Lincoln Is Bringing Back ‘Suicide Doors’ with Limited Edition Continental for Its 80th Anniversary

When we think of older cars, we might think of inconveniences like roll-down windows. But there are also lots of awesome features on sone old-school cars. Sometimes we look back at a classic car and wonder why manufacturers took them away.

Like “suicide doors.”

“Suicide doors,” where the back doors are hinged at the rear rather than the front, were made popular from the 1961 Lincoln Continental. A timeless classic, the only reason the company got rid of them was because of some engineering challenges it caused the vehicle to face.

“The 1961 Lincoln was truly a landmark car in an era of a lot of really significant styling changes,” said John Kraman, a classic car market analyst with Mecum Auctions. “It really reset the bar.”

The good news? The iconic doors will soon be making a comeback for Lincoln’s 80th anniversary in June of 2019 with a limited edition model—80 of them, to represent 80 years of existence!

Though these vintage doors was associated with famous figures such as John F. Kennedy, the reason suicide doors were actually initially created was to save money.

Apparently the Continental and the two-door Ford Thunderbird (Ford is Lincoln’s parent company) had very similar engineering, meaning that the two models were able to be built on the same assembly line, cutting costs for the manufacturers.

It did mean that the Continental had to have a shorter body—so short in fact that manufacturers weren’t sure that people in the backseat could get out easily with standard doors. And thus, suicide doors were invented.

These doors meant that backseat riders were able to get out of the car and stretch their legs without having to immediately get around a traditional door. Such a simple idea turned into such an iconic model!

Some more trivia? The reason they’re called “suicide doors” is because they’re actually a little bit dangerous—and easy to fall out of it if the door accidentally opened when the car was in motion. Sure, it’s not the best name, but it makes sense.

“I think it’s a great car and, always, if you take a Lincoln anywhere, you can put any other car in the world against it. People just seem to be drawn to it,” Kraman said. “They love the suicide doors, they love the size of it. It’s just a very cool, unique vehicle.”

In this day and age, we mostly see suicide doors on luxury vehicles such as Rolls-Royces. So it would make sense then that these limited-edition Lincoln vehicles that the company is bringing back will sell for more than $100,000.

While the doors may be “old school,” the Lincolns will be updated with features such as driver assist and wireless charging for your devices.

“It’s our timeless classic, newly reimagined for 2019,” Lincoln posted on their Twitter account.

But don’t worry, even if you can afford that, but miss out since there are only 80, Lincoln is set to come out with another limited run in 2020.

Are you a fan of “suicide doors”? Are you excited for Lincoln to bring back this iconic model?