What car has the lightest steering?

[markomah]

My 70-year old mother has degenerative arthritis in her shoulders and says she's finding the steering in her Evoque increasingly heavy and tiring. She wants to know which car has the lightest/most assisted steering.

She tends to use the car a bit for lugging stuff home from the garden centre (with someone to load and unload at both ends) so it needs to be reasonably capacious.

I have done a search but can't see anything on point.

Any thoughts on a few suggestions that might be worth her trying?

I know it's not a very PH thing to ask...

[kambites]

I don't know if they still do, but 90/00s Fiats used to have a "city mode" button which upped the assistance of the steering to comical levels.

[Agent XXX]

kambites said:

I don't know if they still do, but 90/00s Fiats used to have a "city mode" button which upped the assistance of the steering to comical levels.

Yep. This. Drove a Panda hire car with this feature. Don't switch it on on an Autostrada. Hugely entertaining

[mon the fish]

Second the Fiat as mentioned above - with the button pressed it's silly light, as in one finger twirl of the wheel when not moving

[AmosMoses]

Fiat Panda with City Mode

[GhostWKD]

When my mother broke her shoulder she struggled afterwards with her Mid 90's range rover, one of the ball steering wheel attachments really helped her with low speed maneuvering - might one of those be useful in this case?

[Stick Legs]

As above ^^^

Mid 1990's Fiats with city mode. Feels like the wheel is disconnected.

[J4CKO]

V12 E type had very light PAS

A lot of early PAS was ridiculously light though, like making a point that it had it so may as well feel the benefit, was later when you got a bit of weight back into it and it was assistance rather than the no effort required to twirly the wheel at all variety.

[jsims1]

I believe the current Fiat 500L has the city function for the steering so she can still have a fairly big car and very light steering together.

[nbetts]

I bought a Fiat Punto in the early 2000's for the Girlfriend with City Mode - was really light.

[markomah]

Thank you for all the suggestions.

I agree the ball on the steering wheel might be of assistance, but I suspect vanity would rule it out!

The Fiats look like a definite option - the 500L MPW looks like it might be big enough and it does come with the City Steering feature.

[markomah]

J4CKO said:

V12 E type had very light PAS

Now you're talking!

[sinbaddio]

As above, maybe a 500X would fit the bill?

[PositronicRay]

If you go to a mobility centre like this one http://www.jdhc.co.uk/, they're used to this sort of thing. They may be able to mod the Evoke, I expect they have EPAS.

[HustleRussell]

Some Fiats have city mode which makes the steering very light

[hutchst]

Adaptive steering on Infiniti

[Buff Mchugelarge]

80psi in the tyres should do the trick..

[liner33]

Prius is pretty light with a large albeit not deep boot

[markomah]

Thanks again for the suggestions; all very much appreciated.

She's a bad enough driver without my making things more exciting by inflating her tyres to 80psi!

Infiniti isn't a bad shout but no dealers yet in Ireland.

Prius isn't an option as she "doesn't trust" electric cars.

I've ordered her a 500L brochure and will see what she thinks.

[DaveCWK]

The new shape Fiat Panda retains the city steering. If all she does is get things from the garden centre it may be big enough! Surprising amount of space in the back with the seats folded, & it's a practical square shape