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Originally Posted by TVMA Doc
There's a lot to be said about this point.
I'd say that most reviewers, however, have hit the issue with the fact that the new generation is faster and better in almost everything except steering feel. I don't think that it's really just a "get used to a new concept" sort of thing. You can't replace steering feel, you can only somehow learn to do with numbed down steering.
I drove a new generation and I really didn't "feel" the car. That's possibly more important coming from someone who grew up with no DSC, etc. You NEEDED to feel what the car was doing. It does, however, take away one more piece of information from the driver-it's almost like driving in a video game. You lose that little bit of information that the road is giving you.
I'm sure that car manufacturers will learn how to compensate and somehow get some/all of that feeling back, but for now electronic steering is a compromise made for fuel savings. It is definitely not an upgrade. It's too bad, really. Otherwise the newer car is just a bit better at almost everything.
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Brilliantly stated. Improvements will be made to electronic steering assist, but the real revolution in "green" performance and handling will come when advanced materiels like carbon fibre (and whatever comes along that is both stiffer and lighter) can be mass produced to a degree that the costs are manageable for a mass-marketed car. At that point we may see some real weight reduction, enough so that assisted steering is no longer required.