Forward-Hinged Car Hoods Are Just About Extinct On Modern Cars And I’m Not Sure Why

Have you ever been using something you’re very used to, something so habitual that the details and specifics of it almost disappear into a cloud of familiarity, but then find yourself suddenly confronted with the strangeness of it? Like when, say, you’re waiting in a doctor’s office and you get hungry so you pull out and assemble your portable pocket jerky-smoker to properly prepare a chunk of mutton, and then you catch a glimpse of your reflection through the smoke of the contraption in the receptionist’s window glass and it all seems wildly peculiar? I just had a situation like that.

It wasn’t my portable jerky-smoker, though, it was my 1990 Nissan Pao, and this happened when I was in an auto part store parking lot topping off my oil. As you yourself may do, I find the easiest way to add oil to my car is by opening the hood, as trying to punch my way through the hood is messy and tends to lead to unwanted body damage, to me and the car.

I opened the hood, and then started thinking about how most cars today open their hoods, and realized that I’m doing it backwards.

The Pao has a forward-hinged hood. A lot of cars of its era did, and these were really common in the ’60s through the 1990s, with, it feels like at least, a pretty good-sized spike in the 1980s.

I think at least some of the initial thinking behind these sorts of forward-opening hoods was that they would be immune to the terror of an improperly-latched hood flying open at speed and smacking into the windshield, causing loss of the ability to see where you are going, which is, of course, bad. This happened to me once on the highway in a Volvo, and it was absolutely no picnic. This reason alone, you’d think, might be enough to justify their existence.

I’ve heard people complain about engine access with forward-opening hoods, but I’ve never really found this to be a big issue.

Plus, some forward-hood-opening cars, like that Saab up there, really drop the hood down and away, and it seems like you’d have access as good to the radiator and other components up front. I mean, it’s not like most modern cars offer all that great access to the accessories and parts at the very front of the engine bay as it is. I guess you can’t lean over from the front of the engine bay, and there are contexts were that could be an issue, but overall? It’s just not that bad.

In some cases, forward-opening hoods seem to give even better access, like in this old Bugeye Sprite: [Ed note: The frame YouTube grabbed for the video preview shows a front-opening hood. I assure you, you’ll see a rear-opener when you click! – Pete]

They sort of look cool, too, especially those like on that Sprite or something like a Dodge Viper where the whole front clip seems to hinge forward.

Forward-opening hoods also offer some under-hood privacy, allowing you to sob and scream without judgment when you drop a socket down a spark plug hole or catch your tongue in a valve spring or something.

There were front trunks that opened this way, too, like on the Renault 8 and 10, and in these cases, I think maybe a rear-hinge is better.

So why are these forward-hinged hoods effectively extinct? Are modern hood latches so good that they’re now just obsolete? Is the engine access actually worse?

Does anyone else miss these sorts of hoods? I’m pretty sure it’s not just me, and I’d like to hear what you think, because I’m nosy.