15" Tires - Handling vs Ride Comfort Tradeoff

[aalbert77]

My LTZ has a 17" wheels and handles great, but I am getting 15" wheels for long trips to soften the ride. Consumers Union rates tires on Handling and ride comfort. There is a choice of either VERY good ride comfort or VERY good Handling among the best tires, but not both. See attached.

I imagine that with 17" tires choosing very good ride won't ruin the handling, but with 15" tires, that might ruin it. On my BMW I simply picked Michelins and got decent handling even with soft ride, but the Yokohama Avid Ascend rate as better ride.

Has anyone used Yokohama Avid Ascend, Michelin Defender, or General Altimax RT43? Would using 15" Yokohamas ruin the handling?

 

[JTee2017]

My LTZ has a 17" wheels and handles great, but I am getting 15" wheels for long trips to soften the ride. Consumers Union rates tires on Handling and ride comfort. There is a choice of either VERY good ride comfort or VERY good Handling among the best tires, but not both. See attached.

I imagine that with 17" tires choosing very good ride won't ruin the handling, but with 15" tires, that might ruin it. On my BMW I simply picked Michelins and got decent handling even with soft ride, but the Yokohama Avid Ascend rate as better ride.

Has anyone used Yokohama Avid Ascend, Michelin Defender, or General Altimax RT43? Would using 15" Yokohamas ruin the handling?

Is difficult to determine or asses ride comfort. It is a fairly subjective thing.
That said, I hated the stock Hankook Optimo tires for a number of reasons. I opted for the Bridgestone Serenity Plus in P205/50R17. The ride improved and handling and traction improved immensely. 15" wheels may or may not improve ride and you may end up having to guess and try several tires and still not get a ride improvement. Then there are drawbacks with smaller wheels and tires also compared to 17".
But I get what you are striving for.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tire...enity+Plus&partnum=05VR7TSPXL&fromSurvey=true

 

[JTee2017]

My LTZ has a 17" wheels and handles great, but I am getting 15" wheels for long trips to soften the ride. Consumers Union rates tires on Handling and ride comfort. There is a choice of either VERY good ride comfort or VERY good Handling among the best tires, but not both. See attached.

These are a newer model, but you might take a peek at these too from General . . .. General Exclaim HPX A/S 215/55R17
We put a set on a 2014 LT hatch. They are "ok".

 

[aalbert77]

Agreed, ride quality is very subjective and hard to measure. I decide on ride quality when I am on a 12 hour drive and hit bumps and choppy pavement since the pain to my body is magnified. I like bumps driving around town!

15" wheels with decent tires always give a softer ride than larger wheels; the problem is they ruin cornering. Its a trade off. I have been experimenting with a dozen cars over 40 years. however I have never driven a Sonic with 15" tires.

The only Hankooks in CU ratings tested poorly for ride quality.

 

[JTee2017]

Agreed, ride quality is very subjective and hard to measure. I decide on ride quality when I am on a 12 hour drive and hit bumps and choppy pavement since the pain to my body is magnified. I like bumps driving around town!

15" wheels with decent tires always give a softer ride than larger wheels; the problem is they ruin cornering. Its a trade off. I have been experimenting with a dozen cars over 40 years. however I have never driven a Sonic with 15" tires.

The only Hankooks in CU ratings tested poorly for ride quality.

Agree. . . old timer here also. Remember when cars only came with 14" or 15" wheels? Big fat balloon tires. My '55 Olds 98 hard top rode like hover craft . . . but cornered like one too.

I hear you on the bumps. I didn't want to give up the corner handling so stayed with 17s and just upgraded to the Serenity Plus tires. I got a set on a super sale and had two $100 rebates, so about $300 out the door from my Chevy dealer no less. The Hanook Optimos were not on my 2017 a week and I sold them for $150 on craigslist.

 

[Tormach]

My 2012 sonic has the stock 15" alloys. I was originally running Cooper Starfire RS-C 2.0, they where a decent all-season (wont get again as they only lasted 28k-29k miles).

The car handles well for me on them cornering, ride like the others have said is subjective but for me 50 or slower on bumps/potholes (when there is nothing you can do to avoid them)/gravelly crap roads and they cushion well... 55 and up, and a simple yard drain (road with no shoulder) feels like you just crashed the car into a crater. Needless to say I avoid them holes/yard drains like the plague here in NY.

I am currently running Nokian Hakka R3 winter tires 195/65/15 (less then 500 miles on them atm), cornering they still hold very well even with the softer compound but bumps are still brutal past 55.

Overall comfort for me with 15's using 195/65/15 on 4-5hr drives was good. Cornering is good.

My current 15's are now dedicated for the winter, and I plan on get 17x8 or 17x8.5 or 18x8 for spring/summer/fall as I want a bigger contact patch.

 

[aalbert77]

Good info. I spoke with Seth at Tirerack. He recommended the Michelin Premier A/S. They have a great ride but corner and handle very well. Yoko Avid Ascent GTs are softest riding but you lose steering feel; that would kill my Sonic.

Also I will go a size larger to 205/65/15, which increases footprint and improves ride. Hurts acceleration and braking by 1.5%, but those are stellar on my LTZ, so I can go one size larger.

Found out my 17" tires are BigO V speed rated (149 mph) , which is one reason they are so firm.

 

[Rockcrusher]

I'm always looking at this subject myself, albeit from a performance slanted angle. The 15s are also lighter and unsprung weight can be a big deal. I'd like to go up in size for a shorter sidewall (less deflection/distortion around turns) but don't want to ruin the car's nimbleness with too much extra unsprung weight. Every larger wheel (at least the affordable ones) and the tires to match (somewhat strangely) are heavier than the stock 15"195 combo. Thus, I'm always debating looks/wider contact patch/lower profile vs. lighter weight (something more noticeable in a car with less power like the Sonic).

 

[Vicarious]

For what it's worth, I don't think I've ever seen a wider tire result in less peak lateral G's, unsprung weight be damned. That said, I'd stay as small as you can on rim diameter, unless you're moving to an exotic rim material, such as forged magnesium or carbon fiber, because you're right, that'll kill your cornering potential.

 

[aalbert77]

I'm always looking at this subject myself, albeit from a performance slanted angle. The 15s are also lighter and unsprung weight can be a big deal. I'd like to go up in size for a shorter sidewall (less deflection/distortion around turns) but don't want to ruin the car's nimbleness with too much extra unsprung weight. Every larger wheel (at least the affordable ones) and the tires to match (somewhat strangely) are heavier than the stock 15"195 combo. Thus, I'm always debating looks/wider contact patch/lower profile vs. lighter weight (something more noticeable in a car with less power like the Sonic).

I think lighter wheel weight increases MPG and 0-60 times. The hybrids have tiny wheels and tires to achieve the high MPG ratings. I want soft ride for long trips, and getting 15s gives higher MPG as a side effect. Sonic especially hatchbacks are small light cars, and I want to keep it that way.

 

[Rockcrusher]

Yep, all true statements. In my case, I'm just more concerned with maintaining the car's "light on its feet" feeling. I have an '86 Z51 Corvette that sticks like glue in corner but it feels heavy and ponderous. My Sonic can't out-corner the Vette, but its nimble, playful nature makes it a blast to zip around back roads in. The side benefits, in my case, are better MPGs and a smoother ride. I really do like the looks of 16s or 17s though.

 

[dannyg]

I think lighter wheel weight increases MPG and 0-60 times. The hybrids have tiny wheels and tires to achieve the high MPG ratings. I want soft ride for long trips, and getting 15s gives higher MPG as a side effect. Sonic especially hatchbacks are small light cars, and I want to keep it that way.

If you do the switch from 17” to 15”, could you check MPG with the 17s before switching to the 15s to compare? It would be really interesting to know what difference it makes going to a smaller wheel/tire. If possible, of course, try to have the same conditions (say the same commute or the same long highway run).

Smaller wheels and tires not only are lighter but also lower rolling resistance (smaller patch) and even a bit less frontal area which means better aero. But I have no idea how much that will increase MPG.

I run the stock 195-65-15 Hancooks as my summer tires on 15” OEM aluminums that I got at a junkyard. I like the highway ride and handling around corners is decent (not spectacular). I put snow tires on the original steelies (2015 LS 1.8L/5sp), Goodyear UtraGrips, very good in the winter.

 

[aalbert77]

Car & Driver tested different wheel sizes on a VW Golf

Comparing 15" wheels to 19" wheels on same test Golf, Car & Driver measured a

10% drop in fuel economy and a
4% degradation in 0-to-60-mph acceleration​

They felt 17" wheels was the sweet spot. Great article:

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15130598/upsized-wheels-tires/

 

[shorebreeze]

I'm skeptical of the downgrade for one very simple reason -- Chevy's recommended tire pressures.

The 16 and 17 inch wheels on the Sonic are recommended for 35psi.

The slightly narrower 15s are recommended for 38psi.

Now I don't know a whole lot about car tires, but in a bike tire, moving to a wider tire with a lower PSI, up to a point, means a softer ride, less sidewall deflection, better handling, lower rolling resistance and a slightly higher running speed for a given amount of energy output on the part of the rider. This is why you see professional bike racers switching from 19 to 21mm tires to 23s and then to 25s, 28s and even the occasional 32 on a road race, while pressures have dropped from the 120psi range down to around 60-80. The upper limit is determined by gradually deteriorating aerodynamics as well as other factors.

Anyone else have thoughts on this? Seems to me 205/16 would be the sweet spot for the Sonic with an honorable mention for the 205/17, with the wider 18 from the dusk edition a few years back being "too big" and 195/15 being a tad too small as evidenced by the higher required tire pressure.