GENERAL Tire products are well received following their introduction into the Malaysian market from the last quarter of 2025.
Being attractively priced without losing the quality of performance against rival and premium brands that cost more sums up the gist of General Tire products.
These include the Grabber range that has the HT6 for sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and the AT6 for pick-up trucks, which are produced at the expanded Continental Rayong factory in Thailand.
General Tire is one of two brands under the Continental group, the other being the affordable entry-level Viking range.
The Rayong facility started tyre production in 2019 and this year saw Phase II of its expansion strategy.
With investments exceeding 300 million euros (about RM1.38bil), this expanded facility adds an annual capacity of three million passenger car and light truck tyres.
This expansion is said to strengthen its footprint in the Asia Pacific region by delivering locally produced premium car and motorcycle tyres to customers.
General Tire also gains from this factory expansion that sees state-of-the-art technology and automation that allows high-quality tyres to be produced and supplied to this region.
A tour of the expanded facility in Rayong gave us a good idea to this aspect of quality tyre products from General Tire.
Since we last stepped into a tyre production factory more than two decades ago, we were naturally awed by how much this has changed.
We could still recall how the entire tyre making process was conducted in a somewhat warm atmosphere from the batching of raw materials, putting together the respective layers in succession to the final tyre compress when the eventual product takes full shape.
Now, we were walking in airconditioned comfort to view more or less the same process, with automation in areas where the semi-finished product is delivered to the subsequent workstation, reducing manpower in the process.
The efforts put into the subsequent layers of the tyre, or “cake” as our tour guide commonly referred to it, the sidewall, under layer ply and beads were meticulously conducted.
The final layer is the one that would carry the tyre tread, which is imprinted in a mould with the respective tread pattern for a particular tyre.
This is a hot process that sort of fuses the respective layers and components together to achieve a tyre that we are familiar with.
We weren’t taken to this part of the production process as it is probably done in a non air-conditioned part of the factory.
In short, the “cake” is layered and put together in much the same way for the General Tire products with the difference probably in tyre compound and some of the other materials used.
It is in the final mould stage where the respective General Tire product would gain its identity through the tread imprinted.
Pattaya-Rayong drive
To give us an idea of the Grabber HT6 and AT6 performance, General Tire provided six vehicles; three Honda CR-Vs running on HT6 (which stands for Highway Tyre 6) and three Toyota Fortuners fitted with AT6 (or All Terrain Tyre 6).
We started with the Honda CR-V as we were more interested in gauging its performance against the Continental CrossContact LX tyres fitted to our Mazda CX-5.
The route for the hour-long drive was mainly on the highway and secondary roads, which was ideal as a base for us to review the tyre performance.
On driving off, we found the HT6 (235/60 R18) to be as quiet as we could recall from our Continental LX tyres when they were new.
The noise generated over the concrete stretches was generally louder but not much different from what we could recall with our Continental tyres.
During the few times that we could drive up to the legal highway speed limit of 120kph, the tread pattern didn’t generate road noise that was noticeably higher.
Likewise, the audible experience remained good when running over the many rumble strips that were probably laid onto the highway as a “stay awake” feature.
The ride comfort was good too reflecting a tyre sidewall that had the capacity to flex nicely in cushioning the impacts from bumps, rumble strips and road dips.
We didn’t get to gauge its road grip performance through winding stretches as there were hardly any corners or sweepers along the route.
The HT6 is described as a tyre that lasts longer over the HT5 as that is where the biggest improvement is made; the other areas being ride comfort, noise generation and dry braking.
It’s about the same in handling (or grip) performance and slightly lower in standards for rolling resistance and wet braking.
Switching to the Toyota Fortuner with 265/60 R18 AT6 tyres on the return drive, we were treated to more of the same.
Despite its chunkier tread profile to serve its all-terrain function, the tread harmonics were well designed to provide a reasonably quiet drive on the highway.
The tyre noise was slightly higher at highway speeds but remained low enough unless you listened closely.
It also appeared to generate more noise over the many rumble strips but that remained tolerable for an audibly comfortable drive.
We were happy with the ride comfort too as the AT6 tyres have sidewalls that helped absorbed road impacts over the varying terrain for a smooth experience.
General Tire says the AT6 comes with reinforced toughness and robustness for all types of road terrain, exceptional off-road traction and comfort/low noise performance on road and highway.
A check through Shopee (the other channels being TNG eWallet, TikTok and Lazada) revealed prices to be around 20-25% cheaper against premium brands, with the HT6 from about RM350 to RM490 depending on sizes and the AT6 being available for RM560 to RM648.
