A dozen years of easy access

Ford's doors on the Courier, that was soon to be
renamed the Ranger.

It's been a dozen years now since New Zealand got its first cab-plus utilities with what Ford called the Rear Access System (and today simply refers to as "rear doors"), Mazda called Freestyle and others called it … anything other than "suicide doors". The double clamshell-type doors had become popular on US pickups and it was only a matter of time before Japanese manufacturers picked up the configuration that had been used on cars from the earliest days. It seemed seemed like an ideal way to get to the enlarged cargo areas of the Cab Plus, or Supercab, utes that had become popular. Mazda and Ford introduced it here in 2002 on their Bounty and Courier, respectively. So sensible was the arrangement that it seemed only as matter of time before all Cab Plus utes had it, but 12 years on, it's far from universal, the holdouts including Mitsubishi and Toyota.

The other Ford Courier

Some said the doors would have sealing issues, rattle, tangle seat belts, compromise structural rigidity and were generally the work of the devil. Those who actually own a vehicle generally report no issues, even on the earliest ones.

Doors integrated so well you wouldn't know they were there.