YOU need a different tyre range to cater to targeted segments of car owners and Continental Tyre Malaysia is fully aware of this when it launched the General Tire range in early October.
General Tire is a sub-brand under the Continental group and serves as the good value tyre alternative before stepping up to the premium Continental range.
General Tire is not a new brand per se as its roots go back a century in the US before it was bought over by Continental in 1987.
Continental is obviously looking at expanding its Malaysian footprint by catering to car owners with a smaller budget through the “good value” General Tire range.
The range, which is imported from China, is extensive covering passenger cars, sports utility vehicles (SUVs), multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs), 4x4s and pick-up trucks.
Our focus is on the Altimax GS6 that General Tire Malaysia hopes to capture the general passenger vehicle market with, which is probably about 70-80% of the tyre segment.
While it might be about 30% cheaper compared to a Continental model of the same segment, the General Tire Altimax GS6 carries similar tyre engineering features from the German tyre maker.
During the product preview, the Altimax GS6 was said to provide safety assurance, long lasting tread life and a quiet drive, very much the qualities that general car owners look for in additional to attractive prices.
The safety assurance part comes in a reliable grip and shorter braking distance that are made possible with stronger inner tyre shoulder and rigid centre rib design to increase stability when braking and turning on wet and dry road surfaces.
Better wet grip is also assured with specially designed sipes on the tread to connect the long grooves that push away or clear water faster.
A long mileage tyre is always preferred so that tyre change could be spread over a longer timeframe.
Here, the long wearing performance and extended life span are attributed to the tough rubber blend that is strengthened by a sulphur network, making the tyre more durable.
Supporting that is the optimised tread pattern that spreads the pressure evenly for consistent wear and specialised tyre compounds that are said to work well across different temperatures and weather conditions.
A quiet running tyre is welcomed for contributing to a silent drive, especially on long distances, and the Altimax GS6 is said to meet this expectation nicely.
Providing that promise are “noise breakers” in the main tyre grooves that are designed to break up sound waves before they reach the passenger cabin.
Complementary elements come in the outer shoulder tread block design that is optimally arranged to reduce noise and closed shoulder block pattern that prevents noise from entering the main grooves.
Based on General Tire’s internal tests, the Altimax GS6 is said to be much improved over the previous GS5 tyre.
Although no value in improvements was given, the performance chart provided showed a big gain in tyre performance life.
Positive upsides were also clearly seen in wet braking dry handling, low noise and ride comfort while the rolling resistance was lower.
The Altimax GS6 is available in 31 sizes ranging from 15- to 19-inch profiles, and a check on Shopee revealed its attractively pricing, starting from around RM198.
It comes with attractive warranties too (that is applied also to Continental and Viking, which is the entry-level brand in the family).
A tyre lifetime manufacturing warranty now replaces the five-year warranty and covers manufacturing defects for the full tyre lifespan (excluding road hazard damage).
This is supported by a TCP (Total Confidence Plan) Road Hazard Warranty that offers one-year protection for unrepairable tyre damage from potholes, sharp objects or bad road surfaces.
The benefit is a one-to-one exchange for a new tyre when purchased from an authorised dealer and the damaged tyre must have a 5mm minimum tread depth.
Currently, the General Tire range is made available through the existing Continental tyre dealer network as well as via Shopee, Lazada and TNG eWallet.
Altimax GS6 review
Sampling the General Tire performance was achieved through three routines and a road drive of about 15-20km.
The routines were organised at the Subang Skypark, opposite the airport terminal, where some 60% of it was set aside for the event.
General Tire’s focus was on the braking performance of the Altimax GS6 in wet and dry conditions, followed by a dynamic experience through slaloms in a timed trial.
The road drive experience was for the media to appreciate the quiet running performance as well as the more comfortable ride the Altimax GS6 provided.
To give us a better idea of this tyre’s performance, a locally produced rival tyre in the same segment was used for comparison.
Given that scenario, we chose to gauge the rival tyre’s performance first before moving onto the Altimax GS6 for the respective routine.
Most of the cars used were Honda Civics, which gave us a standard base to make the comparisons; likewise, the tyres chosen for the event were 215/50 R17 units.
We started with the wet braking manoeuvre with progressive distance signages for us to note as we went through three rounds each.
The idea was to accelerate strongly till the wet patch of the road before hitting the brakes hard at the designated braking point.
The speed we achieved at the brake point was about 70kph for all the three runs and the Civic came to a dead stop around the 25m stage.
With the Civic running on Altimax GS6, we came to a dead stop around the 20m point, which suggested a shorter stopping distance close to five metres.
That is a definitely a good margin for driving on wet roads as one could bring the car to a safe stop without too much drama or rear ending the vehicle in front.
In the dry braking routine with basically the same procedure, the Civic running on the rival tyre came to full stop a little beyond the 20m mark.
With the Civic running on Altimax GS6, we came to a stop at the 20m point or just a little before during the three runs.
The improved braking distance is a lot shorter with the difference of about one metre to 1.5m, which is still good as there is a fair chance of avoiding a crash.
For the dynamic slalom run, a Toyota Corolla was used but there was no comparison against a rival tyre.
It was purely for us to enjoy the improved dry handling quality and being a timed trial, we could push the car through the course as quick as we could based on our confidence with the tyre’s grip performance.
We had two runs each and fumbled the first one with a wrong entry through the slalom course.
We might not be the fastest in the media group but the Altimax GS6 complemented the Corolla’s handling performance and allowed us to drive at good speed through the course.
For the road drive, we stuck to the Civic instead of the Proton S70 for the sake of gauging the Altimax GS6 with a common base.
Again, we started with the Civic fitted with the rival tyre, which gave a good account of itself in the quiet road running and reasonable comfort over rumble strips and speedbumps.
Moving over to the Civic with the Altimax GS6, we could immediately feel the softer impact over the speedbump that made the ride even more comfortable.
It sounded to be as quiet running on the highway although the difference could be marginal without a decibel meter to make comparisons with.
We were told that the General Tire Altimax GS6 is cheaper than the rival tyre selected for comparison and that is certainly a good value to begin with.
