Any - Sliding rear doors

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
View Threaded
Sat 1 Jul 2017 14:26
Any - Sliding rear doors - scot22

I was chatting the other day and the subject of cars with rear sliding doors, e.g meriva, b-max came up. I know very little about them and said I'd post on here to get some opinions. The forum is my open university of motoring.

For me reviews, magazine or video, are not as useful as hearing what they are like in the real world.

Any views welcome. Are they an advantage ? or are there more potential problems ?

I am always sceptical of changes so eager to find out when they are worthwhile.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 1 Jul 2017 15:12
Any - Sliding rear doors - Stanb Sevento

Mazda 5, Peugeot 1007, Sharan and Alhambra come to mind. Very comvenient things sliding doors. To load stuff using the tailgate you need a big space behind but the sliding doors work well even in very tight spaces for both stuff and oeople. I often have my dog in the car and its easy to get even large thing in and out without having to turf the dog out first.

Edited by Stanb Sevento on 01/07/2017 at 15:24

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 1 Jul 2017 16:03
Any - Sliding rear doors - scot22

Thanks Stanb. WHICH review said doors of B Max were 'heavy to slide'. Obviously depends on person's arm strength, car model etc. but have you found them harder to use than conventional door set up ? Any safety factors ( e.g sliding open when not wanted ) ?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 1 Jul 2017 16:46
Any - Sliding rear doors - nellyjak

I find then very useful and useable on my Toyota Estima (Previa)...I have them on both sides so it's great for access particularly if you are forced to park in narrower than usual spots.

They are no harder to use than ordinary doors..and take no more effort (mine are soft close so as long as the door reaches close enough to the latch on shutting then the system kicks in and closes them fully home)

I see no safety issues at all...in fact I'd say they were safer than the normal door.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 1 Jul 2017 16:57
Any - Sliding rear doors - scot22

Thanks neelyjak - that's very informative. I'll seem like an expert next time we chat about cars and sliding doors.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 2 Jul 2017 00:10
Any - Sliding rear doors - Andrew-T

Don't forget to allow for the extra effort needed to shut the door if the car is facing uphill - that can be quite significant. One great benefit is when parked in tight spaces.

Probably body design has advanced since the early days of the Nissan Prairie in the 1980s. Because of the large hole in the sides, those cars tended to fold up in the middle in later life.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 2 Jul 2017 08:46
Any - Sliding rear doors - nellyjak

Don't forget to allow for the extra effort needed to shut the door if the car is facing uphill - that can be quite significant. One great benefit is when parked in tight spaces.

Probably body design has advanced since the early days of the Nissan Prairie in the 1980s. Because of the large hole in the sides, those cars tended to fold up in the middle in later life.

LOL...you mean the sort of extra effort you need to close a "normal" door when the vehicle is facing DOWNhill.???

Sliding door technology/design has moved on and many are now fully electric and require little or no physical input at all.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 1 Jul 2017 20:12
Any - Sliding rear doors - Wackyracer

A friend of ours has a B Max (with the Ecoboost engine of doom) I seem to remember the rear doors taking a bit of effort to get them moving from the open position and something that does stick in my mind was the Heath Robinson way the electrics to the doors is in a piece of flexible conduit next to the seat.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 1 Jul 2017 22:09
Any - Sliding rear doors - scot22

Thanks that's a very interesting comment on the reality.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 2 Jul 2017 00:42
Any - Sliding rear doors - John Boy

Some years ago I had a part-time job driving foreign students around in various vehicles. One was a grey import, a Toyota Lucida with a sliding rear door on the nearside. It was also driven sometimes by young volunteers. On one occasion, a female driver thought it would be amusing to drive off as her passenger, a young male, was about to open the door to get into the seat alongside her. He missed the door handle, but managed to get hold of the handle to the sliding door just behind it. The door slid open, but he didn't let go of the handle and the door fell off, landing on the ground at his feet!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 2 Jul 2017 00:46
Any - Sliding rear doors - Avant

I think these are something you either need or you don't - e.g. getting small children in and out or putting your car in a narrow garage. Not something I've ever wished I had: they weren't around when our children were small, except on vans.

The Vauxhall Meriva by the way had rear-hinged rather than sliding doors, as with a Rolls-Royce Phantom or an old 'granny' Rover P4. It doesn't look as iff other makers have been in a hurry to copy this.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 2 Jul 2017 01:16
Any - Sliding rear doors - veloceman
We had a Mazda 5 for a bit. Great Diesel engine which towed our caravan a treat.
Liked the sliding doors a lot with young child in car seat. Only downside was - when sat in the back there was a recess were the door closed leaving a gap between the door and the floor, a sort of step I guess.
Meaning you had to sit sort of twisted.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 2 Jul 2017 08:43
Any - Sliding rear doors - JEREMYH

I also have a Toyota Privia This is supposed to be a run around car but I have a small courier company and like the comfort of this car on Long runs so it has been used a lot for work so much that it has 280 thausand on the clock

Yes the sliding doors for this job are perfect

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 2 Jul 2017 10:09
Any - Sliding rear doors - daveyK_UK

sliding doors are excellent and much prefered to hinge doors

citroen berlingo multispace, peugeot partner tepee, fiat qubo, fiat doblo, ford tourneo connect, vw caddy maxi - all have sliding doors and are highly practical vehicles

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 2 Jul 2017 12:23
Any - Sliding rear doors - badbusdriver

Expanding on the 'children' aspects of sliding doors, there are a couple of other points.

If you have young children in child seats, getting them into a vehicle with sliding rear doors is much easier due to the angle on the rear doors when open.

If your kids are a bit older, parking in car parks can be traumatic due to the possibility of one of your little darlings opening the door and hitting the car next to you!. Sliding doors eliminate this risk!.

Regarding the Ford b-max, when I was researching our next car, I was looking seriously at the b-max. But I was ultimately put off by the dual clutch auto, which is apparently very prone to failure. I did read that the sliding doors were very heavy, presumably due to side impact protection.

This was not an issue on the Peugeot partner combi we had back in '02-'05. The rear doors on it were very light and easy to use. At the time we got it, our youngest son was in a pushchair and as a parent, believe me, you can't put a price on the convenience of being able to put the pushchair in the boot without having to fold it up! (in addition to the ease of getting him into the child seat afforded by the sliding doors).

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 2 Jul 2017 12:27
Any - Sliding rear doors - scot22

Many thanks for all these valuable additional posts. I now feel well informed.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 2 Jul 2017 14:47
Any - Sliding rear doors - Bromptonaut

We've had two Berlingos with sliding doors. Great for getting stuff in and out in confined spaces, including my own drive with two cars side by side. My youngest was 11 by time we got first of them so past faffing with child seats but still made life a lot easier,

Yes the doors need a heave to get them moving but they latch open with no danger of wind closing them or blowing them past wide open. The 'lingo's are manualy operated except for central locking so not much to go wrong. I do though keep the mechanisms clean and well greased.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 2 Jul 2017 20:38
Any - Sliding rear doors - galileo

Back in the 1960's I drove a Bedford CA van with sliding driver and passenger doors - on hot days I'd drive with them open, there was a substantial strap to hold them in that position. (cue shock horror from H & S!)

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 2 Jul 2017 20:45
Any - Sliding rear doors - gordonbennet

Back in the 1960's I drove a Bedford CA van with sliding driver and passenger doors - on hot days I'd drive with them open, there was a substantial strap to hold them in that position. (cue shock horror from H & S!)

Yes i too drove a CA van with sliding doors, that would have been around '73, no seat belt belting along at 60mph with both doors wide open, great fun.

It used to make superb exhaust explosions if you switched the ignition off on overrun then timed re-ignition near a group of likely young ladies and give them a goode excuse to squeal...those were the fun days, they'd arrest you under some anti terror charge now.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link