Woof's Big Rear Sway Saga.....

[woof]

After dreaming of a new Progress Tech rear sway for so many, many months I gave up and got a TRD from Sparks. No problem with FedEx, even though Sparks put sig-required on the box the FexEx guy left it with nobody home. Hooray for common sense! I'm glad he did.

I tooled into my local dealer this morning (Saturday) and waited around for them to finally get to my car. Kind of frustrating but no sooner had they pulled the car in the shop they pulled it back out--installed! It took them no longer than 15 minutes and charged me for one hour! $88 down the tubes.

When I pulled away from the service department I immediately felt the difference. The steering felt a bit heavier but more firmly planted on the pavement. There was an immediate feeling of increased response from the front end....it felt more "pointy".

The first few turns emphasized this "pointiness" and and flatness from the rear. It felt strange at first but it was very noticeable that the bar was doing its work. I hit a few "cut-through's" and one traffic circle and felt very satisfied at the way the whole chassis seemed more balance but heavier.

I had an xB for 2 years and traded because I had 50K miles on it. When I first got the xB I had a Progress Tech rear sway installed and it was a revelation! If the Progress Tech was 100% to the xB, the TRD is 78% to the Yaris hatch. The TRD does work but not to the same effect the Progress Tech did with the xB. The xB handled ever flatter and felt lighter in the front end. And, I noticed on a loop, when I lifted my foot, the hatch's front end did not tuck in as quickly or decisively as the xB--the hatch erred to the side of neutral. Of course, the xB had stiffer shocks to begin with and I think, now, the xB's center of gravity is a tad lower than the hatch's. May also have something to do with wheelbase, too.

Overall, I wonder if the overdue Progress Tech will have more torsional rigidity and make the hatch handle even flatter and turn in quicker? I guess we won't know for a while yet. I had to jump, though, as I like a tighter handling car and a safer car and the TRD accomplishes that. I presume to go all the way one would need TRD springs at the least. I didn't feel that way with the xB.