Do you give up anything like cornering, are we talking 18" tires?

 

he says 15" in his post as he has the base model.

 

I replaced my 18 inch nexen with good quality avon tyres. The noise level improved slightly but not worth double the tyre cost.

 

I DO have an issue with the 18" Hankooks. On recently wet pavement that has heavy truck traffic (in both senses of the phrase!), the "grease" layer results in loss of steering control. I wind up sliding into the next lane at normal speeds. They run well in the wet without all the crud, and stop well, but I'm not impressed with their overall wet performance. I see there are 18" Defenders, but Michelin does not list them in their recommendations for the Soul...

______2011 Soul 4u

Edition
_______________________ 121 C.I. __Standard

_____ _Our car's webpage: SoulTrain's favorite Soul linkshttp://www.garytownshend.com/Soul

 

The Hankooks supplied on 2012 Soul +s (16-inch wheels) don't take any prizes either. Those were possibly the worst tires I've ever had to deal with -- and I go back to the bad old days of the 1960's, when any radials other than Michelins, Pirellis or Semperits were total nightmares.

I don't know how the car magazines measured lateral Gs at 0.80 on tires like those. To me, they felt like I was driving on a surface covered with marbles. They were hopeless on wet pavement, and worse, they didn't communicate anything about road surface or how they were gripping.

My wife finally insisted we scrap those Hankooks at about 3,600 miles. I had the Seoul Train reshod with Michelin Primacy MVX4s (205/15 R16). The difference has been night and day.

 

OK, found their quote sheet. They'd have done the tradeout for $350 on the new Nexens swapped out for new 215.60.15 Michelin Discoverys.

 

Let me add a big yes vote to the OP about the Michelin Defenders. I just did a straight swap of 16" for 16" sizes, replaced the rims with Modtech 347's, and finally installed the SSD strut brace.

It's like a different car. The grip is great and the road feel is so much better. The Soul now feels like a solid "grown ups" car, but more fun. I think the performance has improved a bit with the new rims, but I doubt they are much lighter than the steelies so the seeming power boost may just be in my head. The car also feels tighter.

I'm also considering the addition of under car chassis braces and coilovers, but I'm concerned that what I gain in handling I will lose in comfort. Maybe the former, but not the latter? Suggestions? Any other ideas to improve the handling?

 

thanks, this was actually very informative. I will keep this in mind for when I need new tires. I figure I have at least another year or two, as the car is only 6 months old.....

 

Chocolate_Rum, it's possible your disgust with the OEM tires will lead you to replace the tires long before they wear out. We only lasted 3,600 miles before we upgraded to the Michelin Primacy MVX4s, and those Hankooks had lots of tread left.