The Civic IMA Hybrid uses EPS (Electronic Power Steering), The steering does have a slightly stiffer feel to it. Sometimes you can have issues on initial start up, if you try to operate the steering to fast to soon, the reason for this is down to the EPS control unit not having time to charge the Capacitors that control heavy load current delivery to the steering rack, they give instant response to load situations such as full lock to lock steering when maneuvering. If these Capacitors do not have time to charge (they normally take a few seconds to do this) it does create a very stiff steering feel. This is a bit of a design problem but this will not occur when driving under normal circumstances.Hope this helps..