OP HERE. I did an experiment today with my wife. We both tried it to ensure I wasn't imagining or exaggerating.
1) Close door.
2) Press LOCK on fob.
3) As handle is retracting, insert hand as if you were about to open door.
4) Feel pain/discomfort as handle wedges your hand against the upper groove cutout in the door.
5) Feel door handle NOT open until you press fob UNLOCK.
Repeatable and painful.
I wonder if the door handle safety somehow got changed. I still have those very original handles that doesn't give any way when you open the door etc. I've tried as I may, unless I scrape myself against the edge, the door handle doesn't do any damage or impart any pain - knuckles, fingertips, full fingers, palm etc.
The alternate theory is that after 2 years, my springs are more worn out than with a new car. The door handles still sit flush against the car body though.
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On my Model S, you can't get your fingers, or anything else in there as the "lip" follows the shape of the handle, not the door.
I have about 1.5 mm overhang between the panel of the door and the tunnel in which the door handle moves, that forms a lip. It would be possible for you to get your finger stuck behind it. It requires a bit of contortionism to get your finger into the position, and you have to be holding onto the handle during closing, in order to get your finger into there during opening.
But yes, if you do that I can see the door scraping off up to 1.5 mm of skin during opening of the handles, which would certainly bleed.
Then again, considering when I got my car, none of the panels really line up with anything
. Newer cars may or may not have a more perfect overlap.
The lip isn't an issue while closing though - then handle moves away from it.
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5) Feel door handle NOT open until you press fob UNLOCK.
I just reread this. Are you saying you literally cannot pull open the handle with your hand? And you have to press unlock to have your hand freed?
This is 100% definitely a design change then. I can with very little force always pull the door handle completely open. Even when the car is locked - as long as I get something behind it initially, I can pull the handle all the way open.