Finally swapped out the stock all-seasons for some summer tires yesterday. It comes with Hankook Ventus S1s which have very poor grip, particularly in the wet. After sliding like 5 car lengths and nearly rear-ending someone in the rain during an only somewhat aggressive stop I figured it was time to upgrade.
I went with Firestone Firehawk Indy 500s which get a lot of praise on the GTI forums. It came out to about...$500 in total. Not bad considering I paid twice as much for Michelin Pilot Super Sports on my Focus ST a few years back. Obviously these tires aren’t as good, but I’m just driving on the street so I probably wouldn’t notice the difference. Compared to the all-seasons though, wow! I took a few aggressive turns that would easily induce understeer before but now it just bites hard. There’s maybe a touch more of an edge to the ride now but it’s still just fine for a DD. Overall I’m pretty happy.
