I know you’re probably sick of hearing about Chevy Astro Vans, what with how often they appear in popular culture, the news, art, and other mainstays of human civilization, but I feel like it’s important to bring up a fiercely important aspect of these humble workhorses, which were around a surprisingly long time, from 1985 to 2005. These useful minivans were available in cargo and people-carrying variations, and usually came with rear “barn doors,” which were a pair of traditional big-van-style doors, dividing the rear vertically. From 1993 on, another option was provided: the “Dutch doors” which I’d like to discuss with you today.
Essentially, the Dutch door option turned the rear of the van into a three-door setup: an upward-opening hatch-type door that was about 50% the height of the rear, and then a pair of small doors, split vertically, like the lower chunk of the standard barn doors.
Here’s the two options:
These are very interesting door choices; the Astro was a minivan, in scale, but to be initially only offered with the vertical barn doors said something very telling about how GM saw these minivans: more as actual, traditional vans than as the station wagon replacements they were primarily sold as.
The mainstream minivan market that started (well, re-started, because the Volkswagen Microbus exists) in the 1980s with Chrysler’s series of K-car based minivans all embraced a rear upward-lifting hatch as the preferred way to get stuff in and out of the back of the van, something that largely remains expected in the minivan market to this day.
The upward-opening hatch has some good advantages: it forms a sort of roof, so loading stuff in the rain is a bit more pleasant, the rear window view is open and unbroken, unlike the barn doors that need to split the rear glass in half; and you can load the rear from all the way up to the rear bumper, and if you have cargo that extends out the back, you can drive with the hatch open, though you’ll probably have to deal with some exhaust inhalation. But that’s good for the lungs, right? They need a good workout sometimes, don’t they?
Now, my theory is that GM realized they made a sort of misstep by only offering very van-like barn doors on the Astro, so the panicked marketing people desperately went to the designers and engineers, demanding a hatch just like the Dodge Caravan and Ford Aerostar and Windstar and Toyota Previas and all the other minivans on the market.
The designers and engineers did the best they could, but I suspect GM’s legendary penny-pinchers imposed some severe limitations on just what they could do. My theory is that no major changes to the Astro’s frame or structure were allowed; this meant that while a hatch could be mounted on the upper part of the rear opening, there was no provision made to change the latching mechanism at the bottom, which was designed for two side-hinged doors.
So, the designers did the best they could: they made a half-height hatch and then filled in the bottom with the same latching system as the barn doors, two side-hinged doors, giving the world option W/E54, better known as Dutch doors:
It’s a pretty clever solution really, as you do get the biggest advantages of a hatch: an unbroken rear window and some rain protection, and it can be opened without requiring extra room to the side.
But, at the same time, you have to wonder just what those Dutch doors were actually good for?
[Ed Note: For the record, I do not approve of this kink-shaming. -DT].Â
It’s a weird setup, and the more I think about it, the weirder it gets. Having those lower side-hinged doors doesn’t seem all that useful in most situations, and any advantage I can think they offer – like keeping cargo secure if you also have a long something in there that needs to stick out the hatch – can all be accomplished better with a true drop-down tailgate.
I mean, think about it: is there anything those half-swing-sideways doors do better than a tailgate would? A tailgate would allow for a longer load floor if left down, keep cargo secure if left up with the hatch open (and if reversed, could be left down to let a ladder stick out the back but the hatch could be closed for better weather/noise/etc protection), and on top of all that be a nice place to sit, protected from weather by the open hatch. I can’t think of any way that a tailgate wouldn’t have been vastly better.
Of course, I think I know why the tailgate was never considered, and that’s because GM was too cheap to re-engineer the back lip of the Astro to have a hinged setup for the tailgate, because that would have been expensive.
So, what are the Dutch doors actually good for? I’m not the only one to ask this, of course. I mean, some people sort of like them, but the advantages stated usually sound like things that a regular full-size hatch does as well or better, or a drop-down tailgate/upward-opening hatch setup would also do better.
This strange setup shows up on a few other cars, like as an option on the Ford Excursion, and I can’t say I see a lot more utility to the setup there, either. Historically, sometimes you’d see this setup on Citroën H/HY vans, too:
And yeah, that’s definitely cool, and maybe the thin, corrugated rear upper hatch just couldn’t be made full height due to floppiness, but, again, I’m still not sure I see the advantages of this layout.
Maybe I’m being too harsh; there have to be some advantages to the rear barn door/upper hatch Dutch door setup. For example, this van-life guy came up with a nice outdoor kitchen setup on his Astro, and it has some weather protection thanks to the hatch, something a lot of these outdoor kitchens lack:
Despite my belligerent headline up there, I’m kind of confused now. Maybe it’s not so bad? I think it’s still inferior to a hatch/tailgate setup, though, but I think I have to give GM’s designers and engineers credit for coming up with some sort of solution to the give-us-something-other-than-delivery-van-doors problem despite GM’s perfidy.
So, maybe the Dutch doors aren’t so stupid? Just a little stupid.
Wouldn’t true Dutch doors have four small doors, two up top and two on the bottom, that all open and close independently?
The true solution is to have a split tailgate that can open like barn doors, or swing open from either side as a single door, and drop down as either a full or half tailgate. All of this below a single top hatch. That should be easy to engineer.
I rented a Wrangler in Newfoundland and I can honestly say that is a stupider arrangement. The bottom swing open door is high enough to make the necessary for this short guy to open the bottom swing out door to get anything out of the back. Plus the single door swings out like 5 feet. At least the Dutch doors are half that. Sorry David.
I would think yeah, there were a lot of structural/design limitations that would have required more effort than they were willing to put in, and cost, since any meaningful budget going to vans was the U-vans. The structure itself may not have supported the weight of what would have been a big, heavy liftgate, being how tall the Astro was, with a low rear sill. And with the vertical back, might not have been easy to swing down in one motion as easily.
A drop-down tailgate might have worked, but it was kind of clear by that point that most buyers wanted a swing-up liftgate – not only in other minivans, but that was where SUVs were heading and what the more successful SUVs had (Explorer, XJ). And third-row removal like others mentioned.
But they also didn’t have to change any mounting or hinges for the side doors as mentioned below, or the license plate mount and handle and wiring, those all look to be the same parts.
Dutch doors are awesome! They give you shade and rain protection while allowing for easier access to your stuff that needs unloading or loading.
Nope just stupid. GM being GM.
Wrong Jason. They exist so I can cut the roof off and make this.
https://flic.kr/p/2q1FXno
I always assumed the Dutch doors shared the hinges from the normal barn door requiring less reengineering
If it’s good enough for Citroën, it should be good enough for the rest of us!
First off, can we all agree how great the green and silver Astro looks.
My wife and I were looking at minivans in the early 2000’s and she LOVED the Dutch doors and I hated them. I did the unthinkable for me and bought a Toyota (son of a life long union member and a strict “Buy American First, Buy American Always”).
As a few others have mentioned, I think its all about towing trailers. These let you open and get full access to the back while still hooked to a trailer.
No to the tailgate, 100% no. No interest in loading stuff over something like that. It really should have all been one door that swings up. But, if that was not an option I would take the dutch over a tailgate 100% of the time.
I spent 10 years between a Safari with the standard swing open doors and an Astro with the dutch doors.
The dutch was much better for visibility and looked better. But the two swing out doors were just fine. Both 100% better than a tailgate.
it is really not different than the Ford Suv thing where the glass lift up, or the whole door lifts up. The point was to be able to jam a bunch of stuff up tot he rear gate without the likelihood of over stuffing and not being able to shut the doors. The double swing out helped a bunch when trying to get stuff in at Lowes when you douche parked(Backed in) and the car that parked in the spot behind you was pretty close.
The Dutch doors were invented so that your wooden shoes would not fall out.
The dutch doors were good for accessing the load floor on things like this and the Excursion. Anyone having to deal with a tailgated Suburban (which they don’t make anymore) knows it sucked when trying to remove the third row seat or loading it up. And as mentioned it’s really handy for accessing the back when towing a trailer.
The society of barn door enthusiasts is not pleased you have uncovered their secret
Torch, you shortchanged the Astro’s two full decades on the market—production didn’t end until 2005.
The quasi-cutaway photo is kind of fun, as it depicts 1995’s one-year-only combo of facelifted exterior and pre-facelift (revised in 1990) interior.
“I mean, think about it: is there anything those half-swing-sideways doors do better than a tailgate would?”
Look again at the photo of the multi-brown conversion van – See those speakers mounted to the inside of the Dutch Doors?
Anyone else feeling Tailgate Disco Party?
Clearly not poor little introverted Judy, who is so afraid of people with mouths who might ask her uncomfortable personal questions, like “How are you today?”, that her Mommy must beg and plead for her to come out of the Astro Van. So unlike Daddy who is gleefully setting up chairs at his portable picnic table for all the other people coming by to see our “happy” family in the grassy field.
My folks had one of these with the Dutch door setup and they found it to be extremely handy. Especially being able to open them up a full 180 degrees.
Getting the 3rd row seat out was a massive chore though, and I think having a folding down tailgate would’ve made removing that seat far worse.
I loved that door configuration on the Excursion. You have an overhead hatch cover to keep rain out while dealing with cargo, can open the doors around a hitched trailer (and don’t have to worry about dropping a tailgate onto the top of the trailer jack), don’t have to worry about the size and weight of a big swing-open single door (like on a 4Runner, for instance), can see over and around the smaller quarter-doors, don’t have a thick vertical bar through the rear window like on barn doors, and it also means you can drive at low speeds (and maybe higher ones) with the rear window open for doggos to see and smell out the back of the vehicle, or for very long cargo to stick out if needed.
Both Ford and Ram have introduced split tailgates with similar functionality on the recent trucks. Add a bed cap with the upwards-opening rear door, and it’s very similar to this.
I was originally thinking that arrangement would allow something like a single ladder to poke out the back while two of the three door-bits were closed, keeping exhaust mostly out and temperature-controlled air mostly in, but now I’m not so sure.
Look at the pic that’s annotated with ‘Dutch Doors’ and ‘Barn Doors’. If one wanted to leave, let’s say, the right-hand barn door open for travel, the bottom ridge of the hatch and the top ridge of the barn door would collide and cause significant denting. Normally those two ridges would line up [parallel to the rear bumper] and form a seal, but it looks very much like that’s the only way they can be used.
I suppose GM wanted to discourage people from driving around with their barn doors open, but they gave the expectation of utility that isn’t there.
They didn’t make sense then, and still don’t now. A hatch/tailgate are still the best solution.
I mentioned it elsewhere, but this was before we had fancy stow and go seats. And the 3rd row bench seat was pretty heavy and bad enough to get in and out of the vehicle without having the extra work of getting it past a tailgate.