What exactly does "Handles well" mean?

[HachiRo]

I honestly want to understand what people mean when they say the car handles well. Someone wrote something before about how they avoided an accident with nimble and quick steering, but isn't that more so traction control keeping the car from spinning out?
People say it means the car corners well, but maybe I'm just an idiot and don't know how to drive this thing (granted, it's my first manual RWD), but it feels like it understeers at low speed when I had it in stock form.

Does handling well mean when you take a corner, your body doesn't sway that much? Because I feel like some Accords sway/tilt less in a corner, but maybe that's at lower speed.

Don't flame me, lol, please, I really want to understand.

[LOLS2K]

What do you mean by "it feels like it understeers at low speed when [you] had it in stock form''?

[Impureclient]

I know I can now take turns at speeds that in my old car would have sent me into a tree. The car is very confidence inspiring.
When this car does break free of traction when pushed past it's limit, it's also easier to adjust it back where you want it to go.

[theadmiral976]

Simply put, the twins have stiffer bodies and suspensions than your average family sedan. Take your car out to an abandoned parking lot, bring it up to 10 mph, and turn the wheel rapidly to one side and then abruptly stop turning. The twins have a lower tendency to "recoil" once you stop moving the wheel, a reflection of their stiffer handling. Most family sedans will rock in the opposite direction of the wheel movement to varying degrees.

At speed, you really begin to notice the twins' exquisite handling as the car does not lean to the outside of any given turn nearly as much as the family sedan. This really improves confidence while turning aggressively. Most importantly, it allows the driver to induce oversteer in a much more controlled manner.

The increased suspension movement at low speed that you report is likely your sensation of the car "hugging" the road more closely than other vehicles. This is due to several variables, including the suspension geometry and the low-profile tires.

You will know when traction control kicks in because the rectangular light in the center of the tachometer will flash angrily.

Of course, this topic is a lot more complicated than this, but hopefully this helps somewhat.

[NWFRS]

Originally Posted by HachiRo

Don't flame me, lol, please, I really want to understand.

I think I actually get where you're coming from.

I'm curious to hear some answers also, but here's my take on it: If I was to go for a nice relaxing Sunday drive, I'd more than likely find myself having FUN before too long. I'd be keeping my right foot down in the corners more and more. In no time at all I'd find myself at the top of the mountain or whatever, and I'd want to do it all over again. Let's say it took me twenty minutes.

Next I hop in my wife's Rav4 and do the same drive. It wallows in the corners and the whole car leans to the outside, forcing me to let off the gas so I don't plough off the road. In thirty minutes I'm bored out of my mind and I'm still not at the top of the d@mn mountain.

[ToySub1946]

With a car that handles well, a person can access a potential accident situation (often in a fraction of a second), then do
one or more of three things...brake, steer, or even accelerate to avoid an accident.


Many people, seeing a potential accident in front of them just give up... they don't try to steer out of it, brake out of it, etc.


If you're alert in this car, you've got a better chance to live...it's often up to the driver in numerous situations.

[humfrz]

Well, when I say a car "handles well", I mean that the car goes where I expect it to go ..... and when it doesn't, it responds predictably to my inputs.


humfrz

[Packofcrows]

Stiff suspension, well weight balance while in speed, easy to handle on the hands and decent acceleration is my definition.

[mav1178]

Originally Posted by HachiRo

, but it feels like it understeers at low speed when I had it in stock form.

You don't have enough driving experience to understand what is understeer and oversteer by that above line.

When people say it handles well, they mean that the car goes where you want it to go.

If you are understeering this car, you are driving it wrong.
If you drive it correctly and still feel that this car understeers, you have the wrong perception of understeer.

Kind of like snowboarding or skiing. With the right board, it will do exactly what you want it to do.

-alex

[strat61caster]

Drive some cars that handle poorly, that have large amounts of body roll, unpredictable response to your inputs, vague steering and braking and unresponsive throttle, truly excessive under/oversteer. It's very easy to forget how much can go wrong when you drive this car everyday and it gets so much of it right. Poor handling cars leave you uninspired, take your confidence away, good handling cars give you confidence to push and explore the limits of grip, there's a ton of small factors listed above that can be debated endlessly but all that's important is that the 86 ties it into a neat little bow for most people.

Originally Posted by mav1178

If you are understeering this car, you are driving it wrong.

So you're telling me that this car, off the showroom floor, with zero camber up front, doesn't understeer?

lol

Certainly a good driver can make it work (I didn't have the patience to figure it out) but it's not as balanced as it could be with some relatively simple adjustments. I don't think you're criticisms of OP are wrong but the massive difference in balance by changing one variable... I'll never go back.

[lukey86]

Handling can be quite subjective at times

It's not just the car and driver that become variables but also the location as well

if a person lives in a relatively flat area their perception of how this car handles may be completely different tosomeone who lives in an area with lots of hills and bendy 'drivers' roads...

Me? Well, I have airbags, so my car handles like shit.

[Mr.ac]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

So you're telling me that this car, off the showroom floor, with zero camber up front, doesn't understeer?

lol

Understeer in this car is always 100% driver error.
It's always 110% your braking too late.

[mav1178]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

So you're telling me that this car, off the showroom floor, with zero camber up front, doesn't understeer?

Pointing out the discrepancy between what OP thinks versus what other, more experienced drivers think.

I can make this car understeer. I can make it oversteer. What I won't say is that the car is inherently understeering overall.

-alex

[RichardsFRS]

Handleing well is what your car does. I've had many many cars front wheel drives and high powered rwd and none of them handled like this car NONE. You are just inexperienced with MT and RWD as you said.

This morning, I went thru a huge standing water puddle and the car never moved off the line I was on, that's handling well. My mustang woulda went sideways. This car truly has your back