“… It’s a 2008… I have 40k miles and one night I goto back up my car … No power steering…the warning light was on the dash steering wheel with !!!.. So I limped my car to dealer… Lucky I had toyota extended warrenty… Steering cpu went bad…$585.00 part …
If car was out of warrenty I would of had to pay it… Also if it dosent fix problem by getting new steering cpu… They have to replace whole rack and pin … $3000.00 part by time labor is done…”
From the www.scionlife.com forums.
Welcome to the new exciting world of electric power steering. It saves on the horsepower draw to run an hydraulic pump with the engine to improve gas mileage, but comes at a very expensive price when it fails.
Very true. The high tech bells and whistles game comes with a big price tag and it’s only going to get worse.
Thank you for the warning. Lacking power steering, I am now more glad than ever. 
Electric power steering (EPS) is not that new. Those hand built automatic Honda NSX came with an electric rack. And it was the car that made Ferrari rethink their build quality.
I would just disconnect the EPS and drive on if I don’t have the money to fix it. Unlike hydraulic ones, it is not going to leak and cause my rack to lose lubrication.
Yup. My 93 MR2 has electric power steering. I’ve never had a problem with it. And normal power steering can be quite expensive to repair as well - replacing the whole steering rack is expensive no matter what car you’re talking about.
Yeah, although I am of the “KISS” philosophy generally, I’m willing to grant a bit of slack towards electric power steering, because it isn’t really “mission-critical” on a small car.
(I admit that driving a small car with INOP PS is annoying, and a PITA to parallel park, but it is entirely doable for an adult of reasonable strength and fitness.)