Best advice I can give - at least until the upcoming major review of vehicles (about which I'm very concerned and not too hopeful) is to stick with your armour. Sica/Gunnlogi are much worse options overall than Soma/Madrugar given the current state of the game.

Keep running with what you have, because as fragile as you still are, you're still in a better position than some of us.

I usually run Caldari, but I have a friend who does Gallente HAVs, and his Soma can outrun my Sica while also taking more hits than I do, even though the weapons being used are anti-armour and I'm a shield tank.

Dispite all the tears on the forums, tanks arnt really in a bad place right now, with the proto modules they gonna be sweet

Hit and run tactics is what its about, just because its a tank, dosent mean it can "tank" a ton

for the 300k sp it cost, you might as well unlock maddy if you have got the main amour skills up to 3, core skills carry over for all vehicals, so naturally they not wasted by updating, i imagine the amarr tanks will use shield and amour like the dropsuits, so you might as well go the full monty for survivability

but generally, i play tank just like dropsuit, if under heavy fire, gtfo, missiles, while not everyones cuppa tea, are fecking awesome for taking out av, the range along with the ohk means you can duel a forge gunner \ swarmer at quite a distance

dont sit in or drive around using the zoomed in option to much

situational awareness > av