeded their expected useful life," according to the city's proposed 2016 budget.