Why "suicide" door?
 

Why is it called "suicide"
I have the little door on my Silverado PU truck too.

I think because they used to fly open in an accident on older vehicles causing people to commit suicide.

Re: Why "suicide" door?
 

Mazda calls them "Freestyle"

the term suicide doors came from the amazing engineering that ford did on the lincoln continental in the 60's. You could open the doors from inside the car, so when it was moving and you open the back door the wind well..... you get the idea...

They are called suicide doors because in the past, there was no structural support for side-impact with this style of door.

As a result, it was "suicide" to ride in the car next to one because if you got T-boned, the car would not be braced at that point for the impact and you'd be crushed.

Supposedly, the RX-8's cabin "cage" is designed to protect passengers from side impact.

I think zero's is more accurate. If you were holding onto the door, then opened it at speed, the air would catch the door, fling it open all the way... and if you were still holding onto the handle, out you went with the door.

OK, my first posting of this was that everyone is wrong, however, I did a little research and discovered that the way I remember being told about it a long time ago is probably wrong. This is what I was told.

You park it paralell at a curb. You open your door and your rear passenger is getting out along comes a car not paying particular attention, hits the passenger door and effectively cuts the passenger in three parts just like a shear cuts through paper.

In the OLD days, they had cars with doors such as this and they had a B pillar that was recessed where both doors latched, so there wasn't a problem with structural support and they have been around for far longer than the 60's Lincoln Continental.

Here is the research I could find on a quick search.

"Rear-swinging doors showed up in the early days of the automobile's history and were popular through the 1930s. The Lincoln Continental and the Ford Thunderbird had them in the '60s.

Exactly how and when suicide doors acquired their tragedy-freighted name is unknown, but the logic is apparent to Kit Foster, a past president of the Society of Automotive Historians. "I think it's obvious," Foster said. "If the latch is opened, the door gets ripped open by the air flow."

Naw, it's because if you park next to a telephone pole and too close to the curb, and THEN others park so you can't move forward or back, and THEN a truck double parks hard by the passenger side, the one telephone pole blocks BOTH DRIVER-SIDE DOORS from opening, so you're stuck in the car until you expire, effectively committing suicide. Surprised you young pups didn't know this.

another interesting side note to the suicide doors:
back when Bougatti and Mercedes were still making their cars with suicide doors, especially when they were going fast, the cars' chasis used to flex while cornering too sharply, causing the doors to open regardless of whether the handles were turned.

In the early days of automotive industry, alot of car makers used to make doors that swing out in reverse, because it was just naturally easier to open doors that way because of the way our arms move and the best way to exert force (i.e. open doors with minimal effort) was to have them swing out with hinges at the rear. especially on old style limosines, it was considered a vanity to have doors at all (cars didn't go much faster than 30mph at max so there was no real need for shielding from air otherthan a windshield. In fact, the chaffeurs usually didn't even have doors. the first doors as we know it (hinges to the front) were introduced in race cars in the early early 1900's, late 1800's as structural and safety improvements (early roadsters had no doors and you had to climb into it from above, making it extremely difficult to climb out when you have an accident) and eventually made their way to regular cars. Because most people were only used to seeing car doors open the other way, many auto manufacturers opted to included both door styles for familiarity. (also because doors with hinges at the front were considered to be roadster/racers and not cruisers/limousines). Since most people buying cars at this time were pretty wealthy people, this is an understandable marketing approach.
Nowadays (mid-1900's to today) its very hard to find "suicide" doors on cars because the inherent flaw of reverse swining doors became evident as cars became faster and more cars were built. A few automakers come out with "vintage" models every once in a while with this unique door style, but usually this is reserved to the exotic models (Saturn and RX8 being the exception). RollsRoyce? or Bentley is coming out with a sedan with suicide doors this or next year.

Also might interest ya to know that those gullwing doors you see on lambos and mercedes, deloreans etc are not used for regular cars because of its design flaws. It degrades the structural integrity of the car's cabin,chasis,etc. It requires hydraulics to work, adding uncessary weight. and it requires that the door be relatively light, making it hard to add on crumple zones, bracings, airbags, etc to the door. It is from a safety point of view, a nightmare to open after an accident, and during accidents has the tendency to open/break away and allow the passenger to be thrown out of the vehicle. Oh, and on regular day uses? (Not that you'd drive a lambo as a daily driver) those doors are a BITCH to close when you're sitting down. My uncle's Diablo was a chick magnet for sure but damn it if those doors were always in my way of getting out (smacked my head a few times) and you have to reach for it to pull it down. Although he did install that automatic door open/close thing later on, which was cool to play with.

on cars like the RX8, saturn, and your silverado having these doors, its more because of the lack of space to put in a full sized door, and the ease of use (see above) in opening these smaller doors when they swing out in reverse.

None of these explanations have anything to do with "suicide". They all sound like very unintentional types of death to me. ;)

I think the term 'suicide' is more of an ironic thing.

In the 20's Harley Davidson's had 'suicide' shifters mounted on the side of the gas tank. To shift you had to take a hand off the handle bars. Many unintensional crashes resulted leading to the term suicide for anyone stupid enough to get on one.