electric power steer vs hydraulic

[Razgo]

How do new to rav4 owners adjust to electric power steer? Having no real feedback when steering would take some getting used too? its the only thing i haven't really warmed to in the rav4. the only electric power steer car i ever had int he past was a V8 fairlaine, ZG from memory.

going to hire one this week so i guess i will find out soon.

russ

[DJKOR]

I think you have confused electric assisted power steering with drive-by-wire (DBW) technology. The steering on the Rav4 there you refer to is just like normal power steering where the steering wheel is physically linked with the wheels. The only difference is that instead of using a hydraulic pump setup to assist with turning the wheels, an electric motor does the helping.

On that topic, electric assisted power steering is a fair bit lighter than its hydraulic counterpart. It surprised me the first time I drove a hybrid Camry because I really didn't expect an electric motor used for PS to be quite strong.

[Hiro]

Electric-assisted power steering does tend to have less "feedback" than traditional hydraulic setups though, guess it could be the way the different systems deal with "backpressure" (a force being applied from the wheels to the rack rather than the other way around). Plus, because electric-assist is usually lighter (plus much easier to make variable-speed) you don't always get that nice firm reaction you do with hydraulic, which leads to that "isolated" feeling

[Razgo]

thanks for the clarification. well i guess its like anything you can get used to it. one review i read said it didn't tend to recenter properly. not sure if that was just that car they reviewed on that day of its normal.

russ