since 1976
since 1976
By Lee Pang Seng
THERE is a new tyre range in the market and it was introduced here in the last quarter of 2025. It’s called General Tire, a rather nondescript name for a tyre brand, but it was probably meant to be more readily accepted by the general public when it was launched in the US a century ago.
General Tire was acquired by Continental in 1987 and was introduced here by Continental Tyre Malaysia as the good value tyre product that bridges the entry-level Viking range and the premium Continental tyre selection.
Continental says the General Tire range caters to the needs of ‘Asian drivers’ and covers cars, SUVs (sport utility vehicles), MPVs (multipurpose vehicles) and 4x4 pickups. Being made in China, the wide range of tyres within the General Tire selection is made available with attractive prices to make them good value proposition for a good majority of the local vehicle owners.
The development of the General Tire products is carried out based on the Continental tyre technology, which is an assurance of good performance. A review of the General Tire was conducted in December to let the media gain firsthand experience with the strong level of tyre performance.
The focus of the event was on the Altimax GS6 (15-19-inch), one of the four tyre models introduced in the first phase of General Tire products in Malaysia. The other three are the Altimax GC6 (14-15-inch sizes), Grabber AT6 (16-18-iunch) for offroad handling performance and Grabber HT6 (16-20-inch) that is targeted at SUV owners.
The introduction of the Altimax GS6 was conducted based on a comparison with the previous model, the GS5, and there were improvements achieved in every aspect of the GS6. This tyre range is made available with profiles of 35 to 65 and speed rating of H (maximum speed 210km/h) to Y (300km/h).
Its attributes were given as reliable grip and shorter braking distance on wet and dry roads for ‘assured safety performance’, durability and long-lasting tread life, and low road noise. The size chosen for the media review was a 215/55 R17 tyre that would appeal to those owning C- and B-segment cars. A check on Shopee for this tyre product reveals prices that start from RM198; you could check eWallet and Lazada as well.
In the first instance, General Tire says the reliable grip and shorter braking distance are achieved through reinforced notches and chamfered design on the tyre’s inner shoulder while the centre ribs are said to create more rigidity during braking and turning on dry or wet road surfaces. Another tyre design feature that helps in wet road performance is the ‘highly structured’ sipes on the centre ribs that are interconnected to the longitudinal grooves to enhance water dispersion.
Long wearing tread ensures a consistent performance over an extended tyre life span and General Tire says this is achieved through polymers being bonded with a strong sulphur network for better resilience and long-wearing tyre compound. Adding to that, the tread pattern is optimised to even out pressure distribution during road contact while specialised compound makes the tyre suitable for a broad range of temperatures and weather conditions.
Achieving low road noise is done through noise breakers in the main tyre grooves to break up the sound waves that are transmitted from the road surface to the vehicle’s interior cabin. In addition, outer shoulder design blocks are said to be optimally arranged to break up the repetitive sound frequencies and reduce road noise. A third factor lies in the tyre’s closed inner and outer shoulder areas that cut off noise frequencies from being transmitted to the central longitudinal grooves.
Based on General Tire’s internal tests, the Altinax GS6 is found to be improved in all areas of performance against the previous GS5 version. The biggest improvement is in the higher mileage achieved while the other performance areas are dry and wet braking, dry handling, ride comfort and low road noise. Its rolling resistance also sees a slight improvement.
To reflect the company’s strong confidence in the product quality, the General Tire range comes with a tyre lifetime warranty to replace the previous five-year warranty, and this covers tyres for cars, SUVs and 4x4 vehicles, mainly pickups. Incidentally, this lifetime warranty also covers all the tyre products under the Continental Group, that is the Viking and Continental brands.
This warranty covers manufacturing defects for the tyre lifespan (but excludes road hazard damage). General Tire says the claims must be inspected by authorised representatives and the reimbursement would be prorated according to the tyre’s remaining tread depth. Besides Shopee, TNG eWallet and Lazada, the General Tire products are available at all authorised Continental dealers nationwide.
Getting to know Altimax GS6
Our review of the General Tire Altimax GS6 was done at the Subang Skypark that is opposite the Subang Airport terminal. The exercises organised were focused on wet and dry braking, handling performance and road drive to gauge comfort and quiet tyre performance. To give the media a better idea of the Altimax GS6 quality, a rival tyre of the same size (215/55 R17) that is made in Malaysia was used as a comparison.
The cars that the tyres were fitted on were mostly Honda Civic while a Toyota Corolla was used for the handling session (no tyre comparisons here) and a Proton S70 was included in the road drive routine. Apart from the handling segment, we kept to the Honda Civic as a consistent base to gain a more even impression of the respective tyre performance.
Our first exercise was in wet braking and we chose to start with a Civic fitted the rival tyre. The routine was to accelerate till the wet patch and hit the brakes hard at the designated marker. Distance boards were placed at five-metre intervals for us to gauge the tyre’s stopping performance over three runs.
We averaged around 70km/h at the braking point for the three runs and the Civic fitted with the rival tyre came to a dead stop on the wet road surface around the 25-metre area. Repeating the routine in a Civic fitted with the Altimax GS6 saw us stopping over a shorter distance around the 20-metre section. It clearly demonstrated that the Altimax GS6 helped the car stop earlier during wet weather driving with a good safety margin.
Over at the dry braking session, we again chose the Civic with the rival tyres first. The speed at the brake point over the three runs was similar, being around 70km/h, and the car came to a complete stop a bit beyond the 20-metre mark. Going at it in a Civic with Altimax GS6 tyres, the stopping distance at the 20-metre point or just a little before. The difference was about a metre but that could still mean avoiding an accident when it matters.
The handling exercise was a timed trial with prizes as incentives. It involved driving the Corolla with Altimax GS6 through two slalom sections, twice around a mini-roundabout and stopping within a designated box. Well, we fumbled both runs by entering the respective slalom sections on the wrong side.
What we learnt from this routine was the sharp response of the steering wheel to negotiate the slaloms and mini-roundabout. The General Tire product played its part by complementing the Corolla’s steering performance and we drove through the entire course at good speeds as the positive tyre grip encouraged us to attempt a higher speed in the second run.
For the road drive of about 15 kilometres, we chose the Civic over the Proton S70 as we wanted our experience gained on a common base. Again, we started with a Civic fitted with the rival tyres, which gave a pretty good account of its performance in ride comfort (over speedbumps and rumble strips) and low road noise generation.
The moment we switched over to the Civic with Altimax GS6 tyres, our immediate impression when we drove over a speedbump was a more comfortable one as the tyre absorbed the road impact at low speeds well. The feeling was the same when we drove the car over rumble strips and the noise generated was also less intrusive as it was lower in volume.
In the quiet running performance along the highway course, the difference between the General Tire and its rival appeared marginal. We would probably need a decibel meter to note the difference, but driving the Civic was generally a quiet affair with both tyres.
We were informed that the General Tire Altimax GS6 was priced lower against the rival tyre (the advantage of being made in China) and given its good overall performance, the Altimax GS6 is undeniably the preferred option.
