I own a 2005 Toyota Camry that has far more plastic than metal, just like any other modern car.

The problem is this. The other day I grabbed the door handle and pulled. And this is the result.

Broken door handle

Oopsie. I’ve never had a creak or groan out of the handle, until it decided to self destruct.

Well, being the genius that I am, I futzed around trying to get the bloody door open from the inside. Then, having given up on that I crawled over the center column and out the passenger side door.

Which, when you consider the fact that I’m 6’4” and 270 lbs, which makes me almost as big as the car’s interior, must have made for a pretty funny sight… I hope nobody saw me, or worse yet, had their phone out. – Because, if they did get a video, I’ll be a bloody internet meme.

But more to the point, something that didn’t occur to me until I was out on the ground, was that all I had to do was roll down the window, reach out, and use the outside door handle. (Go ahead and laugh. I did.)

At any rate, plastic may be light but it has a very limited life span. Fortunately you can find a lot of replacement parts on Amazon.

And if you need to replace the interior handle you’ll probably have to take the door apart. So my advice is to find a YouTube video on how to pull the door panel. -I missed two screws hiding under the bottom edge the first time through which was a real pisser.