My mom took her 2005 Prius in for a recall fix a few weeks ago and I just got home for spring break. Driving her car home from the airport, the first thing I noticed was a substantial increase in steering feel. Before, the Prius offered hardly any resistance when turning the wheel... totally disconnected from the road. The steering effort was zilch. Now, it seems like after the recall fix the steering feel has improved dramatically. It's definitely not at Accord or Altima levels, but it's now a bit more like my own '99 Solara in terms of feel and effort. Anyone else notice this? I'm loving it.. I never liked driving the Prius much but the improvement in steering makes it a lot more entertaining to drive, especially around cities. I had a blast navigating it through New York City traffic just last weekend.

Some on the Prius forums have reported a difference, but I didn't notice any.

Jim

Lifetime fuel mileage:

After learning how to hypermile:

I didn't notice any change, but my dealer also indicated that although my car was marked for the recall, it was not affected by the recall because my parts were the proper ones or were not part of the weakened set of parts that the recall was targeting.

That was a few months ago now that I had that work done. Frankly, I'm glad to not have gotten another recall notice on the car. It isn't like any of the recalls have been terrible, but they require me to get the car to a dealer to get it taken care of.

It has been said:
Hybrid drivers come in 3 flavors, greenie, techie and cheapie. Pick any 2.
2005 Prius, Melinium Silver over gray, package 5 (AI)