Newbie feels "floating" sensation at high speeds

Welcome Aboard!!!

Don't worry. You'll get used to the "X-box 360" steering. It took me a couple of weeks---but it's not that bad.
The Prius was made for going to and from the race track, not actually driving on it.

Yeah, I know.
There's somebody out there that probably has their Prius tweaked out for autocross duty.

People race riding lawnmowers too.

Anyway, your car is fine and once you get your tires squared-away and you get used to the way Priuses handle [sic] you'll be glad you got one.
It's a pretty good car.

Best of LUCK!!!

 

A few months ago someone who was a former Air Force transport pilot said words to the effect that driving a Prius was like flying a cargo plane. With practice you can finesse it.

It is worse than some if not most lower priced economy cars so it shouldn't be that way.

 

How well does your car track? Tracking, my definition, simply means how well does it keep going in the direction it's pointed in. For example on a long, strait, level stretch of freeway with no wind how long will it stay in it's own lane without approaching the lane edge?

My Gen 3 Prius, which seems to be blessed with good tracking, may go 10 or 15 seconds before I need to correct it. My Gen2 Prius which was delivered with some fairly serious suspension problems would start to veer out of its lane almost immediately which made it very tiring to drive. It was better after it was fixed and aligned but never as good as the Gen3.

If your car does have a tracking problem it can usually be fixed with an alignment, unless it was damaged in shipment as my Gen2 was. I would also increase the tire pressure to 40 or 42 psi.

 

Congrats on your new Prius and welcome to PriusChat.

I agree that high speed road sensitivity (lack of) is an issue, but not something that I am willing to tweak through tire adjustments. Prius steering at higher speeds is not as sensitive to road feedback as other cars I've driven, but I feel that may be a compliment to engineering a smooth, comfortable ride.

Happy Motoring,

Tom

 

it's not the assistance, it's the ratio.

 

No it's not. There are cars with quicker steering ratios that have much better steering feedback. It's a poor implementation of electric power steering by Toyota.

 

May not be what you are experiencing but mine wanders with the grooves on the freeway sometimes. The tire treads follow the rain grooves and make the car wander and not track. It seems to be getting better as the tires wear in. Only 6000 miles so far, but is almost gone now. Tracks really good on non grooved pavement. I have Goodyears. It may vary by tire type.

 

i find the more people in the car, the less likely it is to float.

 

Tramlining.

 

I have a two week old 2011 Prius 3 and notice the same thing. On city streets, it handles fine. On a grooved freeway, it has this subtle left-right-left unsteadiness as it tracks the grooves. I took it to the dealer - they said that's because it's a smaller and lighter car than what I'm used to. Apparently different tires (like Michelin's) MAY make a difference, but Iwith just a 1000 miles on these, I've got a ways to go. It does make long distance driving more tiring that with my BMW.

 

There's likely nothing wrong with your car. The tires have soft sidewalls and are low rather low grip. The suspension is pretty crappy as well. Get used to the floating feeling during high-speed highway driving.

 

After lowering my car I noticed a sharp decrease in that floaty or wandering feeling such that I don't notice it anymore. The soft springs and large soft sidewall on the 15" tires are the main reason for this issue.

 

what i've noticed is that the feedback is so soft that nobody drives it the way they do with their last car. with my wheel size i can feel feedback a little bit more. at speed i usually have a pretty light grip on the wheel and i'm feeling for nudges and watching for changes in the road. as the steering wheel nudges around, i follow it accordingly.. it works extremely fast. if you do it right the car rides perfect... if you do it wrong, you start actually steering the car left and right really fast. no dead center to the wheel. it's basically left or right... like i said... i do have bigger wheels and a lot of miles on this car. (only me driving)

a side note... it's also the seat. it's a little... bouncy. sometimes i hold the bottom rail with one arm. it feels very go-cart ish that way.

 

17"s at 44 front 42 rear, 36k, never noticed any floating. last car was a vauxhall vectra (Saturn Aura or Chevrolet Malibu in US) which had electronic power steering. The prius system is much better, with no drag, or weird noise. It is lighter weight, which i prefer, but some may like a heavier feel. maybe that sort of thing will be user programmable in the future, it could be tied into the drive mode selection.

 

The floating feeling I notice right away ! Even at low speeds coming from owning sports cars. It Feels like you don't have control u don't feel the road! Fixing going take some doing! 1 . lower profile wheels& tires. 2 lowering the center of gravity with loweing springs. 3. Cusco front away bar 127% stiffer 4. Frt strut tower brace. 5 Cusco frt power brace, lastly Cusco center power brace. After doing those suspension modification in those stages the floating feeling is gone Crisper steering response lots less under steer overall it feels sporter.

 

^^^ exactly ^^^

 

Trouble with lowering, besides the $'s, is you can get a scraping feeling.

I find it not bad at all, though to be fair that is with OEM 17" tires.

 

oh, i thought the 'floating feeling' was euphoria from driving a prius.

 

Did you put a rear sway bar on as well, or for some reason did you spend all that $$$ and leave out something that makes handling better?

 

No change in front camber?