A steering angle sensor providing an output signal indicating relative position within a full rotation, such as a relative dual track steering sensor, provides a signal to a digital processor coupled to a non-volatile memory for storing retained values of a centered vehicle steer angle, a rotation count and a mounting bias angle. The processor derives three test steer angle values utilizing, respectively, (1) the retained rotation count, (2) one greater than the retained rotation count and (3) one less than the retained rotation count and chooses as an initialized steer angle one of the three test steer angles that differs from the retained value of a centered vehicle steer angle by less than a first calibration value. If such an initialized steer angle is found, the processor verifies that the initialized steer angle differs from an estimated steer angle derived in response to signals from the vehicle yaw rate sensor and lateral acceleration sensor by less than a second calibration value less than the first calibration value and, if so, accepts the verified initialized steer angle as the centered vehicle steer angle. If not, the processor preferably reverts to a full recalibration without use of the retained values in the non-volatile memory. Preferably, the first calibrated value is 180 rotational degrees, so that the initialized steering angle value may be assumed to be within the same rotation as the centered angle.