As its name suggests, a door handle is used to open and close car doors. It is found on both the exterior and interior sides of automobile doors, although they are used differently on each panel. The one on the outside is pulled to open the car door, while the inside door handle is used to release the door latch before you can push the door to let yourself out.

Some car door handles can be found protruding from the exterior side while some are built into the fascia of the vehicles so that they seem to follow the contour of the car's body. They are usually made of steel, but doors of more expensive cars feature chrome door handles. Luxury automobiles such as the Lincoln Town Center are even decked with an electronic entry pad that requires you to either enter a numerical code or have your thumb scanned so you can open the car door.

In regular door handles, a toothed wheel at the side panel of the door, called a rotor, helps do the job. The rotor rotates and turns its teeth so to latch and unlatch with the striker when you open and close the car door. Although the door handle is probably one of the least complicated parts of your vehicle, it is just as important because it's the one that gives you entry and exit to your car. If isn't working well, you would obviously be trapped inside your car or perhaps be denied access to your own car. That would be a misfortune. A car door handle can cause you a lot of inconvenience if it isn't working properly, so it should not be taken for granted.