justabout

STG

Really??? How on earth can they justify that? There's been a few guys here who have disabled it.

But the same douche bag dealers would have no problem activating it if you wanted to buy it after the fact!

Bemo

PSP is not the problem or solution. The darn numb feel of the electric steering can't be "fixed."
I don't confuse firmness with feedback.

Norsk

bluehorseshoe

simplex

They say that for legal reasons (?!) they can enable and disable PSP only on cars that didn't come with it from the factory.

I am trying to find a dealer who doesn't believe in this bull.

Please let me know if you know one.

STG

That's BS.

Yeah, not up on CA dealers really (most are pieces of work), but hope someone can suggest one. There's plenty out there.

Bemo

Good question so I started digging.
Manufacturers claim 4% improvement in MPG, on average.
On a 30MPG that translates into an additional 1.2 miles! That's lame at best and can easily be achieved through some incremental weight savings.
Electric steering sucks and I'll gladly burn slightly more fuel for a hydraulic system.

ipse dixit

EPS is also lighter than HPS, as well as requiring less maintenance.

LavaGTS

Its time for a crappy 991.2. I read and heard somewhere that the electric power steering has been revised and updated.

minthral

I was looking at a C4 with power steering plus. Hated it enough to say I wouldn't buy the car just because it had the option... the steering felt very light and artificial at slow speeds, which is the time to experience the tight steering feel. That might be it. Also the smaller diameter steering wheel makes a difference.

When .1 (991 and 981) came out, steering lacking feedback was the number one complaint. .2 steering was re-vised and no one really complains about it...not sure if its that's because people got used to it or every other car is also electrically assisted so its a normal thing. I did compare a 2015 GTS to 2017's and didn't really find newer cars had more feedback...they just seemed to be more accurate and quicker to response to steering input. The 991.1 is a essentially a gen 1 electric system for Porsche.

The steering on my 991.2 doesn't give the feedback of old manual or hydraulic systems, but this was often accompanied with 'steering play' or 'inaccuracy' in the older (or cheaper) cars that I had the opportunity to drive. Its a fact that electrically assisted systems give less feedback, but I prefer the steering feel and accurately of newer electric systems...went through plenty of testing in 2011 when comparing older BMWs to newer and specifically VW Jetta or Golf when they were just starting the switch away from hydraulic. I think it just boils down to what you're used to... if you're used to an older accurate hydraulic rack from a Porsche or unassisted systems from light race cars, you will noticed that the electric assisted system does give less feedback and that's expected. I wouldn't call it 'numb' though... 'filtered' a better word for it. When I compared Porsche to Merc or BMW, the other brands had steering that was more assisted (not less) than Porsche.

Bemo

Test drove one before getting the slow-as-molasses 991.1. Same ****....

Needsdecaf

Is the steering in a 991 great? Not on the earlier cars. Gets better on the later ones.

Is it worse than an E class? Hell no. I've driven all manner of the last two generations and they are awful. So either exaggerating or something is wrong. Or PSP as others have said.

koala

The real reason for EPS is so that they can do the adaptive cruise control and other semi-autonomous features.

Bemo, your comment has me re-thinking disabling PSP. I do agree with you, heavier steering feel doesn't necessarily equate to solving the issue. My daily driver (Golf R) has three steering weight settings, and all they do is make the wheel heavier and heavier, but they do nothing to solve the numb feeling. If that is the case with disabling PSP, I might as well just leave it enabled

For those who wish to disable it, you can seek out an independent shop - they should be able to do it for you. A good indy has more or less the same equipment the dealer uses.

stout

Agree—for our purposes. But 1.2 mpg is HUGE when you put it into the bigger picture, much as the (sadly departed) François Michelin did when answering a journalist's question about his company's single tires instead of dual tires for trucks. The difference for one driver, or one truck, was not so much. But, when applied to the vehicle fleet, the difference was massive. As in, the kind of change that can alter oil dependency, greenhouse gases, etc—with little downside when applied intelligently.

So count me as a fan of EPAS for all those cars out there owned by people who don't care about steering feel—and (largely) protected by stability control systems, while sharing your frustration with the downside for our sliver of the driving population.

As to improving the system, you are right in a previous post: It ain't gonna be easy. I'd have to research it to be definitive on this, but I seem to recall speaking with a Porsche engineer about the rack in the GT3 and/or GT4, and learning that it was either identical or nearly identical to the one in the 991.1 Carrera that everyone was moaning about, yet it felt much better. "So it's just software/calibration, then?" I asked. No was the answer. It's a lot of things...calibration but also hardware (control arms, bushings, tires, track, etc). Would be an interesting subject to throw at someone who actually understands feel—someone like Mike Levitas over at TPC. I wonder if he could analyze the differences and come up with tweaks for both the software and the hardware.