Originally Posted by dropnosky

I wonder what PITA egghead thought that little trick up? What measurable percentage of door open disasters with BMW caused them to wire the door to the shifter?

I can think of one thing this would hamper. Being able to open the door a bit and verify the line of the tires is pretty useful for driving a car onto a lift, but this would make that impossible. Yet another engineering marvel than makes it more difficult to work on the car for the long term.