<P> A bumper is a structure attached to or integrated with the front and rear ends of a motor vehicle, to absorb impact in a minor collision, ideally minimizing repair costs . The bumper was invented by Briton Frederick Simms in 1901 . Bumpers ideally minimize height mismatches between vehicles and protect pedestrians from injury . Regulatory measures have been enacted to reduce vehicle repair costs, and more recently impact on pedestrians . </P> <P> Bumpers were at first just rigid metal bars . The first bumper appeared on a vehicle back in 1897, and it was installed by Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau - Fabriksgesellschaft, a Czech carmaker . Though, the construction of the bumpers was not reliable, and they fell off the vehicle . These bumpers featured cosmetic function only . The first functional bumper, designed to absorb the impact, appeared in 1901 . It was invented and tested in Britain by Frederick Simms, and he gained patent for this invention in 1905 . After that, several carmakers tried equipping their vehicles with bumpers on random basis, but the first widespread application of bumpers showed up on the Model A by Ford back in 1927 . On the 1968 Pontiac GTO, General Motors brought forth an "Endura" body - colored plastic front bumper designed to absorb low - speed impact without permanent deformation . It appeared in a television commercial where John DeLorean hit the new car with a sledgehammer and no damage resulted . Similar elastomeric bumpers were available on the front and rear of the 1970 -' 71 Plymouth Barracuda, and in 1971, Renault introduced a plastic bumper (sheet moulding compound) on the Renault 5 . </P>

What is a bumper bar on a car
find me the text answering this question