Has anyone else noticed that passengers seem to slam the doors with excessive force? What is the deal? Are they so used to heavy junk, they don't know their own strength? I thought for sure that tonight a window, window motor, or speaker would be knocked loose. It is just a matter of time before something breaks...
Keep the other doors and windows closed tightly when your passenger slams their door and your ear drums can repel the force of the slam. :horn:
I always tell my passengers to close the door gently. They are used to the heavy door's in their vehicles I assume. Still, there is no point to SLAM it shut. No excuse. Carelessness in my opinion.
Drive a piece of crap domestic and you will find many of them have a very tough swing point at the angle good for parking. So you do have to slam it to get over that hump, then close. Guarantee you those that slam drive pieces of crap.
The only door that needs force on a Prius is the hatch (the two of us are at odds with each other). Maybe you should have your passengers ride in the cargo area.
Door 'slamming' has been a matter of contention within my own household, on previous cars. The wife complained about how hard I slammed her car's door. Some testing found that the minimum force needed to reliably close my cars was greater than maximum force she was accepting on her car. If another door or any window of mine was open, required closing force was low. But when sealed up, the last door to close required considerably more force to overcome the air compression of closing the door seals, otherwise it would often only half-latch and leave the interior lights on, risking a drained battery. Her car's pop-up sunroof acted as a pressure relief, allowing a full latch closing with less force. My Prius doesn't require the door closing force of those past cars of mine. The battery cooling vent provides some pressure relief.
Pisses me off no end. I say "pick the door up" and have demonstrated the correct pressure needed on numerous occasions but it makes no difference. I often get my 7-year-old son to demonstrate the right way to close a door but I guess it's just a little too complicated for some people!
In thinking about this, I have the opposite problem when riding in other big cars, like SUVs. After 2 Civics and now a Prius, I'm not used to using force. And on minivans, usually, someone else has to do it for me, lol. Those things weigh half a ton.
boy, this takes me back 60 yrs. my fathers biggest pet peeve was people slamming his car door. no matter what he did it didn't work.
Slamming doors becomes more necessary if there's some misalignment. Our previous car was in a T-bone accident: the body shop made a complete hash of the aligment. I got it better, but you still needed to close the doors harder on the accident side.
It's not just domestic cars. Have you ever rode in a Scion tC? Those coupe doors are as heavy as hell. Personally, I like it. Feels solid, good protection. Heavy doors don't necessarily mean PoC.
THERE IS A STICKER! Helicopters have this problem, and some ARE "slammers" but most are not. So they made a sticker. Picture of a large person in coveralls, with a wrench in hand, saying DO NOT slam the doors shut! You should be able to get them at avionics stores near airports.
Anyone else having this issue? I'm surprised it's not brought up more. My doors take so little force to close, not a big deal to me but almost anyone else that rides in my car ends up slamming it. Almost makes the car feel cheap. But I guess it is what it is, that's the price we pay for 50mpg?
i think heavier doors with larger gaskets take more effort to close. i race to shut my door before my wife, it doesn't sound as bad when the other 3 doors are closed, and windows up.
My spouse used to complain about me slamming the door on her car. But the same door-closing effort that raised her ire, was less than the minimum required on my car with heavier gaskets and a better air seal, leaving the door ajar. I.e. there was no single door-closing effort that was a fit to all cars.
If I know that I'm going to on/off-load passengers, I make sure my windows are always closed. I've actually gotten pretty good at remembering to keep the windows rolled up. My Grandchildren are the worst. Brutal is another way of putting it. Seeing that it's impossible to train them in proper door closing ediquet, they have actually trained me to keep the windows rolled up. It helps somewhat.
Prius doors are made from tin cans. I'm having trouble not slamming the doors and rear hatch after driving/owning BMW's my whole adult life.
