I have a complicated relationship with standardization. On one hand, I love it. And think there should be a lot more standardization of car parts, especially for things like EV battery sizes, or perhaps how sometimes I long for the days when there were only two kinds of headlights, round or rectangular, and they were dirt cheap.
But then when I think about what rampant standardization could mean, I get horrifying visions of everything inexorably marching towards sameness, and that sounds like a nightmare. So I appreciate a world where problems have wildly different solutions. Sometimes, though, standards just seem to happen, and I think we’re at a point where a huge standard has definitely taken root, and no one is talking about it. Except me! I will remain silent no more! I’m officially decreeing the way we open trunks and hatches by feeling blindly around under the lip over a license plate hereby standardized!
That’s right! This has been happening, quietly for decades, right under our noses, and the time has come to just call it. This method of opening a hatch has won. It’s finished. So let’s take the time to note this, name it, examine it, and accept it.
First, let’s look at the World Before, when there were many ways to open the rear hatch or trunk of a car. Let’s just look at some examples from one automaker, Honda. Here’s a few samples of Hondas from the 1970s to 1980s, and where they had their trunk- or hatch-opening handles or latches:
Look at all that dazzling variety! Latches and handles of all manner of shapes, some metal, some plastic, some emblazoned, proudly, with the Honda logo, some chromed, some large, some tiny – it was really a time where anything went.
Of course, sometimes, a bit more rarely, you’d even see these on the fronts of cars:
And now, look at these Hondas from more recent times (and one from the 90s, when all of this really got started):
See that? All the tailgate latches are now in the same basic place: under the lip, above the license plate, sharing a space with the license plate lights. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that the incidents of people physically touching license plate light lenses has increased dramatically since the 1990s, and shows no signs of stopping, as we’re always letting our fingers roam and explore under those little lips, fingering the license plate lights, as we feel for the little rubberized or plastic buttons that will get our hatches and trunks open.
I’m trying to think of modern-ish exceptions to this rule, and while I think there are some, they’re quite few, and some of these exceptions have pretty large mitigating circumstances. For example, consider the Ford EcoSport, which we got here in America from around 2018 to 2022. This little crossover had its rear door handle integrated, strangely, into the right side taillight:
… but that was only because the hatch opens sideways, like a door, not a hatch. The Mitsubishi Mirage is another example, and I think it enjoys the freedom to have an actual, visible handle still because it stubbornly remains one of the cheapest cars on the market.
Pickup truck tailgates also tend to retain their prominent, visible handles, at least in part because license plates tend not to be mounted on truck tailgates.
Speaking of truck tailgate handles, I really feel like the Jeep J10 tailgate handle is worth remembering here because it was just a repurposed AMC door handle, in a beautiful example of AMC cheapskate-creativity:
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But for the vast majority of the current automotive world, the Hidden Handle (okay, let’s call it that) has won. And it’s across the spectrum of cars, too. Here’s the handle hiding under the chrome strip of a Rolls-Royce Cullinan and the same damn basic thing lurking under the lower lip of that Nissan Versa trim strip or under the lower edge of the tailgate on that Mercedes-Benz EQS:
The point is, the Hidden Handle has become near-ubiquitous. It’s everywhere. And, visually, it’s nowhere. Which leads to my big issue with the Hidden Handle:
Sure, it’s slowly and stealthily crept onto almost every car, but do any of us really like these things? Really? Don’t we all spend way too much time sliding our fingers under those often dirty lips and edges, feeling around for which little lumpy bit is the button to open the trunk?
How often have you tried to push on a license plate light to get a hatch open? How often have you gotten frustrated and craned your head low to look under there, to see if you can spot just where you need to get your fingers to make the damn trunk open? Wouldn’t you rather have a latch you can see and satisfyingly operate, especially if it’s interesting, or fun, or both?
I suppose the thinking is that with so many key fobs having trunk- or hatch-open buttons, the physical handle on the car just doesn’t matter as much. And that may be true. Until you need it.
I’m guessing these sorts of hatch or trunk releases are cheaper to install, as they don’t really need to be as robust? Maybe? I’m just not sure how they’re better than an actual handle or latch you can see.
Sure, designers may appreciate the cleanliness of not having to design or install another component, but come on, they could figure out some nice solutions, too!
I’m just bitter that this has sneakily become the default, and I wasn’t consulted. Not even once.
Oh well. I think this is likely here to stay, the Hidden Handle, so I really should make my peace with them. But I don’t think I’ll ever like them.
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The answer to how many times my finger has gotten dirty trying to press that button is… 0?
Always pop the trunk with the key fob or hands free opening (like waving the foot under the bumper)
Maybe on a sedan where you get the satisfying experience of pushing fob button -> trunk pops open all the way, but I imagine many vehicles are like my 2012 Prius v where your only option is finding the physical button.
My wife has a 2014 Malibu and they put the button to pop the trunk on the edge of the trunk mounted brake light. I think they only offered that for a year or two before changing it. Whenever we do grocery pickups it is always confusing for the person loading the trunk. “I can’t pop it from inside the car, it is on the edge of the brake light on the trunk…yeah on the right…little black button…just gotta push it in *Pop*” Real first world problems out here
Careful how much you complain, or they might move the button to the infotainment screen.
I love the big silver button on the trunk lid of my BMW E36, it is very satisfying and mechanical to push to open the trunk. Only issue with it is the lock cylinder inside it is full of dirt and thus doesn’t turn. At least the central locking in the car works this I don’t need to use this lock.
Counterpoint, I’ve never had my little rubber button freeze up in extreme cold after a long, snowy drive that coats the back of the vehicle with a thick layer of frozen slush and snow.
I like the big handle with a button on the tailgate of my jeep wrangler. I just wish the tailgate opened in the other direction so loading from the curb would be easier.
Our 2015 GTI’s handle is the VW logo. You push on the top of it and, it pivots in the middle and the button pops out and becomes a handle. It’s a nice touch and fun, but not at all intuitive. If you aren’t told about it you have no clue how to open the hatch.
Also the backup cam! Which means the cam doesn’t get dirty. and also may be very expensive if it ever goes bad.
I’ve noticed that on others! Ours is cam-less.
My ’64 Corvair opens its rear hood in exactly the same way. There is a hidden latch under the lip next to the license plate light.
That latch failed just out of warranty on my car. Fob it is! Or being cheap when the ignition cylinder malfunctioned and disabled the auto central locking which somehow integrated the trunk latch, a rope from the kidnapping escape latch into the cabin. Kept the rope after the ignition fixed itself because it was really handy.
This is reason to consider the hidden, 5-inch wide, physical latch handle to be a luxury feature on my old Subaru wagons. I can open the hatch even with the battery out of the car.
Those trunk opener buttons don’t work if your battery is dead. And guess where I keep my jumper cables?
Wow, I never actually thought of that and yes my jump cables are under the floor in the trunk ????
On my car (lexus) there is a manual way to open the trunk from inside the car, but it’s kind of a pain
My last car had the electric button release and the battery in the trunk. Luckily some designer thought of this and put an emergency key slot next to the license plate lights.
My car has an emergency key slot in the driver door.
What kind of a demented bastard decided the placement in the EQS was a good idea?
I mentioned the cute-but-only-semi-effective New Beetle hatch handle in a reply below, so I’ll note that my Yaris, with its license plate in the bumper, has a push-button/keyhole in the center of an unpainted one-finger-lift handle.
My 2021 Mazda 3 is not part of this club. The button is under the Mazda logo on the hatch, like that 80s Civic.
I propose Push the Logo as a better replacement.
That would mean the definite and unfortunate end to my dream of debadging all of my cars.
I used to take all the logos, trim labels and equipment identifiers off my cars. Or at least most of them. Sometimes I’d add an entirely different manufacturer’s logo, name or model. One of my Dodge Colts identified as a Spitfire 1500.
Because they’re getting more and more integrated into the body panels, it’s become nearly impossible to do this and not have odd looking flat spots, recessions and raised areas on the car.
But then every car’s badge would be worn out instead of just randomly Saab’s being the only ones worn out
Fords too. The blue oval on the front of Edges and a few others seems to do the same thing.
I was behind a Ford EcoSport just yesterday and noticed that tail light handle for the first time.
My silly brain instantly jumped to: “Has The Autopian covered this and I missed it?”
I’d never seen such strangeness hidden in a modern tail light before.
Surely Torch has touched on the subject.
Fast forward a day and here we are.
Resistance is futile. I have been assimilated.
I hate that the hiddenization of handles has removed mechanical connection to the hatch release and at least in my experience massively increased the failure rate of release mechanisms.
In a separate note, this article was published at 4:21 PM. Coincidence? I think not.
The hidden hatch is pure electrical fuckery. Instead of unlatching the hatch, it sends a “request” to the BCM, which may or may not choose to honor it. OPEN THE POD BAY DOORS, HAL!
Mj is good medicine. And if it fuels the Torchs mad genius, I’m all for it
OK, if AMC is ever somehow brought back from the dead, they need to build a hatchback with a nice, wide piece of trim above the license plate — wide enough to tuck the classic AMC door handle underneath as the release. Just because AMC.
No photos of the VW with the rear badge being the hatch handle? A devastatingly rude omission, it’s like the only thing I enjoy about VWs.
Beat you by seconds! Ha
I noticed a few have mentioned it now. But it’s a valid point. It’s a neat design!
Was going to add that myself. A truly great way to open a hatch.
I just thought the timing was funny.
I like it a lot too. We have two SportWagens and I love that it keeps the cameras clean.
I was amused for like ten seconds when I watched my wife try and figure that out. Then I was pissed off. It didn’t upset her, but it sure upset me to see an intelligent person be demeaned by an asshole stylist’s idea of “being clever or cute”. People shouldn’t have to feel like they joined a secret society to be able to use a product. Period.
At least she joked that she hoped she would never have to figure out how to put gas in the car.
SEAT did that too. I spent some time trying to open the hatch the first time…
I rented a golf with that design in Scotland. It was cool for the first few uses, until I realized it’s major flaw.
It quickly got covered with road salt and debris, as cars tend to do in winter weather. Since you have to push the top in before lifting from the bottom, you need to touch all over the logo to open the hatch. And now your hand is filthy.
I own cars with both the VW hatch and the hidden button above the plate- both get equally dirty, but the lifting surface on the VW stays clean unlike the above-the-plate option so you only have to get one fingertip grimy instead of all of them.
I live in one of the states that uses the most salt in the union, and it really wasn’t much different than any other exterior handle.
My mum had a 2001 New Beetle, last year for that feature. We practically never actually flipped up the badge to use the handle, though – it was just a bit awkward to pull up, and it wasn’t a latch, just a handle, so you could save time by popping it from the fob (or from the door, and then running to the back before it relatched) and then lifting the lower edge of the hatch.
It’s one of the few areas VW is clearly better than anyone else. It’s a brilliant piece of design both from an artistic perspective (the clean and unbroken face on VW trunks/hatches have always looked great to me), and from an engineering perspective (your handle and backup cam share the same hatch and wire bundling, only one location to faff about with in the design, etc).
Don’t forget the ones that hide the backup camera under it too. Fantastic.
VW uses the rear logo to open the hatch and for the camera.
Cars looked so much cleaner and sleeker when they did not have a giant logo presiding over their rear end.
There, I said it.
Some cars did not even have a button to open the trunk, you needed to use the key. Surprising that they are not bringing that back as another button hostile measure.
More so front end.
I want to see a battle of the hot takes. Stealth door buttons vs giant honkin’ grab handles. Calling Adrian to the courtesy phone, please!
Maybe this is a hot take (and I certainly don’t feel super strongly about car aesthetics like some people), but I feel extremely weakly about anything toward the middle of car trunks/hatches. Like, aesthetically, that’s one of the areas where I feel like you have a ton of freedom and it will just about never bother me.
I never use those buttons – my vehicles with hatches (well, the ones from this century, anyway) have foot-activated poppers, and I use those almost exclusively. The very few times they don’t work I use the fob.
Frankly, I just see this as an acknowledgement that no modern hatch-type vehicle can do it better than the archetypical hatch-type vehicle, the Saab 99/900, which had its tailagte release tucked up on the underside of the license plate plinth going all the way back to 1974.
I would definitely prefer to push something as opposed to pull. Not a fan of little cavities that make good homes for mud, wasps or cute baby spiders. Kinda like JT’s early Honda examples.