Why do car doors latch when they are not all the way closed? Every car door I have seen will latch when it is not closed all the way. Is this because of the design of the door latch or is it supposed to be a saftey feature?
I find it extreamly annoying, especially after locking the door and accidently not closing it all the way, then getting the key out to unlock it so it can be opened and then closed again.
I imagine it’s to keep people from falling out the first time you go around a corner. Darn those safety-conscious engineers!
Ethilrist, I do not understand your answer. Did you mean to say that it is to prevent people from falling out even if they close the door only part of the way? That’s the question, not the answer !!!
I’d think that a truly useful safety feature would be to make the door so that it is unambiguously either open or closed. That way, if the door is clearly open, the person (whether inside or outside of the car) can easily fix the problem without playing with the lock.
Well, if you’re not wearing anything that would scratch the paint, and the car’s not too old (doors sagging), you can just give the partly-closed door a good shove with your thighs or butt.
GM used to use your idea with their deck lids (trunk doors). Set it down gently, and it would seal itself. They stopped this, though, because the plastic pieces would break if closed the “normal,” hard way often. This was on the higher-end cars, although I saw it on an Firebird once.
My point exactly.
I used to do this with my old car, but I really don’t want to with my new car. If there is dirt on the car you could scratch the paint and/or get your clothes dirty. But that brings us back to the origonal question, why do we have to do things like this just to get the door closed all the way?