Obsessed with car sliding doors?

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I really have a problem. I like cars that have sliding side doors(like you see on your generic soccer mom van). I crave them. And my family never has a single car with sliding doors! Somewhat, I feel weird, just weird that I have such a strange interest...

I long to find an affordable car here that has sliding doors to fuel my craving. And the closest are the Toyota Hiace and Kia Sedona. But those aren't the type my parents would buy, especially if I were to drive it in this economy. Now, Honda has a MPV with sliding doors, that's around $25000. Yet, my parents still turn their head against it. It gets 17 kpl / 40 mpg! And very low emissions! I mean, a car green like this with sliding doors?! Overpriced, life turned me down cold-blooded again! Now comes along a cheap Chinese MPV/delivery van that's half the price, but same story, and my parents seem to see it un-trustworthy. But THIS Chinese van, the manufacturer is backed by GM! Gets 20kpl / 47 mpg. Smaller in size. Life is sooooooo unfair for me with my strange obsession....

Is there a cure so I don't have to go against the grain? It's really killing me that such strange interests are making me rub my face on a grader at the moment! Why can't god make me be obsessed with pick-ups instead? Or motor-scooters?!

I've been obsessed with sliding car doors since I can remember.

I'd prefer to have a car with suicide doors.

To answer the OP, I can't say I was obsessed beyond a reasonable fascinatination with the sliding doors themselves, but I do like the feel and sound of opening and closing well-aligned sliding van & SUV doors. It's a compound movement; timed perfectly! I've never owned a vehicle with sliding doors, and that's saying a lot because I've probably owned 150 vehicles in my 25+ years of driving cars, trucks, motorcycles, and SUVs.

I had a '67 Lincoln Continental 4-door convertible with suicide back doors... Last year of production for the 4-door convertible in the USA.

Charles

Oh yes, how we loved vans with sliding doors back in the day, especially a hot summers day when you could drive with the doors open, feel the breeze, watch the road slide past.
Motoring was much more of a physical activity frought with danger back then, the driver would do an emergancy stop, and the accelerating sound of the sliding doors slamming shut was just enough warning to drag your arms out of thier path before being severed.

The other good thing about sliding doors was combined with the fact that you didnt have to wear seatbelts, and seats back then where bench seats covered in shiny vynil, so going around a left hand bend could involve the driver sliding right out the open door and into the road, whilst you slide in the drivers position to take over.

Vehicles where beautifull back then, imagine going on your own holiday somewhere remote in this!

My parent's Sienna has a passenger side power sliding door, and the Toyota system is weird in the fact it will let you open/close the door when the van is in forward or reverse gear while stopped by pressing and holding down the door open/close button - of course the car will beep at you. And their van is a "base" model LE which is an upgrade from the CE - Honda doesn't offer power sliding doors on the stripper Odyssey LX.

I also think bus doors - the slide-glide type used on the front entry door of a transit bus are cool too. They operate in a fluid motion with just pneumatics.

They have their good merits (like children swinging doors wide open in tight parking spaces not happening).

And the bad is they weigh in on cash... You pay more for doors that slide..

I agree

No. Closing them is awkward and unsatisfying and they seem to break very easily.

The power door on my parent's Sienna never had an issue. Back when I worked at a Honda dealer, I saw the mechanics having to work on the sliding door power mechanisms on the newer Odysseys due to a problem in the motor drive system not working properly.