Second only to the driver’s seat, the steering wheel has got to be the part of a car’s interior that we interact with most. It’s the essential input device for the driver, and the centerpiece of interior design. As such, the steering wheel can go a long way in making or breaking one’s impression of a car, whether we’re just appreciating it as a design or actually climbing into the thing and driving.
I’m sure there are a few (if not plenty) of steering wheels that stand out in your memory for their looks or feel, or both. One of my earliest car memories is of my aunt demonstrating the insanely overboosted power steering in her mid-70s American wagon (I was five, sorry I missed the make) by flicking the wheel around with her pinkie, swinging the car first toward a telephone pole and then into oncoming traffic, which was thrilling. I remember the rim was thin enough that even my lil’ mits could wrap around it, and the backside undulated with humps and valleys – you know, for finger-fitting ergonomics.
That wheel was hot garbage compared to that of Dad’s MG Midget (like the Bring A Trailer example above), which was nearly a ringer for that of Speed Racer’s Mach 5 (inset). The wheel Speed wrangled was a wholly traditional three-spoker, but I recognized the esthetic as racecar. Combine that with the magic sauce of those lettered buttons, and that’s a top-three favorite wheel design for life. It’s a classic, and classics live forever.
Later, I was turned on to the beauty of the monospoke, which I actually saw first in an Aston Martin Lagonda (only in a magazine, mind you) instead of the usual gateway to one-legged wheels, the Citroen DS:
I particularly appreciate lack of effs Aston Martin gave for how the wheel looks in any position other than dead ahead. That thing must have looked quite a mess in actual use with that slab-sided not-a-hub flipping around, but when it’s sitting parked and pretty, nicely aligned? Delightful – though sadly discontinued not long into the car’s run in favor of a conventional design. I also love everything else about the Lagonda’s driver-control choices, and revisit Doug’s video tour of the machine on the regular – even if he is showing off the boring regular-steering-wheel model.
Now, back to buttons real quick, and that wonderful Pontiac Grand Prix in the topshot. I unironically love this iteration of the W-body and its “B4U” body kit, and would happily murder to own the minty example featured by the Curious Cars channel further below.
Now, I get why the Grand Prix’s button-bedazzled wheel elicits lols and/or groans, but I think it’s fantastic. I’m not a big fan of the future of now, all screens and brushed aluminum and minimalism, but the future as envisioned by the 80s and 90s will always be a look I dig. The more buttons, the better – and all the better if they’re in the steering wheel. Speed Racer really got his hooks into me.
Your turn: What’s The Best/Worst/Weirdest Production-Car Steering Wheel Design?
Top graphic images: Curious Cars screengrabs
You forgot the terrible 2 spoke boomerang thing the xt had.
Maybe I’m alone but Alcantara can die in a ditch. Gt350 would be better with smooth soft leather wheel instead.
Growing up with no power steering and hard rims proves you don’t need kungfu grip to turn the car. If you did, I’d be dead.
The horrible two spoke wheel GM. stuck in the Corvette for it’s interior refresh in 1994. Uglier, put together worse and far less fitting to the car than the one that was in the car for the previous four years; just like everything else with that cost cutting measure. It was the one relic of my interior that still dated mine as a 1994 when I was done modifying the interior.
That passenger airbag cost money, dammit, and GM would be damned of they weren’t going to take their pound of flesh out of the rest of the car to compensate.
https://www.goodwood.com/grr/road/news/axons-automotive-anorak–the-13-best-steering-wheels-ever/
Check this link out. Lamborghini had a spokeless steering wheel back in the 1960s! … or, how about the square steering wheel of the 1960s Chrysler 300!!
1987-89 TN Mitsubishi Magna Elite (top trim) in Australia. My Grandma had one of these with a navy blue interior (with matching navy blue custom lambswool seat covers) and 10 year-old me thought this ride was baller.
I can still smell those seat covers (lovely). Unfortunately I can still hear the engine (god awful).
But that steering wheel (and instrument cluster) was so weird, I loved it. Still do tbh.
http://marks.htmlplanet.com/tn.htm
Edit: I can’t link to the wheel directly. It’s the single spoke one with the buttons when you scroll down through this article. Pretty rad.
The Honey Bun steering wheel
Worst: anything with a yoke from the Batmobile to a Tesla
Best: the square steering wheel on a 1960s imperial
Nardi.
The end.
The first-gen Camry had a flat bottom wheel, if that counts 😛
The worst is the SJ Forester because the horn button eventually stops working, and you need to replace the clockspring “roll connector” which is over $300 🙁
The sticky gm wheels they had for at least 20 years are up there for me they were uncomfortable to begin with then got worse with age. Some of Chinese cars I’ve driven have had terirble feeling steering wheels and sometimes slightly off where you want it to be.
Some of the early to mid 2000s vws had a very comfortable setups. I had a 2003 GTI and that sticks in my mind as one of the most comfortable and best. Ram trucks are always comfortable for me I think Gen 4 is the best of them but gen 2 wheels are fine. Gen 5 is ok. I drove a gen 4 2500 all over long distances and was generally impressed how it sat and drove and in particular the steering and steering wheel.
Not the worst, but for me, totally unfortunate – late ’80s Fox Body Mustang.
The dull, two horizontal spoke design just doesn’t fit the car at all.
Made it especially fun to run a 7000 rpm 500 hp mustang with a hollowed out interior, recovered in entry level trim, right down to a working radio.
Oh, production car.
Well those Rim Blow wheels were pretty Best/Worst/Weirdest.
I can’t believe I am the first to mention the Rim Blow.
There was an old military surplus 6×6 truck on our farm that for some reason was missing its steering wheel. We would drive it around with a visegrip on the steering column.
Note that “driving” was limited to a hundred yards or so at a time. I don’t think it even had water in the radiator. It just had a bunch of tools and stuff on it.
Now that I think of it, the lack of steering wheel may have been an anti theft tactic.
So anyway, do vice grips count?
I haven’t owned any Citroens or Teslas, so everything I have driven has been relatively traditional. I’m not a big fan of skinny wheels (mid 2000’s Silverado for instance) and I really wish controls like cruise control would be standardized on one side of a wheel. Haptic controls on steering wheels (and dashboards) has cured my of my lifelong affinity to Volkswagen products.
Flat bottom wheels do not bother me. I personally like wheels with the centering stripe at 12:00. Yokes should be illegal.
We had a ’86 Chevy celebrity that my dad put a 3 spoke aftermarket wheel where the spokes were anodized black. Very basic mod. But my mom would cruise with her hand holding the bottom spoke, and her thumb wore off the finish so it had a blue spot. Not exactly related to this story, but it holds a weirdly happy place in my brain.
I have ten minutes ago just got out of an early CX, damn that is a good thing to drive. Single spoke wheel, enough texture to hold and the switches are so intuitive, C-matic box. so comfy, so easy. so sad, I have to sell it.
I loved my 1989 Camaro but hated the steering wheel. Like everybody else I replaced it with a Grant Gt three spoke. One of my best purchases ever. Also, I love the old wood rimmed steering wheels.
No buttons except for the horn. Everything else is hazardous and/or annoying to accidentally press.
The End.
Most surprising: My 1994 Subaru Legacy Turbo estate had a nice-to-hold but pretty dull to look at steering wheel with a faint ‘Momo’ stamped on it. One day I was fiddling about with the cover and it came off, revealing three brushed metal spokes and a beautiful Momo horn button underneath. I was always torn between preferring the cover off vs worrying what my face would look like if I impaled myself on it. Best to hold – BMW E91 standard wheel, worst to hold- most BMW MSport – just too thick – with a particular mention for the E61 where the foil started coming off within 20k miles.
I’m not a fan of anything that has touch capacitive buttons on the wheel. I’m very much used to having buttons there, and like having them. But I spent a month with a 2021 E-Class and the capacitive touch buttons on the wheel were my only real gripe about the whole car. Graze one of those buttons and menus shuffle, volume changes…etc. And while they at least made indentions to indicate where certain functions were, it was still difficult to determine what was where without having to look down at the wheel. The only frustrating part about an otherwise very pleasant car to live with.
It’s aftermarket, but THE WORST steering wheel will always be the one made of welded chain links.
91xFasHqrFL.jpg (2560×2509)
I always associate those with lowrider bicycles and wonder why a bike needs a steering wheel instead of handlebars.
That would be very different.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowrider_bicycle#/media/File:Ernest07mia.jpg
You forget that some idiots like a 4″ diameter wheel too.
My Dad had a 1989 Bonneville SSE that had that mega-button wheel. And being GM, even new, the buttons worked when they felt like it.
And a friend in high school had a Subaru XT with the two spoke at an odd angle wheel.
But the best I felt and drove…1992 Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo. Compact, comfortable, soft leather, no extra junk on it. It wasn’t adjustable due to the whole we’re figuring out air bags thing, but it was perfect for blasting down farm roads.
I can’t single out a best, because there are all sorts of good wheels out there. But for WORST, that is easy for me – any of the Audis back in the day that had the both off-center and weirdly angled sideways wheels like the “Aero” 5000/100s of the 80s and early 90s. Just unpleasant to hold with it canted to the side and not in line with my torso to boot.
I am not a fan of wheels with lots of buttons either, in general I am not a fan of steering wheel mounted controls beyond a bare minimum. I think my BMWs have 8 total, and that is a few too many. Cruise control belongs on it’s own column stalk, not the steering wheel. Much more intuitive. I would hate steering wheel controls less if there was a standard for the damned things. But every automaker does them differently, inevitably with completely inscrutable symbols on them for other than the volume control. Which should be a damned knob on the center console.