A couple questions about Corollas, Prizms, and stabilizer bars.

First, rewind the clock to 1993-1997. If my research is right, the sole
mechanical difference between these twins is that the high-end Corolla DX
has front and rear stabilizer bars while the Prizm LSi has a bar at the rear
only. Between the two, the Prizm gets noted by Consumer Reports for having
less body roll and crisper steering. Strange, but okay.

Now fast-forward to the redesigned 1998 cars. Toyota decides to be cheap
and yanks the front stabilizer bar out of both cars, and Consumer Reports
soon discovers that they fishtail and slide around so severely in emergency
handling that they only recommend cars that have the front bar (Corolla LE,
Corolla CE with the Touring Package, and Prizm LSi with the Handling
Package). For the record, Toyota realizes its mistake and makes dual bars
standard for 1999.

So, just how necessary (or desirable) is a front stabilizer bar in a
front-drive car? Plenty of econoboxes omit bars in back, but aside from
these Toyotas and stripped versions of the 04-06 Sentra, I can't name a
single late-model car that leaves a bar off the front. If you're trying to
pinch pennies by only having one bar, isn't the back end a better place,
since you at least get balanced handling instead of piling on yet another
load to the already-burdened front end? Were those 98 model cars really
that bad? And if the 93-97 Prizm had no front bar, why didn't it get dissed
too?

"CrunchyCookie" <LSC400@Yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:yoidnSVxR5UCjvfVnZ2dnUVZ_r3inZ2d@comcast.com. ..
>A couple questions about Corollas, Prizms, and stabilizer bars.
>
> First, rewind the clock to 1993-1997. If my research is right, the sole
> mechanical difference between these twins is that the high-end Corolla DX
> has front and rear stabilizer bars while the Prizm LSi has a bar at the
> rear only. Between the two, the Prizm gets noted by Consumer Reports for
> having less body roll and crisper steering. Strange, but okay.
>
> Now fast-forward to the redesigned 1998 cars. Toyota decides to be cheap
> and yanks the front stabilizer bar out of both cars, and Consumer Reports
> soon discovers that they fishtail and slide around so severely in
> emergency handling that they only recommend cars that have the front bar
> (Corolla LE, Corolla CE with the Touring Package, and Prizm LSi with the
> Handling Package). For the record, Toyota realizes its mistake and makes
> dual bars standard for 1999.
>
> So, just how necessary (or desirable) is a front stabilizer bar in a
> front-drive car? Plenty of econoboxes omit bars in back, but aside from
> these Toyotas and stripped versions of the 04-06 Sentra, I can't name a
> single late-model car that leaves a bar off the front. If you're trying
> to pinch pennies by only having one bar, isn't the back end a better
> place, since you at least get balanced handling instead of piling on yet
> another load to the already-burdened front end? Were those 98 model cars
> really that bad? And if the 93-97 Prizm had no front bar, why didn't it
> get dissed too?

Front stabilizer bars are not necessary in a front wheel drive car, however
they are desirable to reduce body roll. The back is not necessarily a
better place because most of the weight in most FWD cars is in the front.
--

Ray O
(correct punctuation to reply)