[pkk077]

Originally Posted by TrackDay

Although I am young and don't have any back issues or anything, a few years ago I stumbled upon a similar video and this is how I enter and Exit a car. Might be useful and do share and try it out. Could be useful for someone.

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=tmkfrJnTA9o

I don't think this is correct at all based upon my personal experience. I suffer from lower back problems and if I do this even once, I suspect I might end up spraining my back badly, specially while getting out. Car seats are not like flat benches that you would turn both your legs out and slide up and away. They are contoured on the sides and you will end up kind of jumping out of a bucket which requires extra effort and at that very point, I would get a major sprain. Even in the video, you can almost see that more pressure is being put on the back while getting out using their recommended method.

[Alfresco]

Taking my mother places, with her back and leg problems is not easy.
Out of all the cars we have, she finds getting into the front passenger seat of our first gen Innova to he the easiest. The seat is close to the door and at hip height for easy access.
In most sedans or hatchbacks, getting into the front seat with their wide doors is easier than getting into the back seat.
But most cars are either too low or too high and, as a 6 footer, even I find it cumbersome getting into low cars.

[SS-Traveller]

My maternal grandfather used to have a Sunbeam Talbot 10, and the only thing I remember about the car was that the doors (both front and rear) opened on rear hinges. It was sold when I was 5 or 6 years old AFAIR.

I subsequently learnt to drive in a Morris-8, which had front suicide doors.

On and off over 10-12 years, I have had multiple issues with my back (injuries, torn ligament, prolapsed disc), and have had to sell all my low-slung cars (a Zen and an Accent Viva) because of extreme difficulty in getting in and out. The subsequent cars (a Swift, and later, a Scorpio) allowed me to "walk in" rather than "stoop in" to get into the seat. The hinge being in the front did not make matters difficult at all.

OTOH, when one parks in a confined space and cannot open doors wide (a common occurrence in urban India), it would be impossible to slip into / out of the car with the door hinged at the rear and opened only halfway. I speak from personal experience, since the Morris-8 needed to be parked in a very narrow space, and the doors would not open wide.

[Raghu M]

Originally Posted by TrackDay

Although I am young and don't have any back issues or anything, a few years ago I stumbled upon a similar video and this is how I enter and Exit a car. Might be useful and do share and try it out. Could be useful for someone.

This is useful but the technique only works for low slung sedans. Try the same in one of the crossover SUVs, it would take more effort to get out as there wouldn't be enough support for the elderly to just put both feet down in one go. In all probability they would trip and fall down.

[carthick1000]

I have lived with a BMW i3 for a few months, which has front-hinged-front and rear-hinged-rear doors . It is one of the best city cars I have ever used. Light, nimble, silent, sure-footed EV. A good seating height with a lot of visibility. Because of it's high strength CFRP (Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic) passenger module, BMW got away with the B-Pillar completely. I can easily ingress/egress from it.

All is well and good, until you start to use it on a day to day basis. See the design and placement of the front seatbelt, rear door catches, front door catch and locks:



Front seatbelts and front door catch are on the rear doors.

Situation 1:
When you park it next to another car with driver/co-passenger in front and rear passenger needing to get out from same side, then driver/co-passenger in front and rear passenger both get out and are stuck between the doors and the car next to it.

Then we start out co-ordinated ballet dance ie. driver to first get out, move out of the space between 2 cars, then the passenger gets out, closes rear door first and then the front door. Note the sequence of opening and closing. Open front door, then rear door, get out ,close rear first and then the front. Otherwise, the doors won't lock. Or worst case, you damage the doors.

Situation 2
BMW, by removing the B-pillar had to have the front seat belt in the rear door. If you want to drop just your rear passenger out of the car curbside in heavy rain: you have to release your seatbelt, open your door, open rear door, let passenger out, close rear door, then front door and put seatbelt on. By this time, half of the car is wet.

So, if someone is driven in a Rolls-Royce or a Bentley with this type of doors, probably they won't be parking/dropping people themselves at supermarkets, shopping mall parkings, street parkings, roadside curbs. I think this is one of the reasons, that OEMS stick to normal doors, unlike BMW they still need to have the B-pillar and it does nothing but supporting the structure and holding the rear doors. So they can skimp (read save costs) on the rear quarter panels

[roby.thomas]

Originally Posted by TrackDay

I stumbled upon a similar video and this is how I enter and Exit a car. Might be useful and do share and try it out. Could be useful for someone.

I don't exactly remember where and which car model, but I've seen a video of a car that has swivel seat much like your office/computer workstation chair. There are lot of such adaptations seen in YouTube,

https://youtu.be/GG_jFUTSZ08

but I remember there was one built right in the car by manufacturer. Does someone remember it ?

[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by roby.thomas

But I remember there was one built right in the car by manufacturer. Does someone remember it ?

This was discussed here (TurnPlus: A car seat that allows easy ingress & egress for the disabled).

[landcruiser123]

Other than the natural direction of the closing of the door, another reason might be something to do with construction too. Mass market cars designed for crash safety have the highest chassis strength towards the front of the car. So, I'm guessing most of the torsion & load-bearing members are in the front part and these are the most convenient places to hinge doors.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Aerodynamics is, in my opinion (with a little bit of knowledge on the subject) irrelevant, from a practical point of view, for a vehicle whose life time average speed is likely to be 50 to 60 kmph. Energy loss due to tyre friction, transmission losses and many others count for a lot more in a slow moving vehicle like a car than aerodynamics. But aerodynamics makes a great selling point as does making the car dashboard look like a cockpit. In cars aerodynamics only starts making a small, very small, impact at say a running speed of 120 to 140 kmph.

Aerodynamics probably matter more in places (like the US) where care are driven a lot on highways. Since most cars are designed for those markets, the same designs trickle down. Also, it is cheaper to make cars with lesser metal.

[Arun_S]

Originally Posted by VKumar

Instead of going to higher segments, I would prefer to keep myself confined to the more affordable class. And from all the experience I have had, both the cars with best ingress and egress, both front and back, belong to the same company in my list:

Sir, based on my personal experience i would like to at add one more car from the same stable.

Celerio is good, specially the front seats. This is based on the feedback from my parents, plus i have seen lot of seniors driving it.

[alphadog]

Originally Posted by VKumar

Ertiga / XL6: Perfect height of the seat and large doors, both front and rear. Make for an extremely easy and comfortable ingress and egress for anyone of height 5'5" and above.

I absolutely agree with you on this one. My father who is in his early 70s, drives the new Ertiga and he swears by its ergonomics. Especially the ease of ingress and egress. He loves to drive his car as well. In addition, the rear seats are placed at the right height too and the rear door is wide which makes it easy for not only elderly but for all to get in and out.

Having said that, my Hexa is a tall car, but my dad absolutely loathes getting in and getting out of my car. He has to climb and haul himself in, the front and rear are equally bad. He is ok with my smaller Micra. I guess in any case the low slung sedans are inherently difficult for the elderly and the less flexible among us. The tall body designs can not all be considered a solution to this issue. Some come with a high floor, like Hexa, Fortuner and the Endeavour. This too makes things difficult.

Coming to think of it, it would be nice if the coach type doors were offered in some vehicles. I can imagine it would be very easy for not only the elderly but for most of us. I always wondered why they went out of fashion.

Cheerio!

[sreejithkk]

I feel, the sliding door can provide a very similar functionality, though feasible only on SUV/MUV. I am a big fan of Minivans in the US like Odyssey, Siena etc and sliding door is the one thing that makes ingress/egress so easy. Unfortunately in India, other than Eeco, only Carnival offer the same (and erstwhile Nissan Evalia). I have the new Ertiga, and while the large doors and the seat at right height make easy ingress/egress for my parents, on tight parking spots, the large door is a problem, and sliding doors would have made it the best. Also apart from seat height, the door sill height also make ingress/egress easy/tough for senior citizen. My mother finds it easy to get in to my 2019 Ertiga and 2007 WagonR, but find it difficult to get in to Brezza. The reason is not the seat height, but she has to lift her leg more due to higher door sill in Brezza. (I never noticed this, till my mother specifically told the difference between her experience with Brezza and Ertiga)

[fhdowntheline]

Its interesting that some of the vintage cars had the coach doors as well as a running footboard extending throughout the side of the car. Bet they thought of it as a natural extension of the overall design aesthetics without putting it through CAD (or its human equivalent back in the days).
But I think the modern cars have their own user-friendly or unfriendly quirks which I attribute it more to the user than the car itself. My father, for some unfathomable reason, hated to enter the amply tall Duster to occupy the front seat. However he had no qualms about entering a Polo or a Linea (which are far more raked in at the A-pillar), but again did not like the Honda City. He is just about ok with my current Creta. He is 5-7, average build and no problems bending as such (evidently). In his opinion though, the most comfortable car for ingress-egress is the Tata Nano.

[Arjun Bharadwaj]

Reason : Center of Gravity(one of the reasons atleast)?

Along with the aerodynamics, another issue that is expected to arise is the relatively higher center of gravity which would lead to more chances of a "tip over" while driving. This would especially be applicable to vehicles that are more powerful and expected to cruise at higher speeds.

Having said that, I think manufacturers should make all efforts to provide cars with comfortable ingress and egress while maintaining a reasonable center of gravity so that people need not learn contortion techniques while entering and exiting vehicles.

[sramanat]

Originally Posted by cs_rajesh

With coach doors, I see a big difficulty, on what does one hold his / her hands while i attempt to get inside the rear through the coach door. I am accustomed to hold the door and seat myself and holding the door is a good support. With the door behind me I would find awkward to hold on to the b-pillar or ceiling of my car to get inside the rear door. Wouldn't that be quite difficult especially for elderly people?
My mother who is 73+ with hip surgery, she would not be able to get inside with coach doors, unless the seats face the rear of the car.

++ To add -
1. Once you're seated in the car, pulling the door from behind you and shutting it will be difficult compared to pulling the door from front of you. As anyone who has done the pec muscle exercise in the fly machine can attest.
2. Opening the door from inside the car forward is easier because you can see obstacles in front of you.

I think the suicide doors on Bentley or RR are meant for the chauffer driven with someone from the outside opening/shutting it. Not for proles like me.

[sramanat]

Originally Posted by Arjun Bharadwaj

Having said that, I think manufacturers should make all efforts to provide cars with comfortable ingress and egress while maintaining a reasonable center of gravity so that people need not learn contortion techniques while entering and exiting vehicles.

Sliding doors are a great way to open up space. They need less clearance compared to swinging doors. Vans like Innova, Marazzo are ideal candidates. Electrically controlled sliding doors introduce new point of failure/maintenance. I am not sure if we had a law banning those when omnis were used in high profile kidnappings.
hserus mentioned it in this (Why no sliding doors in Indian MPVs?) Team-BHP thread.