Great Wall Gives Fashionable Door Handles a Kick to the Curb

You know what's worse than a car door that won’t open? A car door that won’t open fashionably. Great Wall’s founder has had enough of the trendy retractable door handles and wants to toss them straight into the bin. Future models from the brand will feature proper, traditional, real handles once again. Because, as Wei bluntly put it — these pop-out gadgets are just a passing fad. And like all fads, they eventually die with a whimper and a touch of embarrassment.

Let’s be honest: this whole handle nonsense started when someone from an aerodynamics institute (or more likely, a marketing department — same thing, really) decided that if the handle didn’t protrude by even a millimetre, the car would slice through air like a buttered knife through toast. Sure, Wei admitted there’s a slight aerodynamic benefit... but it’s about as noticeable as the calorie savings in light mayonnaise.

Now let’s list the downsides — the kind even the average TV viewer could name after three beers:

They’re heavier. Why add weight to a car when you’re fighting for every gram like someone on a pre-beach-season crash diet?

They’re noisy. Not in a glorious V8 rumble sort of way, but like an electric toothbrush trying to pick a lock.

They’re electricity junkies. Which means when your battery dies, you’ll be circling your car like a hungry cat waiting for dinner.

They’re not sealed. So in winter, they might just freeze solid. Because of course, nothing says “luxury vehicle” like frozen doors in sub-zero temperatures.

Wei also pointed out the potential safety risks in a crash — if the car loses power, you might not be able to open the doors. True, he conveniently left out the fact that most manufacturers have built-in workarounds for that. But even Mercedes-Benz Guard, whose vehicles are essentially tanks in ties, reverted to traditional handles on their armoured S-Class. If they don’t trust the gimmick, why should the rest of us?

So yes, the next wave of Great Wall models will likely come with good old-fashioned door handles.