Kia Motors Soul EV Tires

Dangerous on wet road. Like driving on ice.

So far 18k miles covered in a Kia Soul EV, fronts are down to 5mm and rears are at 7mm. There's every indication that at least 30k on the fronts will be possible. They are excellent in snow even restarting uphill in deep snow with no wheelspin. The tires inspire confidence on wet roads and only very rarely induce any wheelspin when pulling away. They are quiet and perform their function without any fuss, the grip and handling are superb. I will definitely replace the fronts with another pair when needed.

I put a full set of Turanza 6 tires in a Kia Soul EV. The handling was good and the economy was good too...

...but on the front left tire (we drive on the left here) the sidewall was chipped within two weeks and eventually the chip grew dangerous, while the back left tire developed a small leak within 3 months (circa 8k km) on the sidewall too. Some kerb clips happened, but they happened with previous tires on the same car too, with far less destructive results.

I could only conclude the Bridgestones have some kind of brittle sidewalls. And now I had to replace two of them, ending up with "whatever the fitter had right away" on the rear axle (originally tires were lost on the two left wheels but of course I swapped wheels to ensure same axle - same tire). I'm not getting Bridgestones again anytime soon.