Do you prefer electric or hydraulic steering?

[DOCG]

Early claims where that electric steering gave much less feel than hydraulic steering, is this still the case 10 years on?

[RedWhiteMonkey]

Possibly not the greatest of comparisons but I have a VW T6.1 with electric steering and my in laws have a VW T6 with hydraulic steering. I've driven both plenty and prefer the electric steering.

[Krikkit]

Can we have one for "none"

[Tickle]

Another vote for none

[kambites]

Depends on the car. In a sports car I'd say unassisted > hydraulic > electric. In a shopping car, exactly the opposite.

Of course there are good and bad examples of both - a good EPAS system is far better than a poor HPAS one and vice versa, whatever the application.

[otolith]

I've got unassisted on my Elise, hydraulic on my Z4M, and electric on my F34 335d.

I like the Elise best. The Z4M isn't particularly good as hydraulic systems go, but it's better than the 3 series. I do like the way that the steering weight can be changed on the 3 series, though.

[Krikkit]

otolith said:

I've got unassisted on my Elise, hydraulic on my Z4M, and electric on my F34 335d.

I like the Elise best. The Z4M isn't particularly good as hydraulic systems go, but it's better than the 3 series. I do like the way that the steering weight can be changed on the 3 series, though.

I've had an E46 and an E87 both with hydraulic and neither were especially feelsome imho. The best hydraulic setup I've found was a Mk1 MX5, closely followed by a Fiesta ST150 and a Mk1 Focus.

[otolith]

Krikkit said:

I've had an E46 and an E87 both with hydraulic and neither were especially feelsome imho. The best hydraulic setup I've found was a Mk1 MX5, closely followed by a Fiesta ST150 and a Mk1 Focus.

We had a Mk2 MX-5, and that was good. Peugeot 306XSI was very good. 350Z was nothing special. RX-8 was electric and quite good. Civic Type-R was electric and not great.

[RDMcG]

My thinking has evolved.
I still have my old 997 RS which has hydraulic steering and feels razor sharp.

When the 991 series came out I tried a 991 Carrera for a few days.

I hated the steering which had much less feedback than the older car.

However,current cars are hugely improved and the 991RS has superb steering so I do not see a lot of difference-still a slight nod to hydraulic.

[andygo]

I'm not sure you can just say the hydraulic or electric steering is better (for example) on a Focus than a Golf. There are a whole host of other factors to take into account, not least steering geometry, (castor, camber, toe) weight of car, tyres, size of steering wheel, etc.

I drive a Porsche Cayman that has electric power steering. It works really well, and felt better after I had the steering geometry set up to a more neutral set up than the standard understeer biased settings.

TBH it feels much the same as my earlier generation Cayman with hydraulic steering.

I also used to run an Elise some years ago. The unassisted steering felt great, assisted by the cas low weight, particularly at the front.

Lets do a poll on aircon efficency eh?

Edited by andygo on Tuesday 29th November 11:32

[Tommo87]

I have driven woefully vague versions of both, from 80-90’s luxo-barges to small hire cars, none of which gave any meaningful indication of the grip or feedback.


Arguably, an electric system is more versatile, as you can adjust the level of steering effort, which most manufacturers do with sport mode.

[Abbott]

In my experience the biggest difference is when the system is not powered. In the old days there was never any issue with moving and steering a car that was not running. The cars that I have had with electric steering are impossible to move the steering wheel when not powered. driving a Power Assisted car if the system

[andygo]

I used to do a fair bit of tarmac rallying in the day in a variety of RS Escorts. I remember the first time I fitted slicks. I thought the steering had broken until I was up to a couple of MPH and then I could move the steering wheel! Hence my earlier post about other factors affecting steering feel.