Outside the Box.

Byline: STEVE THOMPSON

It's hard to know yet if the criticism of the Mini Cooper Clubman's rear swing-out doors will force BMW to change the design to a more conventional liftgate, but one thing is certain: All of the door talk is a good thing, because it reminds everyone that no part of car design ought to be off the table for critical thinking. How we get into and out of our vehicles or put stuff in and take stuff out should top the list.

We've come to accept swing-out side doors in our coupes and sedans, but as space grows ever tighter in our automotive world, maybe we should begin agitating for more user-friendly solutions. The sliding side doors on my Chrysler minivan, for example, make me wish that the front doors were as space-efficient. There are, of course, only so many ways to permit easy, cost-efficient entry and egress, but a glance at any three-box sedan's rear doors will show that we're accepting style-driven door shapes that are far from ideal for many people to use.

The steeply raked windshields and set-back cabins of today's sedans more or less force designers to incline ...