Is/was it possible to get a 2003 Accent without power steering? The previous owner said she bought it without power steering. All the reviews/sites I've been able to find say power steering is a standard feature, but this is the Canadian model and all of the sites which list features focus on the 1.6L 16v DOHC as opposed to the base model with the 1.5L 12v SOHC, which mine has. It steers well enough when I'm going, but if it's stationary (or nearly stationary), a fair bit of force is needed to move the wheels. Cars I've driven with power steering don't have this issue, and steer fine when not moving. Even when the Accent is moving, steering is still noticeably heavier than on other cars, though I don't mind it at all.

None of this really is an issue, I am just curious whether it actually has power steering (good thing to know if I was going to sell it, for example). If nobody knows for sure if the Canadian 2003 base model Accent was available w/o power steering, is there anything I can look for under the hood?

 

try looking for the power steering fluid tank under the hood, it should be clearly labeled in the owners manual, and provide with instructions on how to check the fluid. thats if you have power steering.

 

If you have the 1.5L engine that means you have the base GS hatchback. That car came standard with manual steering so it sounds like the information you were given is correct.

I haven't driven a car with manual steering in quite a few years but recall the steering being quite heavy at low speed so it sounds normal to me. If the car actually had power steering you should be able to see evidence of it being removed. The fluid reservoir and lines would likely have been taken out and connections to the steering rack capped.

 

Yes, you both are correct. There is no steering fluid reservoir, and the car definitely handles like Rallyman describes. It's fairly heavy at low speeds/stationary, which makes it a bit of a pain in parking lots (mostly that it's not really that easy to whip the wheel around quickly); my research suggests power steering's main advantage is that turning a car when it's barely moving requires no effort.

Do you think manual steering would affect resale value? Of course it won't sell for as much as a fully loaded model, but pretty much everything on Craigslist for my city is a fully loaded model. I think a lot of people think you need power steering to drive a modern car; I definitely thought this before I started trying to figure out if this car had it or not.