Suicide
doors are vehicle doors which are hinged at the rear rather than
the front. The name comes from the increased danger of the door
being forced open by passing airflow if it became unlatched while
the car was moving. Because of the negative sounding name, the term
'suicide doors' is often swapped for 'rear-hinged' in major automobile
manufacturers' promotional literature.
Commonly found on prewar vehicles, suicide doors fell out of favor
with the designers since then. Although they were used on some mainstream
vehicles up to the early '70's. In more recent years suicide doors
have appeared on many crew-cab pickups and even some sports cars,
like the Mazda RX-8. The new suicide doors are generally used for
the rear doors, and usually require the front door to be opened
first, adding a degree of safety.
