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Cars Blog

Rear-hinged doors make comeback

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April 9, 2008 10:05 am
By Peter C. T. Elsworth

door.jpg

The "coach doors" on Rolls-Royce's Phantom Drophead Coupe

Reappearing on several cars are doors hinged toward the rear of the vehicle, instead of the usual front-hinged variety, according to USA Today. Most car nuts know them as "suicide" doors.

Call them freestyle doors, coach doors or club doors. Just don't call them suicide doors. Not unless you want to see an auto executive come unhinged.

The latest is the Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupé, unveiled last month in Geneva by the BMW-owned brand and to be displayed in the USA for the first time at a collector car show in Carmel, Calif., in August.

The big, rear-hinged "coach doors" on the two-door let "all passengers enter and exit more gracefully," Rolls says.

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