Skip to Content

Types Of Car Doors : Here’s A Complete List

Types Of Car Doors : Here’s A Complete List

You might see a wide variety of cars while traveling on the road. Even movies, TV serials, and advertisements show cars that come with a lot of unique and appealing features.

One noticeable aspect of cars is their doors and the way they look and open. These doors come in many varieties and have lots of different features that usually entail certain added benefits.

Here are some of the types of car doors that you will notice in different cars, including the sedans, SUVs, and even luxury cars:

Types Of Car Doors:

1. Regular/Conventional car doors

The conventional car doors are seen on most cars on the road. These doors are hinged at the front-facing edge of the door, which allows the door to open outwards from the car’s body.

These doors are considered relatively safer because of their low probability of unlatching during your car journeys.

The wind resistance while the car is moving at speed also prevents the door from opening by accident and injuring any other drivers on the road.

You can found these doors in a wide range of cars, including low-budget cars and luxury cars.

2. Gull-wing doors

Jean Bugatti first designed these doors for his very own model of the car called the Bugatti 64.

He was inspired by the wings of a seagull, which led him to design the Gull-wing door hinged at the roof and open upwards. These became popular in 1952. These doors are also known as up-doors or falcon-wing doors.

It can open to about 27.5 centimeters in the upward direction. This design helps cars in crowded cities where there is often limited space for parking.

Since these doors require a minimal amount of side space, it gives the owner the ability to enter and exit the car at ease.

Due to their aesthetically pleasing design and practical nature, these doors have also been used to construct specific aircraft like the Socata TB series of France.

3. Scissor Doors

Scissor doors are one of the most stylish car doors that give the car a beautiful appearance. The scissor doors are quite popular among the masses and are known by various names like beetle-wing doors, wing doors, switchable doors, Lamborghini doors, etc.

Unlike the conventional doors that open outwards, the scissor doors are unique doors that swing up vertically while opening.

The front side of the door is attached with a frontal hinge that allows the car doors to open in a way that closely resembles the opening of a scissor’s blades, which is the reason behind their name.

The first scissor door was invented and used by the car brand called Alfa Romeo Carabo. Since then, many luxury car brands, including Ferrari, Lamborghini, and McLaren, have been using these car doors.

These doors are in high demand because of their practicality and their usefulness.

They are preferred in countries with limited parking spaces as these doors allow you to the facility to park the car even in a tight space.

However, you will need to ensure that the parking space ceiling is not too low as the door might hit the ceiling and suffer some damage while you try to get out of the car.

4. Butterfly Doors

Butterfly doors are often confused with scissor doors due to certain similarities in their designs.

However, there is a slight distinctive difference in the manner these doors open and close.

Unlike scissor doors that open straight up with the help of hinge points located at the bottom of the A-pillar, butterfly doors are made so that the doors swing up and out with the help of hinges placed along the A-pillar.

Their design and the mechanism provide the user with more space than the scissor doors for entering and exiting the car.

It has a comparatively wider opening than the scissor doors, making it harder to park in tight spaces and parking areas with a low ceiling.

You might have to compromise a bit with practicality for the unique and appealing design of these doors.

It is found among many car models like the BMW i8, BMW Z1, Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren, Saleen S7, Ferrari LaFerrari, etc.

5. Swan Doors

These doors have a close resemblance to the conventional doors because of the similar styles of opening.

But, it has a broader opening space than any other type of car door. The styles of these doors are so elegant that it tends to attract a lot of people.

The names of these doors are apt for the design as it resembles the elegance and beauty of a swan.

These doors are quite practical as they save a lot of parking space. You do not have to worry about the height of the ceiling of the parking area s the door does not open upwards.

These doors are found in cars like Aston Martin CC100 Speedster, Aston Martin DB9, the Rapide, etc.

6. Suicide Doors

These vehicle doors are hinged at the rear end instead of the frontal part, which is evident in the conventional doors.

These doors are also known as coach doors and were initially used on horse-drawn carriages, and other such traditional transport means. 

These doors are popularly named suicide doors because of the flaw in their design, making it more susceptible to accidents that could injure the passengers.

These doors are no longer in use because of their impracticality and the dangers associated with them.

A person entering pr exiting through this door has a higher chance of getting hit to be another vehicle on the road. It also increases the passenger’s chances of falling out of the door if they forget to use a seatbelt.

Although these coach doors are no longer used in automobiles, Rolls Royce is one of the very few companies that employ such a mechanism in their cars’ specific models.

However, utmost importance is given to the riders’ safety and their overall experience of using the car.

7. Sliding Doors

Popularly used in minivans, vans, and buses, the sliding doors are among the most practical and useful types of doors found in the world.

These doors are suspended from a track at the bottom of the door to slide horizontally.

This feature increases the space for entering and exiting the vehicle, making it easy to carry large and bulky items in the car.

Kaiser Darrin was one of the first popular cars to use this door in the year 1954.

Although the sliding doors are not used much nowadays because of innovations and improvements in technology, they will remain evergreen to improve the way people travel.

Conclusion:

Car doors are an essential building block of the vehicle.

If you are considering buying your car, you need to access the different benefits you expect from your car and choose accordingly. It is better to choose a car door based on practicality rather than merely its look.


 

Useful links:

1. http://www.ijmer.com/papers/Vol4_Issue9/Version-1/A0409_01-0108.pdf

2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265258886_Numerical_Study_of_Automotive_Doors

3. https://globaljournals.org/GJRE_Volume12/4-Automotive-Door-Design-and-Structural.pdf