In the prototype stage of a car developing program, the efficiency of trouble shooting is an important factor to be considered. Structural modifications by the design sensitivity analysis are applied to a steering wheel system for improving the idle vibration of the prototype passenger car. For the design sensitivity analysis, the experimental modal analysis for the steering system attached to a body-in-white is fulfilled and the modal parameters extracted from the experimental data are used to predict the effect of structural modification, The design sensitivity results rank the locations to be reinforced in terms of frequency variation. The modification of steering system according to the sensitivity analysis results shifted the resonant frequency of the system effectively. In addition, the idle test of the car after the structural modifications f steering system shows that the proposed method can reduce vibration of the steering wheel efficiently.