Why Most Modern Cars Don’t Use “Suicide” (Coach) Doors Anymore

Automakers largely moved away from rear-hinged “suicide” doors because they are harder and costlier to make safe, quiet, and crashworthy than conventional front-hinged doors; regulations don’t ban them outright, but meeting today’s side-impact, door-latch, and ejection-mitigation standards is simpler with traditional designs. That’s why you mostly see them only on niche luxury models like Rolls-Royce or on certain extended-cab pickups, rather than mainstream cars. Here’s how safety, engineering, economics, and consumer demand converged to push these doors to the margins.

What “Suicide” Doors Are—and Why the Name Stuck

“Suicide doors” is the colloquial term for rear-hinged doors that open from the front edge of the door frame, the opposite of most modern car doors. In the early automobile era—and before that on horse-drawn coaches—rear-hinged doors were popular because they allowed easier, more graceful entry, especially for rear passengers. The grim nickname emerged decades ago because if such a door opened at speed, oncoming airflow could rip it wider open, increasing the risk of occupants being pulled outward as they tried to grab the door. Today, the industry prefers the term “coach doors.”

Safety, Regulations, and Engineering: The Core Obstacles

Several interlocking safety and structural issues make rear-hinged doors a tougher proposition under modern crash standards. Below are the most consequential reasons automakers shy away from them on mass-market cars.

• Aerodynamic “blow-open” risk if unlatched: At speed, air pressure tends to force a rear-hinged door open, not closed. Modern latches are far stronger than those of the past, but the failure mode is still less forgiving than with a front-hinged door, where airflow helps keep a door shut.
• Door-latch and retention rules: Standards such as FMVSS 206 (U.S.) and ECE regulations require robust latches/hinges and secondary locks. Meeting these with rear-hinged architectures is feasible but typically demands heavier hardware, complex interlocks, and extra testing.
• Side-impact crashworthiness: Modern side-impact rules (e.g., FMVSS 214) and IIHS tests reward strong B-pillars and predictable door deformation. Classic pillarless “suicide-door” layouts compromise this; retaining a B-pillar with coach doors is possible but adds engineering complexity and weight.
• Ejection mitigation: Requirements for side-curtain airbags and ejection mitigation (e.g., FMVSS 226 in the U.S.) increase the integration challenges for rear-hinged doors, especially ensuring the curtain covers openings reliably when doors are configured unconventionally.
• Child and misuse safeguards: To prevent inadvertent opening, many rear-hinged designs use interlocks so the rear door cannot open unless the front door is open—safer, but less convenient for daily use.

Taken together, these factors don’t prohibit coach doors—but they make the path to compliance heavier, costlier, and less space-efficient than a conventional layout, which is why most manufacturers avoid them outside of low-volume niches.

Practicality and Cost: The Everyday Trade-offs

Beyond crash performance, coach doors carry practical downsides that reduce their appeal for mainstream buyers and large-volume production programs.

• Structural packaging and weight: Reinforcing the sills, rockers, and latch areas to meet side-impact and torsional targets adds mass and cost—both unwelcome in an era of strict efficiency and range targets.
• NVH and sealing complexity: Achieving quiet cabins and durable weather sealing is easier with conventional hinge/latch geometry. Coach doors typically require more intricate seals and tuning to limit wind noise and water ingress.
• Ingress/egress trade-offs: While the opening can be wide, interlocked “rear-hinged” rear doors often require opening the front door first, which is less convenient in tight parking or when loading child seats.
• Manufacturing and service: Unique hinges, wiring routes, sensors, and locks add production complexity and reduce parts commonality, increasing both assembly costs and long-term service expenses.
• Brand and consumer perception: The term “suicide” carries negative connotations, and the feature isn’t widely requested by buyers, weakening the business case.

For mass-market vehicles, these cumulative costs and compromises typically outweigh the showroom “wow” factor—especially when simpler solutions deliver similar usability with fewer downsides.

Where You’ll Still Find Them Today

Rear-hinged doors haven’t vanished entirely. They survive where design theater, chauffeured access, or specific packaging needs justify the engineering investment.

• Rolls-Royce (current lineup): Phantom, Ghost, Cullinan, and the electric Spectre all use rear-hinged rear doors, marketed as “coach doors,” with heavy-duty latching and comprehensive structural reinforcement.
• Extended-cab pickups (select models/markets): Ford F-150 SuperCab and Nissan Frontier King Cab, for example, use smaller rear-hinged “access” doors to ease entry to rear storage or jump seats; they typically can’t be opened unless the front doors are open.
• Limited-run specials in recent years: Lincoln offered a factory “Coach Door” Continental in 2019–2020 with a stretched wheelbase and reinforced structure, illustrating that compliance is possible at luxury price points.

The common thread is low volume or specific use cases where the visual drama and access benefits justify extra cost. By contrast, many past examples—Mazda RX-8, BMW i3, Honda Element, Toyota FJ Cruiser, Saturn Ion Quad Coupe, and early Mini Clubman “Clubdoor”—demonstrated the concept’s appeal but were ultimately discontinued as market priorities shifted.

Outlook: Could New Architectures Bring Them Back?

Electric “skateboard” platforms improve floor strength and could, in theory, make coach doors easier to engineer. Indeed, luxury EVs like the Rolls-Royce Spectre show it can be done. Still, mainstream revival is unlikely: crash requirements continue to tighten, development budgets are constrained, and consumer demand largely favors conventional four-door layouts or sliding doors for maximum practicality. Expect coach doors to remain a boutique flourish rather than a mass-market comeback.

Summary

They don’t “make suicide doors” on most cars anymore because modern safety standards, structural needs (notably strong B-pillars), and ejection-mitigation requirements make rear-hinged designs more complex, heavier, and costlier to execute than conventional doors. Regulations don’t ban them outright, but compliance and practicality are significantly easier with front-hinged doors. As a result, coach doors persist mainly on high-end luxury models like Rolls-Royce and on a few extended-cab pickups, where their benefits and brand theater justify the engineering effort.

What was the last car to have suicide doors?

The most recent mass-produced model with such doors may be the Opel Meriva, followed by the Rolls-Royce Cullinan in 2018, and a few Chinese electric vehicles including the Singulato iS6 in 2018 and HiPhi X in 2020.

Why did cars stop making suicide doors?

They stopped making “suicide doors” because the design is inherently dangerous, especially in the context of modern safety standards and technology. The primary reasons were increased risk of accidents due to the doors flying open, occupant ejection, and reduced structural integrity for vehicles without a B-pillar. While they are rare on mass-produced vehicles, luxury and niche vehicles sometimes reintroduce them with modern safety interlocks and designs to mitigate these risks.
 
Safety Hazards

• Accidental opening: On the road, wind resistance can cause the door to swing open, potentially ejecting an occupant. 
• Lack of seat belts: In the era when suicide doors were common, seat belts were not standard, increasing the risk of occupants falling out. 
• Collision dangers: A side-impact accident could cause the rear-hinged door to trap a passenger between the door and the car’s bodywork, leading to serious injury. 
• Pedestrian risk: When a passenger opens a suicide door on the sidewalk side of the road, they could easily push a pedestrian into oncoming traffic. 

Structural Integrity and Regulations

• Structural weakness: Without a B-pillar (the pillar between the front and rear doors), the vehicle’s overall structural integrity is compromised. 
• Crash standards: Stricter safety regulations and crash-testing standards made it more difficult and costly to design suicide doors that meet modern safety requirements. 

Modern Solutions 

• Clamshell doors: Opens in new tabSome modern manufacturers, such as Rolls-Royce and Mazda, have reintroduced rear-hinged doors as “clamshell doors”.
• Safety interlocks: Opens in new tabThese modern versions feature interlocks and other safety systems to prevent the door from opening until the vehicle has stopped and the front door is open.

Are suicide doors banned?

No, suicide doors are not illegal; while they fell out of favor due to safety concerns in the past, modern vehicles with suicide doors often incorporate advanced safety features and are found on luxury and limited-edition models, making them a legal and stylish design choice. 
Why they are not illegal

• Modern Safety Features: Opens in new tabUnlike early models, contemporary suicide doors are engineered with automatic locking mechanisms that keep them shut when the car is in motion. 
• Seatbelt Usage: Opens in new tabPassengers are required to wear seatbelts, providing a crucial layer of protection against ejection. 
• Focus on Luxury and Design: Opens in new tabAutomakers use them on high-end vehicles to maximize the space for rear passengers, creating an elegant, iconic, and exclusive look. 

Why they were historically problematic

• Lack of Safety Regulations: Opens in new tabIn the early days of motoring, there were fewer safety regulations, and door latches and seatbelts were not as reliable. 
• Aerodynamic Forces: Opens in new tabThe air pressure on a moving vehicle could easily catch a rear-hinged door and pull it open or even rip it off its hinges, a hazard not present with front-hinged doors that are forced shut by the wind. 
• Risk of Ejection: Opens in new tabIf a door opened while the vehicle was moving, the force of the air could eject passengers from the car, which led to the “suicide door” nickname. 

What is the new name for suicide doors?

Today, suicide doors are mostly found on custom cars or luxury vehicles. Some carmakers have even reintroduced this door style in recent years, offering a retro option for modern drivers. Several manufacturers have their own names, such as coach doors or FlexDoors, to help make the feature not sound so morbid.