Buggy is generally used to refer to any lightweight
automobile
A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
with
off-road capabilities and sparse bodywork. Most are built either as a
kit car
Kit may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Kit (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname
* Kit (surname), a list of people
Places
* Kit, Iran, a village in Mazandaran Province
* Kit Hill ...
or from
scratch.
History
The word ''buggy'' was originally used in England to describe a
lightweight two-wheeled carriage for one person, and later in America to describe a common 4-wheeled carriage. The term was extended to lightweight
automobiles
A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
as they became popular. As automobiles became increasingly sophisticated, the term briefly dropped out of use before being revived to describe more specialised off-road vehicles.
Types

*
Bennett buggy, a Canadian, depression era term for an automobile pulled by a horse
*
Dune buggy, designed for use on
sand dunes
*
Baja Bug, a modified
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Beetle, officially the Volkswagen Type 1, is a small family car produced by the German company Volkswagen from 1938 to 2003. One of the most iconic cars in automotive history, the Beetle is noted for its distinctive shape. Its pr ...
*
Moon buggy, nickname for the
Lunar Roving Vehicle used on the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
during the
Apollo program
The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which Moon landing, landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo followed Project Mercury that put the first Americans in sp ...
's
Apollo 15
Apollo 15 (July 26August 7, 1971) was the ninth crewed mission in the Apollo program and the fourth Moon landing. It was the first List of Apollo missions#Alphabetical mission types, J mission, with a longer stay on the Moon and a greate ...
,
Apollo 16
Apollo 16 (April 1627, 1972) was the tenth human spaceflight, crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, Apollo space program, administered by NASA, and the fifth and penultimate to Moon landing, land on the Moon. It was the second o ...
, and
Apollo 17
Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the eleventh and final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the sixth and most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on the Moon, ...
missions
*
Sandrail, a variant of the dune buggy
*
Swamp buggy, designed for use in
swamp
A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...
s
* Rock buggy, designed for use in low-speed rock-crawling applications
* Rock bouncer, designed for use in high-speed rock-crawling/bashing or very steep, off-road
hillclimb racing, typically tubular steel exoskeleton, 1000hp V8 petrol engine
See also
*
American (1902 automobile)
The American, often nicknamed as the American Gas, was a small gasoline-powered buggy manufactured by the American Motor Carriage Company in Cleveland from 1902 to 1903, and sold until early 1904. It was one of nearly two dozen American automob ...
*
Buckeye gasoline buggy
*
Citroën C-Buggy
*
High wheeler
*
Kite buggy
A kite buggy is a light, purpose-built vehicle powered by a Power kite, traction kite (power kite). It is single-seated and has one steerable front wheel and two fixed rear wheels. The driver sits in the seat located in the middle of the vehicle ...
*
Truggy
*
Volkswagen 181
*
Volkswagen Country Buggy
References
{{Set index article, cars
Car body styles
Off-road vehicles