![1960s_Lincoln_Continental_convertible_with_suicide_doors_open](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/1960s_Lincoln_Continental_convertible_with_suicide_doors_open.jpg)
A suicide door is an
automobile door hinged at its rear rather than the front.
Such doors were originally used on
horse-drawn
A horse-drawn vehicle is a mechanized piece of equipment pulled by one horse or by a team of horses. These vehicles typically had two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers and/or a load. They were once common worldwide, but they have m ...
carriage
A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping an ...
s,
but are rarely found on modern vehicles, primarily because they are perceived as being less safe than a front-hinged door. Being rear-hinged, if the vehicle was moving and the door opened, the driver/passenger would have to lean forward and out of the vehicle to close it. As seat belts were not in common use at that time, the risk of falling out of the car and into traffic was high, hence the name "suicide door".
Initially standard on many models, later they became popularized in the
custom car trade.
Automobile manufacturers
The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industries by revenue (from 16 % such a ...
call the doors coach doors (
Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to:
* Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct
Automobiles
* Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
and
Lincoln
Lincoln most commonly refers to:
* Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States
* Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England
* Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S.
* Lincol ...
),
[ flexdoors (]Opel
Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Grou ...
), freestyle doors (Mazda
, commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan.
In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one m ...
),[ rear access doors (]Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
),[ or simply describe them as rear-hinged doors.][
]
History
Rear-hinged doors were common on cars manufactured in the first half of the 20th century,[ including the iconic Citroën Traction Avant. In the era before seat belts, the accidental opening of such doors meant that there was a greater risk of falling out of the vehicle compared to front-hinged doors, where airflow pushed the doors closed rather than opening them further.][
Rear-hinged doors were especially popular with mobsters in the ]gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...
era of the 1930s, supposedly owing to the ease of pushing passengers out of moving vehicles with the air around the moving car holding the door open, according to Dave Brownell, the former editor of ''Hemmings Motor News
''Hemmings Motor News'' (HMN) is a monthly magazine catering to traders and collectors of antique, classic, and exotic sports cars. It is the largest and oldest publication of its type in the United States, with sales of 215,000 copies per mont ...
''.[
After ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, rear-hinged doors were mostly limited to rear doors of four-door sedans
A sedan or saloon (British English) is a passenger car in a three-box configuration with separate compartments for an engine, passengers, and cargo.
The first recorded use of the word "sedan" in reference to an automobile body occurred in 19 ...
. The best-known use of rear-hinged doors on post-World War II American automobiles was the Lincoln Continental
The Lincoln Continental is a series of mid-sized and full-sized luxury cars produced by Lincoln, a division of the American automaker Ford Motor Company. The model line was introduced following the construction of a personal vehicle for Edse ...
4-door convertibles and sedans (1961–1969), Cadillac Eldorado Brougham 1956–1959 four-door sedans, and Ford Thunderbird
The Ford Thunderbird (colloquially called the T-Bird) is a personal luxury car produced by Ford from model years 1955 until 1997 and 2002 until 2005 across 11 distinct generations. Introduced as a two-seat convertible, the Thunderbird was pr ...
1967–1971 four-door sedans.[ The British ]Rover P4
The Rover P4 series is a group of mid-size luxury saloon cars produced by the Rover Company from 1949 until 1964. They were designed by Gordon Bashford.
Their P4 designation is factory terminology for this group of cars and was not in day-to ...
used rear-hinged doors at the rear. German Goggomobil saloons and coupes had two-door bodies with rear-hinged doors until 1964. The French, hand-made Facel Vega Excellence offered a four-door hardtop with a Chrysler-sourced Hemi V8 beginning in 1954.
Modern use
Pickup trucks are the only modern vehicle type that widely uses rear-hinged doors. The Ford F-150 as of the 2021 model year is available with rear-hinged doors at the rear. In 2003, the new Rolls-Royce Phantom
Rolls-Royce has used the Phantom name on full-sized luxury cars over the past century:
*Rolls-Royce Phantom I, 1925–1931
*Rolls-Royce Phantom II, 1929–1936
*Rolls-Royce Phantom III, 1936–1939
*Rolls-Royce Phantom IV, 1950&ndash ...
car (sold in the United Kingdom) reintroduced independent rear-hinged doors in luxury vehicle applications. Other luxury models with rear-hinged doors include the Spyker D8
The Spyker D8 Peking-to-Paris is a mid-size luxury crossover SUV produced by the Dutch car manufacturer Spyker Cars. The car was designed by Michiel van den Brink and introduced at the 2006 Geneva Motor Show as the D12. With a change in propose ...
and the Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe four-seat convertible. The most recent mass-produced model with such doors may be the Opel Meriva
The Opel Meriva is a car manufactured and marketed by the German automaker Opel on its Corsa platform, from May 2003 until June 2017 across two generations. Described as a mini MPV, it was marketed as the Vauxhall Meriva in the United Kingdom, w ...
, followed by the Rolls-Royce Cullinan
The Rolls-Royce Cullinan is a full-sized luxury sport utility vehicle (SUV) manufactured by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars as the brand's first all-wheel drive vehicle. It is named after the Cullinan Diamond, the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever disc ...
in 2018, and a few Chinese electric vehicles including the Singulato iS6
The Singulato iS6 is a mid-size all-electric luxury crossover utility vehicle made by Singulato, a brand from a Chinese start-up based in Beijing called Zhiche Auto. Small batch production started in late 2017 with mass production planned, , t ...
in 2018 and HiPhi X
The HiPhi X is a 6-seater all-electric battery-powered full-size luxury CUV from the Chinese new energy vehicle brand HiPhi.
Overview
HiPhi 1 Concept
The HiPhi 1 pre-production Concept was publicly unveiled on 31 July 2019 as the production- ...
in 2020. Lincoln announced that 80 limited-edition 2019 Continentals would be made with "coach" doors, marking the Continental's 80th anniversary. "A limited number of additional Continental Coach Door Edition sedans will be available for the 2020 model year, too..."
In recent years, rear-hinged rear doors that are held closed by the front doors, and cannot be opened until released by opening the front door on the same side (hinged at the front), have appeared on a number of vehicles. Such doors may be referred to as clamshell doors. Examples include extended-cab pickup trucks, the Saturn SC, Saturn Ion Quad Coupe, Honda Element
The Honda Element is a compact crossover SUV manufactured by Honda and marketed in North America over a single generation for model years 2003–2011 — and noted for its boxy exterior styling with bi-parting side doors and its boxy, flexib ...
, Toyota FJ Cruiser
The Toyota FJ Cruiser is a retro-styled mid-size SUV produced by Toyota since 2006. Introduced as a concept car at the January 2003 North American International Auto Show, the FJ Cruiser was approved for production after positive consumer respo ...
, BMW i3
The BMW i3 is a B-segment, high-roof hatchback manufactured and marketed by BMW with an electric powertrain using rear-wheel drive via a single-speed transmission and an underfloor Lithium-ion battery, lithium-ion battery pack and an optional R ...
, Mazda RX-8
The Mazda RX-8 is a sports car manufactured by Japanese automobile manufacturer Mazda between 2002 and 2012. It was first shown in 2001 at the North American International Auto Show. It is the successor to the RX-7 and, like its predecessors in ...
, Mazda MX-30
The Mazda MX-30 is a subcompact crossover SUV produced by Mazda and sold as a battery electric (BEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV) or mild hybrid (MHEV) variant. Based on the CX-30, it was unveiled at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show. Production of the ...
and Fiat 500 3+1.
Rear passenger rear-hinged doors had long been used on Austin FX4
The Austin FX4 is a hackney carriage that was produced from 1958 until 1997. It was sold by Austin from 1958 until 1982, when Carbodies, who had been producing the FX4 for Austin, took over the intellectual rights to the car. Carbodies continu ...
London taxi
A hackney or hackney carriage (also called a cab, black cab, hack or London taxi) is a carriage or car for hire. A hackney of a more expensive or high class was called a remise. A symbol of London and Britain, the black taxi is a common s ...
s, discontinued on their successors the TX1, TXII
The LTI TXII is a hackney carriage (London hail taxi) manufactured by LTI. It is the second model following the modernisation and re-design of the London taxi that began with the TX1.
The vehicle has a handful of differences from its predeces ...
and TX4
The TX4 is a purpose-built taxicab (hackney carriage) manufactured by The London Taxi Company, a subsidiary of Geely Automobile of China. From 2007 until their liquidation in 2013 it was manufactured by LTI. It is the latest in a long line of p ...
, but reintroduced in the 2018 LEVC TX
The LEVC TX (previously known as the TX5) is a purpose-built hackney carriage manufactured by the British commercial vehicle maker London EV Company (LEVC), a subsidiary of the Chinese auto-maker Geely. It is the latest in a succession of purp ...
.
Several concept car
A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...
s have featured rear-hinged doors, such as the Lincoln C, a hatchback
A hatchback is a car body configuration with a rear door that swings upward to provide access to a cargo area. Hatchbacks may feature fold-down second row seating, where the interior can be reconfigured to prioritize passenger or cargo volume. ...
with no B-pillar and rear-hinged doors at the rear, or the Carbon Motors Corporation E7, a police car with rear rear-hinged doors designed to aid officers
An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," f ...
getting handcuffed
''Handcuffed'' is a 1929 American silent mystery film directed by Duke Worne and starring Virginia Brown Faire, Wheeler Oakman and Dean Jagger.Munden p.322
Synopsis
Gerald Morely's father is ruined in a stock fraud and commits suicide. When sho ...
passengers in and out of the back seat. The Kia
Kia Corporation, commonly known as Kia (, ; formerly known as Kyungsung Precision Industry and Kia Motors Corporation), is a South Korean multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It is South Korea's second lar ...
Naimo, an electric
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...
concept car, also has rear suicide doors.
Other car manufacturers which have produced models with suicide doors include Citroën
Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...
, Lancia
Lancia () is an Italian car manufacturer and a subsidiary of FCA Italy S.p.A., which is currently a Stellantis division. The present legal entity of Lancia was formed in January 2007 when its corporate parent reorganised its businesses, but it ...
, Opel
Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Grou ...
, Panhard
Panhard was a French motor vehicle manufacturer that began as one of the first makers of automobiles. It was a manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its final incarnation, now owned by Renault Trucks Defense, was formed ...
, Rover
Rover may refer to:
People
* Constance Rover (1910–2005), English historian
* Jolanda de Rover (born 1963), Dutch swimmer
* Rover Thomas (c. 1920–1998), Indigenous Australian artist
Places
* Rover, Arkansas, US
* Rover, Missouri, US
...
, Saab
Saab or SAAB may refer to:
Brands and enterprises
* Saab Group, a Swedish aerospace and defence company, formerly known as SAAB, and later as Saab AB
** Datasaab, a former computer company, started as spin off from Saab AB
* Saab Automobile, a fo ...
, Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
, Škoda
Škoda means ''pity'' in the Czech and Slovak languages. It may also refer to:
Czech brands and enterprises
* Škoda Auto, automobile and previously bicycle manufacturer in Mladá Boleslav
** Škoda Motorsport, the division of Škoda Auto respons ...
, Studebaker
Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, with a building at 1600 Broadway, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers M ...
, Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...
, Mazda
, commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan.
In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one m ...
and Volkswagen
Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...
.
File:HiPhi X 008.jpg, 2021 HiPhi X
File:BMW i3 - Side Doors open (cropped).jpg, 2013 BMW i3
The BMW i3 is a B-segment, high-roof hatchback manufactured and marketed by BMW with an electric powertrain using rear-wheel drive via a single-speed transmission and an underfloor Lithium-ion battery, lithium-ion battery pack and an optional R ...
File:Saturn ION silver 4-door coupe doors.jpg, Saturn Ion coupe 2002—2008
File:Lincoln-concept-Suicide-Doors.jpg, A Lincoln concept car (Lincoln C) from 2009 with rear suicide doors, left side doors open. Note that there is no B-pillar
The pillars on a car with permanent roof body style (such as four-door Sedan (automobile), sedans) are the vertical or nearly vertical supports of its window area or Greenhouse (automotive), greenhouse—designated respectively as the ''A, B, ...
and therefore there are two pillars, A and C.
Advantages
Rear-hinged doors make entering and exiting a vehicle easier, allowing a passenger to enter by turning to sit and exit by stepping forward and out. This is important for passengers who need to make a dignified entrance; the UK State Bentley has rear-opening passenger doors that are broader than usual and open very wide, allowing the monarch to exit the car in a dignified way.
In combination with traditional front doors, rear-hinged doors allow chauffeurs easier access to the rear door. In Austin FX4
The Austin FX4 is a hackney carriage that was produced from 1958 until 1997. It was sold by Austin from 1958 until 1982, when Carbodies, who had been producing the FX4 for Austin, took over the intellectual rights to the car. Carbodies continu ...
taxis, drivers were able to reach the rear exterior door handle through the driver's window without getting out of the vehicle.
Rear-hinged doors also allow a better position for a person installing a child seat into the back seat of a vehicle than conventional doors, while being simpler and cheaper to build than the sliding doors
A sliding door is a type of door which opens horizontally by sliding, usually horizontal to a wall. Sliding doors can be mounted either on top of a track below or be suspended from a track above. Some types slide into a space in the parallel ...
commonly used on minivans
Minivan (sometimes called simply as van) is a North American car classification for vehicles designed to transport passengers in the rear seating row(s), with reconfigurable seats in two or three rows. The equivalent classification in Europe i ...
. The Opel Meriva
The Opel Meriva is a car manufactured and marketed by the German automaker Opel on its Corsa platform, from May 2003 until June 2017 across two generations. Described as a mini MPV, it was marketed as the Vauxhall Meriva in the United Kingdom, w ...
B compact MPV
Compact MPV (an abbreviation for Compact Multi-Purpose Vehicle) is a vehicle size class for the middle size of MPVs. The Compact MPV size class sits between the mini MPV and large MPV (minivan) size classes.
Compact MPVs remain predominantly a ...
introduced in 2010 had such doors.
The combination of front-hinged front doors and rear-hinged rear doors allows for a design without the B-pillar
The pillars on a car with permanent roof body style (such as four-door Sedan (automobile), sedans) are the vertical or nearly vertical supports of its window area or Greenhouse (automotive), greenhouse—designated respectively as the ''A, B, ...
, creating a large opening for entering and exiting the vehicle.
Disadvantages
When front doors are directly adjacent to rear suicide doors, exiting and entering the vehicle can be awkward if people try to use the front and back doors at the same time.
There are also a number of safety hazards:
* Aerodynamic
Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dyn ...
factors forcing rear-hinged doors open at speed in older cars. In 1969, '' Consumer Reports'' reported this problem on a Subaru 360
The Subaru 360 is a rear-engined, two-door city car manufactured and marketed from 1958 to 1971 by Subaru. As the company's first automobile, production reached 392,000 over its 12-year model run.
Noted for its small overall size, 1,000 lb ...
.
* If a person not wearing a seat belt falls out of a moving car with a coach door, the door can catch them and drag them along the road at speed, causing serious injuries.
* If a person exits a vehicle while parallel parked and a car hits the door from the rear, the person would be crushed instead of the door being ripped off.
Car manufacturers mitigate these hazards with such safety features as seat belts, and locks requiring front-hinged doors be open before permitting rear-hinged doors to open.
See also
*Butterfly doors
Butterfly doors are a type of car door sometimes seen on high-performance cars. They are slightly different from scissor doors. While scissor doors move straight up via hinge points at the bottom of a car's A-pillar, butterfly doors move up and ...
* Canopy doors
*Gull-wing door
In the automotive industry, a gull-wing door, also known as a falcon-wing door or an up-door, is a car door that is hinged at the roof rather than the side, as pioneered by Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, first as a race car in 1952 ( W194), and then a ...
s
*List of cars with non-standard door designs
This is a list of cars with non-standard door designs, sorted by door type. These car models use passenger door designs other than the standard design, which is hinged at the front edge of the door, and swings away from the car horizontally and ...
*Scissor doors
Scissor doors (also called flap doors, wing doors, beetle-wing doors, turtle doors, switchblade doors, swing-up doors, upswing doors, Lamborghini doors, and Lambo doors) are automobile doors that rotate vertically at a fixed hinge at the front o ...
*Sliding doors
A sliding door is a type of door which opens horizontally by sliding, usually horizontal to a wall. Sliding doors can be mounted either on top of a track below or be suspended from a track above. Some types slide into a space in the parallel ...
*Swan doors Swan doors, or swan-wing doors, are a name given to a type of door sometimes seen on high performance or concept cars. Swan doors operate in a similar way to conventional car doors, but they open at an upward angle. This design helps to clear curb ...
References
{{Use dmy dates, date=April 2020
Automotive styling features
Car doors