Oddity I’ve wondered about

Slideways

Look at any 4 or 5 door car and may notice the rear door handle is (as far as I’ve seen) above the front door handles.

That is, if you were to measure from the ground to the door handle the front would be lower than the rear. Anyone know why?

The blue line C is not parallel to the ground

theteal

In that example, the bottom line of the doors is not parallel to the ground either so in essence the doors are not "flat" so if the handles were same height from the ground, it'd possibly look weird. . . .if you cared about this kinda thing

Kenny Logins

Every car has a mild rake angle and the design of the doors follows this.

listermint

As you fill the boot the rear of the car lowers. Cars are mostly designed to account for load in the rear.

newmember2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058247787/oddity-i-ve-wondered-about

Does it matter?

AMKC

Some like the Renault Clio and some others even have there rear door handles higher.

Slideways

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119126062#Comment_119126062

No.

No it doesn’t. But this is a motors forum last time I checked and not just used for giving out about people who speed or cyclists so I figured it was no harm asking in case someone knew a reason why.

lawred2

What's odd about them not being parallel to the ground?

ofcork

I thought it was related to aerodynamics.

Cork Lass

Looking at the example above my immediate thought was that it is to do with the distance between the handle and the edge of the door - the back doors of cars are always angled whereas the front door always has a straight edge. If the handle was much lower down it would be too close to the edge.

cml387

On the Toyota CHR it's actually so high that children can't reach it.

The J Stands for Jay

Look at the Renault 4. It has a different wheel base on each side.