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Get a Handle On It
Mar. 30th, 2005 06:04 pm
The earliest car door handles I can remember are the heavy chromed steel ones, with a pull handle for your fingers and a thumb-operated pushbutton to unlatch the thing. They're mostly found on Buicks (which says something for how old-fashioned they are) and the PT Cruiser.
When they appeared on the Cruiser, at least one automotive writer complained bitterly. Imagine asking the American public to have the intelligence and coordination to push IN with the thumb while simultaneously pulling OUT with the fingers!
I, however, was glad to see them return. This is because the little streamlined flip-out flush panel car door latches are an Abomination from Hell.
Why? Freezing rain, that's why. Just you try to get enough of a grip on that slippery little flip-out flush panel to yank a door open when the door's iced to the weatherstripping all the way around!
But recently some cars have started to appear with a door handle better than the old chromed pushbutton type. It's a bar across a scallop fitted into the surface of the door. Reach in, grip the handle, and pull the whole thing out. It works very well.
Such inventiveness almost gives me hope for the human species. Almost.
When they appeared on the Cruiser, at least one automotive writer complained bitterly. Imagine asking the American public to have the intelligence and coordination to push IN with the thumb while simultaneously pulling OUT with the fingers!
I, however, was glad to see them return. This is because the little streamlined flip-out flush panel car door latches are an Abomination from Hell.
Why? Freezing rain, that's why. Just you try to get enough of a grip on that slippery little flip-out flush panel to yank a door open when the door's iced to the weatherstripping all the way around!
But recently some cars have started to appear with a door handle better than the old chromed pushbutton type. It's a bar across a scallop fitted into the surface of the door. Reach in, grip the handle, and pull the whole thing out. It works very well.
Such inventiveness almost gives me hope for the human species. Almost.
