A sliding door is a type of door that is mounted on or suspended from a track for the door to slide, usually horizontally and outside. It is a feature predominantly found in minibuses, buses, and vans, so as to allow a large unobstructed access to the interior for loading and unloading of passengers or cargo without the doors interfering with adjacent space. [1]
Sliding doors are often used on the outside of mini MPVs, such as the Toyota Porte, Peugeot 1007 and Renault Kangoo, but are more commonly used in full-sized MPVs like the Toyota Previa, the Citroën C8, the Peugeot 807, the Chrysler Voyager and the Kia Carnival. [1] [2] Their use has increased over the years as MPVs have increased in popularity, because it gives easy access and makes parking in tight spaces possible. [1] The most common type of sliding door, that has a three-point suspension and opens outwards, then runs along the side of the vehicle, was introduced in 1964 by Volkswagen AG as an option on its Type 2 vans.
A pocket door is a sliding door that slides along its width and disappears, when open, into a compartment in the adjacent wall, or as in terms of vehicles, into the vehicle's bodywork. Pocket doors are used in some delivery vans, [3] as well as, for example, the Renault Estafette and Morris J4, and train carriages, such as the London Underground 1973 Stock, but rarely in cars. Montreal Metro MR-63 and MR-73 wagons have two panel pocket doors. The 1954 Kaiser Darrin had a unique setup pocket doors that would slide into the front fender. Because of this the doors had no side windows installed on them. [4]
Sliding plug doors on a bus have pantographic hinges that move the door panel outwards from its plug socket and then parallel to the side of the bus to clear the opening. On closing, the door is wedged and locked into the opening. This arrangement makes a very good airtight and soundproof seal and is commonly found on coaches.
Many passenger train cars use plug doors.[ citation needed ] On commuter and regional trains doors of plug design take less room than sliding doors, but may restrict the compatibility of a car with high passenger platforms since these doors open outwards.
High-speed trains use sliding plug doors[ citation needed ] because they can be made airtight, soundproof and reduce aerodynamic drag.
Opens normally like a traditional van sliding door, but unlike most sliding doors where the track is on the exterior of the vehicle, this type has it inside and on the side of the door itself. This allows the exterior to remain clean in design and yet the door can slide outside past the trailing edge of the car. This design is very uncommon; it has only been used on Mitsubishi vehicles, and was invented by Mitsubishi Motors. The first vehicle to use it was the Mitsubishi RVR Space Runner; it was designed because the RVR is a short car compared to the size of the siding door, making it incapable of having a track on the exterior of the car. Thus, the inner-track mechanism was used so the sliding door can slide open wide enough to let passengers enter and exit the car easily. The new[ timeframe? ] Mitsubishi EK Wagon/Nissan Otti also uses this type of sliding door, but has it only on one side while the driver's side door of the back seats is a normal hinge door. The sliding door of the EK wagon is also electric-powered.
A vertical door is a type of sliding door that slides vertically, usually on a rail or track.
The BMW Z1's doors slide vertically down into the car's chassis. This means that they slide into a compartment within the car's body and so are also technically pocket doors, but they are not classified as such because they do not slide along their length into an adjacent compartment. The inspiration for these doors came from traditional roadsters which often feature removable metal or cloth doors. Because removable doors did not fit within BMW's design goals, the vertical-sliding doors were installed instead.
Because the doors slide vertically downwards into the body, the top halves of the sides of the car slide into the bottom half. The high sills can make entry and exit harder, although they do offer crash protection independent of the doors; therefore, the vehicle may be legally and safely driven with the doors up or down.[ citation needed ] The windows can be operated independently of the doors, although they will automatically retract if the door is lowered. [5]
The Lincoln Mark VIII concept car's doors slide into the frame underbody and disappear from view. [6] By doing this, it solved the problem of a high door sill that the Z1 experienced. However, this design is much more complicated, so the risk of failure is increased. Also, all of the mechanisms to make the doors work add a significant amount of weight to the car, slowing it down, and making it less efficient.
This was designed because Lincoln executives were concerned about the large, heavy doors on the Mark VIII and wanted to improve them, especially for cities with tight parking spaces. They had the idea of a Mark VIII that had doors that disappeared beneath the car and would require no additional space outside the car's wheelbase for the doors to open in order to allow people to enter or exit. At this time it was usual for the large car manufacturers to sub-contract their concepts to other companies who specialized in design and construction based on a concept. In this case, this Mark VIII was sent to Joalto near Detroit. Joalto still holds many United States patents for with this vehicle's chassis and body construction. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
Joalto Design Inc. built this one-of-a-kind concept car and shipped it to Lincoln for executive approval for production. The executives disliked the design and ordered the prototype destroyed. Instead, the vehicle was sold on eBay in September 2007. [7]
Minivan is a car classification for vehicles designed to transport passengers in the rear seating row(s), with reconfigurable seats in two or three rows. The equivalent classification in Europe is MPV or M-segment.
A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some variation in the scope of the word across the different English-speaking countries. The smallest vans, microvans, are used for transporting either goods or people in tiny quantities. Mini MPVs, compact MPVs, and MPVs are all small vans usually used for transporting people in small quantities. Larger vans with passenger seats are used for institutional purposes, such as transporting students. Larger vans with only front seats are often used for business purposes, to carry goods and equipment. Specially equipped vans are used by television stations as mobile studios. Postal services and courier companies use large step vans to deliver packages.
A school bus is any type of bus owned, leased, contracted to, or operated by a school or school district. It is regularly used to transport students to and from school or school-related activities, but not including a charter bus or transit bus. Various configurations of school buses are used worldwide; the most iconic examples are the yellow school buses of the United States which are also found in other parts of the world.
There are many types of car body styles. They vary depending on intended use, market position, location, and the era they were made.
The Eagle Summit is a line of subcompact cars produced for two generations by Mitsubishi and sold by Eagle from 1989 until 1996. It was marketed as a captive import by the Jeep-Eagle sales division that was established after Chrysler Corporation purchased American Motors Corporation (AMC) in 1987.
A minibus, microbus, or minicoach is a passenger-carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. In the United Kingdom, the word "minibus" is used to describe any full-sized passenger-carrying van or panel truck. Minibuses have a seating capacity of between 12 and 30. Larger minibuses may be called midibuses. Minibuses are typically front engine step-in vehicles, although low floor minibuses are particularly common in Japan.
The Nissan Prairie is an automobile manufactured and marketed by Nissan from 1981 to 2004. Considered a mini MPV or a compact MPV. It was also marketed as the Multi in Canada and the Stanza Wagon in the United States. In Japan, it was exclusive to Nissan Bluebird Store locations, then later at Nissan Blue Stage sales channels. The Prairie had a very flexible seating capability and sliding rear doors on both sides of the vehicle, with a liftgate in the back. The name "prairie" was derived from French which means an extensive area of relatively flat grassland, similar to "steppe" or "savanna".
A rollover or overturn is a type of vehicle crash in which a vehicle tips over onto its side or roof. Rollovers have a higher fatality rate than other types of vehicle collisions.
The trunk or boot of a car is the vehicle's main storage or cargo compartment, often a hatch at the rear of the vehicle. It can also be called a tailgate.
Scissor doors are automobile doors that rotate vertically at a fixed hinge at the front of the door, rather than outward as with a conventional door.
A pocket door is a sliding door that, when fully open, disappears into a compartment in the adjacent wall. Pocket doors are used for architectural effect, or when there is no room for the swing of a hinged door. They can travel on rollers suspended from an overhead track or tracks or guides along the floor. Single- and double-door versions are used, depending on how wide an entry is desired.
Compact MPV is a vehicle size class for the middle size of MPVs. The Compact MPV size class sits between the mini MPV and large MPV (minivan) size classes.
The Toyota Raum is 5-seater mini MPV that first appeared in May 1997. The second generation was released in May 2003. It was sold only in Japan at Toyota Netz retail sales channels.
The Mitsubishi RVR is a range of cars produced by Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors from 1991 to 2002 and then from 2010 until present. The first two generations were classified as compact multi-purpose vehicles (MPV), and the model introduced in 2010 is a subcompact crossover SUV.
A car door is a type of door opening, typically hinged on its front edge, but sometimes attached by other mechanisms such as tracks, for entering and exiting a vehicle. Doors most often integrate side windows for visibility from inside the car and can be locked to secure the vehicle.
A microvan is a van or minivan which is within the Japanese kei car classification or similar, and is smaller than a mini MPV. In China, these vehicles are nicknamed miàn bāo chē because of their shape. Similarly, in several Hispanic American countries, these vehicles are called pan de molde, which means "bread loaf". In Indonesia, it is commonly called a minibus due to their tall roof, perceived as resembling a miniature bus; the term is also used generally to refer to any type of three-row MPVs.
Bus doors are of various types of buses with doors including conventional doors, folding doors, sliding plug doors, coach doors and inward gliding doors.
The PL type carriages were a series of 141 wooden passenger carriages used on the railways of Victoria, Australia. They consisted of the first class APL, second class BPL and combination second and guard's van, BCPL's.
This article outlines the history and types of passenger rolling stock and guards vans on the narrow-gauge lines of the Victorian Railways in Australia. The types were constructed in parallel with very similar designs.
Media related to Automobiles with sliding doors at Wikimedia Commons
