You’ve seen those two-door 2021 Ford Broncos with doors that have a cutout in the middle. They’re called donut doors, because, well, they look like a donut, kind of. They look cool. Unfortunately, they won’t make production for safety reasons, according to a report.
Ford had never actually said the doors would make production, but they were shown in some factory pics after the model unveiling earlier this year, and it was assumed by observers that the doors would be factory options or perhaps offered as accessories.
The reason the doors won’t be available is simple: They wouldn’t comply with safety standards.
However, tubular doors appear to have passed crash testing and will be offered as aftermarket accessories, including by Ford itself. So not all is lost for the off-roader who wants to have doors that aren’t completely solid.
When they’re on the vehicle, that is — the Bronco still has removable doors, of course.
They just won’t be donuts.
Mmmm, donuts.
[Image: Ford]
The aftermarket will find a way.
No loss what so ever although a hole in the door is a beautiful representation of Ford’s quality level.
But really what a stupid option. Ford really has had some dumb gimmicks (folding shifter, the man step, or the kick down on the front windows of their “trucks”) but this one takes the cake for stupidity.
They have a purpose in theory, to give better visibility of the ground around the vehicle on offroad trails. I have no idea how well they work in practice, however.
Never driven an old CJ Jeep, I see. I’ve owned 3, and all had the “full view” soft doors at some point, which have the bottom window. Gimmick? Hardly. Doesn’t do much on the driver’s side but being able to look down through the passenger door at what’s down there comes in handy, both offroad and in urban settings. Better yet is no doors at all, weather permitting. I’ll take more visibility vs less all day, everyday.
So, it’s safe to drive with no doors, but “donut” doors are unsafe? Ok, I guess
No doors and tube only doors will be “off road only” options, just like on Jeep. There’s pretty much zero chance either would get homologated as an on-road option.
Ok, that makes sense even though people drive their Jeeps without doors on the road all the time
A long time ago after a argument/discussion with a friend we tried to look up rules that would allow this on a Jeep. It looks like potentially depending on the state it might be illegal. (lots have rules about not driving while missing major body components. This led us to a police officer forum with discussions on it. The general consensus was you could probably ticket some one for it but why bother (side note most of my local police stations have there fair share of wranglers in the parking lot)
THIS. Also, what they would more likely care about is whether you have side mirrors relocated when your doors are off. FWIW, I’ve owned 5 Jeeps (mix of CJs, Wranglers, and a Scrambler) and my doors were off all of them every last second possible. Never once had a cop say peep, even though Id been pulled over a handful of times. Never relocated the mirrors to the cowl either. Probably helps that I gave the cops short and direct answers and only bare minimum of attitude to the one or 2 A-holes.
It’s not really about what the cops will get you for (though specifically not having a driver’s side mirror is illegal, if I remember correctly), but more about the fact that the door beam is a pretty major crash element. I don’t know if anyone has run a side impact test with doors off, but I do know it will fare worse than with doors on.
From an automaker perspective homologating with doors off means you have to write some good justifications to jump through certain parts of FMVSS206. It’s totally legal but it makes everyone (lawyers) nervous enough that it ain’t happening.