A bumper is a part of a car designed to allow one vehicle to push another and to withstand the impact from collisions. Bumpers were originally made of heavy steel but in later years have been constructed of rubber, plastic, or painted light metal leaving them susceptible to damage from even minimal contact. For the most part, these vehicles cannot push, or be pushed by, another vehicle.
The fun of bumping one car into another led to the creation of bumper cars at amusement parks. These small cars are designed to fit one or at most two people and crashed into each other consistently.
Brush guards, push bars, etc. have been added to bumpers of automobiles, pickups, trucks, and utility vehicles since at least the 1920s to provide additional protection to the vehicle.
Bumper is also the name of a sounding rocket used between 1949 an 1952 consisting of a V2 as launch stage and a WAC-Rocket as second stage.
See also