Steering Feel & Feedback - Your Nominees for the Best & the Worst!

[Speedster123]

Best: Maruti Baleno with a sports steering wheel (small). The previous owner had installed it. The balano felt file a small zippy car with that steering. However, I had to change it back to the original (provided by the previous owner) as the turn indicators would not automatically stop after turning the steering wheel and the steering grip had worn out and looked old. Somehow the older looked newer than the new (no pun intended).

Good: The Stock Steering still feels very good on the baleno and it may be partially because of the tyres I have. I use 175/70/R13. I had a zen for 6 years that had a pretty good feel as well.

The Worst I had was on a friend's Tempo Trax (9 seater). We did a Mumbai - Mahabaleshwar trip once in that truck and it had no feeling.... Infact I felt like I added a couple of inches to my biceps after driving that up the ghats. But I guess, we are speaking about cars here and trucks dont qualify... but that would be my nominee for the worst.

[gomzi]

Among the cars i've driven/owned:

Best Steering feel: good 'ol Zen and the Fusion

Worst Steering feel: Accent

At one point in time I owned an Accent and a WagonR and I preferred the WagonR's steering. It actually felt weightier than the Accent's.

I currently have an Indigo CS and WagonR and like the steering feel on the CS more.

[ajnagpur]

As per my experience:

Best: Ford Ikon, Fiesta, Skoda Fabia, Punto.

Worst: i20, Aveo, estilo.

[unni.ak]

Best: Ford Fiesta and Zen (Old model, Non-PS)
Worst: Scorpio.

[khoj]

Best so far me 1998 Old Honda City with hydraulic oil powered steering
and worst
2006 New Honda City with electric motor powered steering.

[ph03n!x]

From what I have driven, best steering feel and response would be Palio, Peugeot and iKon. And the worst would be shared by Wagon R, Omni and Indica V2.

[Axe77]

Truly a thread after my heart. I absolutely hate a disconnected steering.

IMO the Civic, Swift & Lancer have fantastic feedback (civic is much better than even the Accord, City). I'm sure there are others with comparable / better rating but these are the cars I've driven enough to personally opine on.

i20 - horrendous (based on TD)
i10 - pretty bad. (family owned it)
Wagon R - pretty bad (family owned it).

Actually the 'pretty bads' are more the norm than the exception. I am always pleasantly surprised when I encounter a car with good to great feedback.

[PhiGolden]

The best is the Palio SDX I own now.

The worst was the CL 500 we used to have. One full circle of play before it started to grip

[chittybang]

Among the car I have tried out the best would be Lancer and Fiesta while the worst was Verna.

[1100D]

I see many folks have listed Scorpio as one amongst the worst feedback. Agreed. But it does not fall in the same segment as a normal hatch and sedan.

In its category (sub 10 lakh SUV), show me a vehicle with better steering feedback. Safari and the Xylo would rate as the worst of the worst for me add to that the horrible vagueness off the center position.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by 1100D

In its category (sub 10 lakh SUV), show me a vehicle with better steering feedback. Safari and the Xylo would rate as the worst of the worst for me add to that the horrible vagueness off the center position.

A more direct steering on Scorpio or Safari would be a disaster. My main qualm with the Scorpio steering is the lightness and it remains the same whether you are puttering around town or crusing on the highway.

Safari in my opinion has a much better steering than Scorpio/Xylo. The wobbly suspension is more of a culprit than steering in case of Safari.

[1100D]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

A more direct steering on Scorpio or Safari would be a disaster. My main qualm with the Scorpio steering is the lightness and it remains the same whether you are puttering around town or crusing on the highway.

Safari in my opinion has a much better steering than Scorpio/Xylo. The wobbly suspension is more of a culprit than steering in case of Safari.

Feedback and "weighing up at speed" are two different things. When we talk about this feedback/communication, we are talking about feeling the same, through variations of the steering stiffness with varying levels of grip. I dont really expect a high C.G SUV to have a very direct/responsive steering. But then, when you start driving, you kind of tend to try poke the limits, thats when these observations creep in.

Scorpio steering, though not direct, conveys more of what goes under its wheels, Safari's steering does not get adequate information from its softer suspension. The spring-rates, that give it its highway ride quality, are too low for the surface to filter through to the steering column. Infact on a sprited drive on the expressway, while working through traffic, behind a scorpio, I was having difficulty judging how much grip there is left while taking the turns (note I was being faced with a tremendous body roll, but that is a different issue alltogether). A scorpio on the same stretch communicated better about the levels of grip available.

[samsan02]

Best steering : Punto is absolutely the best, you can feel the road and the turns. Dont believe it do a TD and find out for yourself. I have driven Pontiac Grand Prixs and Punto feels almost same as that.

Worst steering : i20 Steering is so light and disconnected, should have been better as its a premium hatchback car.

[trinadha]

i love the ss80,steers perfect for the thrills, nice in the corners too.

guys what happened to opel corsa heard it has a good steering.
also which of suvs have a good steering.

[shuvc]

The Ikon does have lovely steering feedback. Lancers with just a tyre upgrade are also wonderful. The Baleno, although quite decent with upgraded rubber, would surely rank below these two. I like the Civic. Octy has feedback, but somehow felt it was a tad too heavy.