Say what you will about Saturday Night Live, but every once in a while, it comes out with an absolute banger. The long-running live NBC sketch comedy show often airs satirical musical performances in addition to letting its actual musical guests perform, and its latest ballad paints a target on a widely disdained piece of modern automotive design: Door handles.
As a car enthusiast who obsesses over everything automobile and spends many hours a day online, it’s easy to assume that some complaints are limited to die-hards and critics like myself. For years, people in my circles complained about how modern door handle designs, both inside and outside of the car, are becoming pointlessly complex. It was only a few months ago that regulators in China revealed they’re considering banning flush door handles due to their complexity and oftentimes obscure designs.
By now, it’s obvious that it’s not just gearheads who think normal door handles were a solved issue. Ask anyone who’s interacted with a strange, pointlessly engineered electric door release or flush exterior handle, and they’ll probably have a strong opinion about it.
This SNL sketch, embedded below, exemplifies those opinions clearly. The song was set to air this past Saturday, but was cut for time. Thankfully, instead of locking it away on a hard drive somewhere in 30 Rock, NBC published it to the show’s YouTube channel the next morning to give car designers a piece of their mind.
The clip features cast members Jane Wickline and Veronika Slowikowska, with a special appearance by Heated Rivalry star Connor Storrie, the week’s celebrity guest host. It starts off depicting the two women getting into an Uber after a night of partying. But when they try to exit the car, they struggle to figure out what should be the extremely simple process of opening the door to exit, arguing with the “driver” for over 20 seconds.
The car in question is a Mustang Mach-E, a vehicle that, very famously, doesn’t have any real door handles. Instead, to get in, you push a button on the window frame and use a fixed winglet-looking handle to pull it out and gain access. There aren’t any traditional handles inside, either. To get out, you have to pull a lever that’s hidden within the door pull area:
In addition to calling out button-style doors, the song goes on to criticize “squeeze” handles, where, instead of a traditional handle, there’s a big mechanism hidden in the door card to actuate the door opening. Not to keep ragging on Ford, but this is a mainstay feature on trucks like the Ranger and the F-150.
While handles like this might seem obvious to those who have owned vehicles with them equipped, I distinctly remember wasting 30 seconds trying to get out of the last F-150 I drove simply because I couldn’t find the handle (location called out below). Is that partially due to my own stupidity? Certainly. But even the dimmest among us shouldn’t have to search for a door handle or figure out how to use it. Like I said earlier, this is supposed to be a solved issue!
Before the two women storm into the offices of “Big Car” to confront the CEO (played by Storrie) about handle design and the storyline goes off the rails, they also briefly call out Tesla’s flush door handles, which are currently the subject of a federal investigation. In addition to being confusing to use from the outside, the door is normally actuated by a button on the inside, which could stop working in the event of a crash. There’s a backup release built into the door, but it can be tough to find, which isn’t ideal when you’ve just been involved in a wreck and are otherwise trapped.
Tesla isn’t the only automaker that uses electric door handles, obviously. Heck, the Corvette has been doing it for over 20 years. I’m kind of sad SNL didn’t call out the Lexus NX, which has a handle design that’s so counterintuitive that the manufacturer needed to put a sticker on the inside to explain how to use it. My colleague Jason wrote a whole thing about this, and even made a video about it:
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It’s possible that if enough automakers transition to electric door handles, people will eventually get used to them. I have a much simpler idea: Everyone should just go back to normal, mechanical door handles. Problem solved.
Top graphic images: Saturday Night Live/Youtube
I can see why this was cut for time. Jesus H Christ. But yeah, the point is made. It just gets beaten over and over again for about 3 more minutes than necessary. SNL at its finest.
Do sedans/four door vehicles still have the option to disable the rear door controls? In my car I can slide a switch where the rear doors meet the frame/jamb and the rear seat passengers can’t open doors, use windows, etc. Yes, my car did have a police variant. I think when I was a kid these were a child-safety feature!
As others have pointed out, this isn’t a new problem. My 240Z had the handle at the bottom of the door. No one looks for it there, but at least it stood out a little
90’s Olds Cutlass door handles in the window frame were not great either. they tended to slip on the connection point and lock you out of the car. Of course back then there were Keyholes on both sides, so you could use the passenger door until that failed or you figured out how to adjust them to work again.
People trying to get out of Ford trucks / vans that had never been in one used to be quite funny to me. I can see why they did it and once you know it’s there it’s quite easy. Teslas also quite funny. But the new ones the emergency release is about where most people would think to pull to get out of the back. The upper forward section of the door does seems standard and almost everyone seemed to have been using it. They almost all used to be chrome too maybe that helped people locate it.
We’re in this weird automotive phase, perhaps driven by the fact that so many people (esp EV owners) just want their car to be another appliance like a dishwasher. It seems like you have people designing cars who don’t actually like cars….or maybe haven’t ever been in one.
This makes no sense. Who wants a dishwasher with a hard to figure out door mechanism?
Nobody.
People want appliances that just *%$&#@$ work. People who buy these stupid cars are doing so to show off.
Speaking of, my fancy Bosch dishwasher has idiotic capacitive “buttons” and sometimes won’t let me select a different cycle until I reset it (by holding down the start button for 3 seconds. Obviously).
I have a Bosch dishwasher as well which I bought used for about $50. Mine has physical (hidden) buttons. It works great and I have been able to keep it going without too much effort. Running the occasional empty load with a few pennies worth of citric acid in the detergent dispenser or vinegar in the tub helps keep it sparkling clean.
My only complaint is the silk screening has long vanished so I no longer remember what the buttons do.
The bullshit minimalist aesthetic is everywhere. In my mind it’s all the same trend that drove headphone jack removal on most phones, and most port and even file system access on many Apple devices.
It’s asinine.
The only minimalism driving THAT was the executive desire to minimize manufacturing costs to maximize profits. It was marketeers who tried to hypnotize customers into believing it was what they had wanted all along. It’s also why I haven’t owned any Apple products ever with the sole exception of a gifted iPod.
Totally agree with Torch; if you need to have an instruction label on something as simple as an interior door handle, YOUR DESIGN FAILED!!!
Also, the part about being in an Uber because you’re drunk and in no condition for a brain teaser hits home!
Best way to watch SNL is the you tube compilations of the amusing sketches et al from the past 3 decades. Eliminates wasting time on the remaining 90% which is just god awful.
This fits the SNL template: mildly amusing until the last minute which should have been left out.
But yes screw weird doors.
The Mach E only has the winglets on the front door! The rear door just kind of pops open a bit when you hit the button, and I can tell you firsthand that everyone hates it or is confused by it.
But the interior handles are fine. And hell, the 69-70 Mustang had door handles hidden in the armrest! But solid SNL funnies either way.
Yeah the buttons are… unique. The inside trigger for the handle is fine, and if you pull pull them back, they’re the manual release too, so they’re arguably some of the better “handles” in the EV space right now
Well, car manufacturers are always going to be chasing the “new thing”, even if it doesn’t make a lick of sense like all these electronic door handle designs. But if you are buying the car, you are in theory okay with it and will pretty quickly learn any non-standard operations. My big issue is when rental car companies decide to foist these cars on unsuspecting renters! A few years ago I took a trip to visit colleges with my daughter, and I used an upgrade to get a nicer car. But then they made us wait out in the cold (winter at the Denver airport) at night for 15 minutes while they found a suitable car and brought it out to us. It was a Lincoln SUV of some type, and was very nice. BUT – after freezing outside late at night with a lengthy drive ahead of us, I was confronted with a baffling array of controls that wouldn’t have been out of place on an airplane. I think it took over 10 minutes just to figure out how to plug a phone in and get the navigation to display. Every other adjustment (mirrors, seat adjustment, heat, etc, etc) was a puzzle that we had to solve in the dark. The last straw was when we were finally ready to head out – I couldn’t figure out how to shift into drive!!! My daughter finally spotted the buttons in the middle of the center console, which aren’t really visible when you have your right hand on the wheel as your arm blocks the view. Okay – rant over, but don’t these rental companies have somebody go give these things a drive before they agree to buy a few thousand of them for the fleet?
This is all why I’m a fan of physical buttons and Carplay/Android Auto.
I’ll never forget the “fun” of lugging a carseat and the family luggage (if you’ve traveled with a car seat, you know that level of hell) from baggage claim to the rental car shuttle, off the shuttle, into the rental car annex, to the car, wrestling the damn thing into the car (in sweltering hot, humid weather), then having to figure-out just how in the hell to connect my phone to the infotainment unit for navigation at night in a strange city all with a beyond grumpy toddler and a wife who is beyond over it…
I hate renting a car in Denver. Also the kia sedan I rent there once had the gas gage arrow for what side pointing the wrong direction. I have also pulled into the cell phone lot in Tampa to get cell signal and figure out the car controls.
As someone who lives in Denver. Welcome, and apologies for the 45min-1hr drive to any destination. We hate it too
It’s wild flying into “Denver” if you’re not used to it and seeing no sign of civilization anywhere until the perimeter fence.
I enjoy Denver I just hate the Denver Airport and the entire car rental experience there.
“So what can I do to get you into this car today?”
Sir, I’m in the car and I can’t get out.
Just sign here, and here, and here, and the door will open.
And… scene.
Great work today, guys.
Psh. Just tap the touchscreen affirming you’ve read the disclosures it won’t display.
That’s the REAL reason for these handles.
John, Plop, and Dan; y’all are killing it. If SNL had writing this funny I might watch. (You know, five years later after it depreciatesand if I can find the right package and color with good maintenance records.)
Some of my family was on the way to Thanksgiving a couple of years ago when their Lexus SUV killed its drained battery with a failed startup. Having electric door latches, they were stuck inside the vehicle. Even with full WiFi to look up the instructions, and some very tech savy, educated people, it took a half hour to figure it out. (You need to reach up into the armrest from below and pull the handle twice in quick succession; not once, and not once, pause, and then again.)
It was definitely too complicated, and I’d never want to figure it out while in an emergency or while in shock after an accident.
You don’t “reach into the armrest” it’s the same handle you normally use, you just need to pull instead of push. And the first time you pull it, you’ll notice the sticker that says 2X. It’s still a stupid design, but if it took you 30 minutes with the ability to look it up, the door handle aint the problem. Even the normally useless google AI overview explains it correctly.
I can only relay the story I was told. It may not have been 30 minutes. It has been a few years.
Sadly, I can’t tell if the satire in the SNL piece is directed at door handles, or the crappy state of modern music.
Burn Auto-Tune with fire.
Yes! Burn Auto-Tune with the fire of a thousand suns!
Both, its directed at both
I think AutoTune was invented when the AC went out at a recording studio and someone asked “Hey, did you do this as a kid too?” through a running box fan.
Music executives and “talent” repeat after me.
“AutoTune is not an instrument”.
“AutoTune is not a sound effect”
“AutoTune is no longer new and innovative”
“AutoTune is the tool of Satan”
Something new just for the sake of it being new is just marketing garbage. If new is better that is one thing but new for novelty is just stylistic waste.
old thinking: how are we gonna safely hide the door-opening mechanism behind the door card?
new thinking: how are we gonna safely hide the door-opening mechanism behind the paywall?
This was a great skit / musical bit.
I can usually figure out door handles in the daylight, but in the dark an oddball system can be pretty inscrutable. The parity actually caught this well.
The reveal of “Big Car” CEO’s childhood door handle trauma was hilarious – and also not farther, as I have hooked my clothes on some of the old school door handles too.
And yeah – some things are “solved problems.” We don’t really need every car to have a different way of starting the car, activating headlights, windshield wipers and washers, or shifting gears, let alone door handles.
The standardized (or so it seems) Japanese layout of turn signal, headlight switch, windshield wipers, etc. right at your fingertips is wonderful – every car is intuitive, no matter the brand. I hope it will always be that way.
Most ridiculous thing to know is that even if a new car has a popper, I think they are still required to also have a manual release.
Think about that.
They HAVE TO have 2 ways of opening the door when they add these stupid poppers in. And these car companies are always complaining about rising costs. Well go back to just having a manual release.
FFS
But but but you’ve got to have stuff for the Technology Package.
My ’67 Chevy II has very conventional-looking door handles including pushbutton releases on the outside like almost every ’60s GM. The inside has levers that operate similar to the nearby window cranks. The back doors have typical plunger locks, but the front doors have something unique. There’s a small rotary knob to twist for unlock, but its shape does not engender rotating it the opposite way to lock.
In fact, pushing DOWN on the door release lever LOCKS the front doors. The frustrating part is that pulling up afterward (normally opens the door) does not unlock the door. You have to twist that unique rotary knob.
Now, it’s never occurred to me to push down to open the door. The physics of exerting force to open it kinda make pulling up advantageous. But my wife, kids and other passengers are always pushing down, requiring a tutorial to escape. So why did Chevy put this bizarre mechanism on their economy car? Bonus fact: locking from the inside is “different” than locking the door with a key from the outside. It’s mechanical showing off…or black magic!
My ’63 Travelall is the same way. I haven’t put it to the test with unfamiliar passengers, but it will be interesting to see the results.
That particular brand of handle confusion happened to me as a kid, but it was compounded by disrepair. “Pull up on the handle,” the driver said. That’s what I thought I’d done, but a closer look at that “handle” revealed it to be a window crank that had lost its knob. Then I saw the other lever that let me out.
You all may mock Jeeps but CJs and wranglers had very useful door handles.
Just realized I’ve been in a bunch of CJs and not one of them had doors. In that light, the handles truly were a breeze. Effortless, even.
Jammed zippers are not any better.
Buy old cars. Its the Autopian way
Yes, that is the way. But for those who want new, we also shouldn’t have to deal with this shit.
Its the Muskification of the automobile. Any stupid idea that clown had to make things more difficult and less intuitive, he forced it onto Tesla engineers, and unfortunately the rest of the industry copied them.
But new cars will be old cars, so we need to keep this stupidity out of new cars before they become old cars.
I am perfectly happy to drive ever older cars. One of mine is 52 this year, and I have owned it for 30 years.
According to ebay current sponsor, we should be building our own.
That’ll work until old cars have them too. Except the mechanisms will have long crapped out and you’ll be using the emergency release cable with like a vise grip stuck to it bc the plastic tab has long since left the chat. But hey, at least “door handle” will be low on the list of electronic crap that doesn’t work. Ie: to change climate settings once the screen goes dead you’ll be memorizing how to navigate the menus “blind” by stabbing at the dead screen in different places in a certain order. Fun!
This is why I prefer classic cars. I’ll just sit back in the relative safety/top notch door functionality of a Bricklin SV-1.
An old Hudson I had only had exterior handles.
It didn’t have windows though, so this was never a problem
The Ford thing where they put it in the armrest is pretty useful since it means you don’t have to move from the handle to a grab bar to push it open, but it looks like they got rid of the physical latch? If so, I have to ask: Did someone watch people trying to find the hidden release on the back hatch of a crossover and think “What if that, but inside?”
When will China come to our aid for interior door handles?
Or is this all part of their master plan to steal hockey from Canada by trapping the players in their cars?
Oh, it goes way beyond hockey. And don’t expect any aid from that quarter. That aspect of car design has literally been weaponized there:
https://www.thedrive.com/news/culture/this-chinese-suv-beat-america-to-the-colt-1911-door-handle
This is new? Burying the interior door release in the armrest has been going on for decades. My Volvo 1800ES was that way, as were plenty of other cars.
I considered how long it took to open the door a test of intellect for my front seat passenger in my ’89 240DL.
To be fair, people do seem to be getting dumber by the year. But certainly door handles on either side of the door really should not be an intelligence test.
It’s one thing when it’s auto rags and enthusiast websites complaining, but when Saturday Night Live starts riffing on your design choices, maybe it’s time for a rethink.
Or if you’re James Cameron, angrily double down and insist no, it’s the children who are wrong.
(Insert Principal Skinner gif.)
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