Sliding door (vehicle)

A sliding door is a type of door is mounted on or suspended from a track for the door to slide, usually horizontally. It is a feature predominately relegated to minibuses and buses to provide a large entrance or exit for passengers without obstructing the adjacent pathway between the vehicle and any adjoining object or the side(s) of passenger and commercial vans so as to allow a larger unobstructed access to the interior for loading and unloading.

Sliding doors are often used in mini MPVs such as the Toyota Porte and Peugeot 1007 and Renault Kangoo, but are more commonly used in full-sized MPVs like the Toyota Previa, the Citroën C8, the Peugeot 807, the Chrysler Voyager and the Kia Sedona. Their use has increased over the years as MPVs have increased in popularity, because it gives easy access and makes parking in tight spaces possible. The most common type of sliding door, that has a three-point suspension and opens outwards, then runs along the side of the vehicle, was introduced in 1964 by Volkswagen AG as an option on its Type 2 vans.

A pocket door is a sliding door that slides along its length and disappears, when open, into a compartment in the adjacent wall, or as in terms of vehicles, into the vehicle's bodywork. Pocket doors were used in some vans, including Renault Estafette and Morris J4 and train carriages such as the , but rarely in cars.

Kaiser was the first and only car manufacturer to feature pocket doors, although not all of their cars had pocket doors. To date, no other car has utilised pocket doors. Their unique pocket doors slide tidily into the front fender, which leaves the vehicle looking a lot more aesthetically pleasing than the doors sliding outside of the bodywork.

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