Cars come with a million features, which can sometimes be hard to keep straight.
Suicide doors may not be as commonplace as they used to be, but they’re still around. What are suicide doors, anyway, and why are they called that?
We’ll take a look at the history of suicide doors in this article, some safety elements, and an explanation of how they establish themselves from other door styles. We’ll even mention some of the more popular suicide-door cars of today.
What Are Suicide Doors?
A suicide door is a car door that’s hinged at the rear rather than the front. A traditional type of car door has a hinge attached at the front. Some car manufacturers also call them by different names, like FlexDoors or coach doors.
The design allows the doors to open wider. At one time, they were extremely popular. However, they are not as popular anymore. The original suicide door concept came from original coaches or carriages, which had a design similar to French doors.
Where Did the Name Suicide Doors Come From?
At first, the French-style doors were just fine with the early cars. They allowed women to get in and out of the car with long gowns easily. But as vehicles became more popular, the doors began to look more and more dangerous.
When on the road, rear-hinged door types could open if not secured properly. The 1969 Subaru 360 models had this issue.
These cars didn’t have seatbelts at this time. So if this type of door opened while driving, it could easily cause injury.
It was also possible for a car to drive into the door once you were exiting the vehicle. If a car were coming from behind you and did not notice this, the car could push the whole door towards you, causing serious injury or even death.
And, we had seen people getting hit by the door while passengers were leaving the car as well.
Clearly, all of these dangers helped create a new nickname for the doors. Because they were considered so dangerous, these rear-hinged doors became referred to as suicide doors.
Modern Cars with Suicide Doors
#1. Rolls Royce Models.
Rolls Royce is a British luxury car. Even after BMW bought it in 2003, the lavishness remained unchanged.
Every Rolls Royce model has suicide doors. It is also the only brand that has a full range of models with suicide doors.
#2. Lincoln Continental.
You can’t buy a new Continental, but the last model had suicide doors. Lincoln doesn’t call them suicide doors; they call them coach doors.
If you see the car is modern, the suicide doors are modern. They are also not dated, so they add to the style.
#3. Mazda RX-8.
The RX-8 never got as big as the RX-7, but it has a following. The rotary car designed the doors to be convenient features offering the customer a small rear suicide door.
To open the rear suicide door, you’ll need to first open the front doors that are full-sized. Once the front doors open, there are hidden handles similar to regular doors for the suicide doors.
#4. BMW i3.
BMW is another high-end company that offers suicide doors to its consumers. The i3 has rear suicide doors that are somewhat similar to the butterfly doors of the i8.
Most people prefer the look of the i8 doors, but in reality, the i3 suicide doors are much easier to enter and exit.
#5. Toyota FJ Cruiser.
The FJ Cruiser may have been released in 2014, but it has gained quite a loyal following thanks to its retro external design. The FJ Cruiser is based around the Land Cruiser 40 Series, but has suicide doors that the original one does not.
To get to the back of the FJ Cruiser, you’ll need to open the front doors first, but it’s easier to get back there because the suicide doors make it easy to access the second row which eliminates folding the front seats down.
#6. Extended Cab Trucks
Standard cab pickup trucks consist of two front door only. There are also crew cab trucks (often referred to as full-size) with four complete doors.
Some truck manufacturers also offer an extended cab design to accommodate more passengers without employing a four-door design. Most of these trucks still include suicide doors that open once the front doors are opened.
Safety Concerns with Suicide Doors
We did a quick rundown of the safety problems with the suicide door but exploring the background is interesting also. As the automobile became the replacement for horse-drawn carriages, the suicide door became common with its French door style.
However, cars had more horsepower than carriages, made them faster. By the 1960’s muscle and sports cars were becoming the standard with speed in mind, but did not have seat belts.
In 1965, Ralph Nader wrote a book on road safety. The name of the book was “Unsafe at any Speed.”
The book speaks briefly about the Chevy Corvair and the danger of the rear-engine design. It gets into every aspect of safety. Nader felt automakers were hiding safety features that would be standard features.
As part of the safety features he mentioned, he also focused a part of his writing to the suicide door design as one of the most dangerous designs. Rear-hinged doors had both occupants and pedestrians in danger.
It is dangerous enough with it being rear-hinged. With no seat belts in the car it only makes it more dangerous if passengers were to fall out of the car should the door open unexpectedly.
Also, if a driver is getting out of the car, they have the possibility of hitting someone with the suicide door if they do not pay attention to their surroundings.
Additionally, the occupant could get trapped between the door and the body of the car if a car were to intentionally hit the door while it was open.
Butterfly vs. Suicide Doors
People usually think butterfly doors and suicide doors are the same thing, but they aren’t. Butterfly doors open upward, but they also open outward sometimes.
Suicide doors open the opposite way of regular car doors because they have their hinge at the back of the door.
Some of the most famous cars with butterfly doors is the BMW i8 from above, or any of the McLaren (there are multiple) models, the Ferrari Enzo, or the Toyota GT-One.
Scissor vs. Suicide Doors
Scissor doors are a bit different from your regular type of suicide doors. The way that the scissor door functions is by actually swinging vertically to open. This type of door is also very similar to the butterfly door, except that the butterfly door swings outward and upward.
Scissor doors have several different names. You may have heard the names wing door, switchback doors or just Lambo doors.
These doors have been nicknamed Lambo doors because almost all the Lamborghinis contain this mechanism. As a comparison, butterfly doors can be found on many different McLaren feel, thus the difference in operation from the scissor door.
In the comparison of the scissor vs. suicide doors, the scissor door does not have rear-opening operation, they are just going to simply go up instead of opening backward.
Additionally, you are not going to find a scissor door on anything other than luxury, high-performance cars, compared to suicide doors that are available on various cars.