Interesting Steering Comment from Accord Hybrid Review

Every now and then I drive my wife's RSX Acura. I'm just amazed at how totally stable that car feels compared to the Prius. It's the type of car that the phrase "tracks like on rails" describes perfectly. The suspension is a little bit stiff but the PS has just the right boost. If you ever get the chance to drive one you'll see what I mean. My '93 RX-7 was like that too after I changed the tires. A variety of others cars I've had, such as CRX-SI ('85 and '90), Nissan Pickup, Fiat X-19, etc were not great but were much better than my Prius. Even the ultra light CRX-SI tracked a little bit and did not wander or get blown around like my Prius. I'm not saying that any of the following is causing this issue but each could, and does in my opinion, exaggerate it:

Longish wheelbase, lots of side profile area due to tall profiile and relatively tall vehicle for a car (non-SUV) so wind side loads have a larger effect.
Very soft suspension
lots of body roll, wimpy anti-sway bars
narrow tires (the 195H60X15 tires that I tried helped here and I wish I had just taken the slight mpg hit and kept them in retrospec).
Probably not a very "stiff" chassis but this is just a suspiscion of mine. But one reviewer did comment on it and said he was surprised and thought toyota should have done better.

 

I have to say that my steering is dead on. Good sweet spot in the middle. I can take my hands off the wheel on a straight, flat, up hill or down. I have no complaints. I have not had much problem with wind yet. One moment when I was passed on the right and left by 18 wheelers, or maybe I was passing one and the other was passing me. At any rate I did get pushed around a bit as they went by, but not badly.

 

As a driver of a '90 CRX-SI (201k miles on it currently) and now 10k mii on our '04 Prius, I guess I don't have the same complaints as FredWB even with OEM tires. Yes they handle differently but that is where I'd leave it, different feel but I have no trouble switching from one to the other. Nor did I find the Prius particularly fatiguing on our 1000 mi. road trip this summer. To the contrary, as the first car we've owned with cruise control, it was a much easier drive.

Just my 2 cents,

 

I admit that I haven't noticed any problem whatsoever with the handling and steering. I find it to be a very serene and controlled drive every time I'm in it. I admit that I didn't increase the tire pressure to the 44/42 that others have, which may give me a smoother ride and less of a bounce and skip feel over bumps or cracks.

 

We just had our local Prius group meeting in San Diego. I sat next to a guy who says his dealer is going to change out the entire steering mechanism on warranty. I guess he finally had to tell them that if he was ever involved in a major fatal accident his wife was left instructions to get a good lawyer looking into all his complaints of wander with his car.

And then yet another new member got up and asked how much toe-in would reduce his car's wandering problems. That first person told me that Toyota is obligated to tell you (if you ask them) how many similar complaints they have to yours. When he called Toyota they quoted a number of wandering complaints that represented about 10% of the sales in the US. I have not confirmed this myself.

In spite of those of you that love the car's handling, they're not all the same. I did drive another car I would call acceptable and much better than mine. He drove mine and confirmed that it felt very different to him too. And it's not the tires or alignment, so that doesn't leave too much. Every suspension component was tight without any play. So unless I have a defective strut I'd say it's not a bad guess that maybe it's something with the steering. I should have probably sold my car long ago like another owner I met about 4 months ago at another SD club meeting. He sold it with 1600 miles on it and only lost about $1000.

Today I take my car into a new dealer that wants to help me so we'll see. I'm going to ask the service mgr to drive the car himself for a week if he can see if he can live with this problem because I don't think I can much longer. I know it's going to put me in a major accident someday inspite of my constant effort to stay within my own lane. This has really been an extreme love/hate vehicle for me.

 

10% of american sales??

ya...ok

 

OK someone needs to do this. We need to start collecting build dates to aissociate with these complaints. My car is new build in July. I get a general impression that the problem cars are early build cars. Am I wrong. We need data. I have no objections to the steering on my car. It is a car it steers. It is a bit tight but no more so that some of the other cars I have owned. What do you say?

 

Mine was built in December of 2003. Below highway speeds it is fine. On the highway without wind it is acceptable, though I think it is less stable than my old Civic was. On the highway with a side wind (the usual condition here on the prairie) I have to work constantly to keep it on track.

I would not sell it on this account. But if there were a TSB I would take it in to have it fixed.

 

maybe it is an issue that Toyota did address, but that would way out of character for Toyota to purposely conceal that fact.

i have a newer car and my steering is extremely tight and accurate. i have no problems in areas that are well known around here for crosswinds.

granted, winds are not static and do vary, but the Tacoma Narrows bridge averages 360+ days a year for high wind warnings and ive been over that bridge over 2 dozen times by my best guess without incident.

but you must realize that my other car was an F-150 pickup that was as far opposite as you could be... it took constant concentration to drive...waaaay more than my Prius. but its problems were a combination of suspension, rear wheel drive, springs, steering feedback, etc.

 

In some of my online searches I did come across an F-150 site that complained of the wandering issues with it. It sounded similar to the problems I'm experiencing. I don't know if I could call it a pure "steering" issue because it happens without any driver input..ie no hands on the wheel.

My build date is early too, 10/03.

I made my fuel gage/tank TSB appointment for this thursday, at which time they'll also once again re-check the suspension and alignment at this new dealer, Escondido Toyota. I've also written another letter to Toyota to offer my car for however long it takes to resolve this problem. I know the percentages are low but I'm always surprised that whenever I mention this to other Prius owners, a few seem to come out of the woodwork to complain about their cars too. I just wish everyone with any concern would contact their dealer and Toyota about it. I even met one guy in line right next to me at the dealership. An early Salsa Red Prius too with 16,000 miles and he had never complained!!

The fuel tank complaints were an example of what the shear number of complaints can accomplish. My average fill-up has been 8.1 gallons with the last bar and when I told the dealer the more than once, they said "Oh we've never heard that complaint". That finally changed to "Toyota is working on a solution". My friend at the club meeting told me his dealer told him that exact thing the last time about the wandering problem so maybe something is in the works. They're going to replace his steering assembly with Toyota's blessing so maybe this is the start of something. It's not a cheap fix at around $5K according to his dealer.

 

Our Build date was 9/03 and can't really complain about the handling (sorry)

 

I'd be surprised if ALL the cars from a certain build date range would have this problem. It's more likely that we'll find, if we're lucky, that the ones with this issue are all in a specific range.. But I'm sure we won't be that lucky. I drove another Prius today that did in fact feel "differnet". But I'll admit I'm having a tough time quantifying it and so the Toyota rep might have a tougher time because of time constraints. I think you have to drive the car on a variety of roads and immediately compared it to another Prius to understand the issue. The other car I drove just felt more comfortable to drive and the steering corrections I did make yielded smaller more predictable results. It's almost like the steering at speed is much more lighter and sort of flighty. There's just less feedback from the road somehow and less of a feeling of car wanting to track and go straight.