JBrady

READ BELOW: RETURNING TIRES

Went to Tirerack ready to buy new Michelins and viewed "most popular". Never considered Generals and not crazy about the sidewall look BUT...

They rated 8.3 (second place) behind the Michelins at 8.5 (first place).

All the stats looked impressive and there was a large volume of customer reviews mostly VERY positive.

The price at $88/ea vs $135/ea was a nice temptation but what got my attention was the weight of each tire. Generals at 22 lbs each vs 26 lbs each for the Michelins.

So, for $200 less for a set I will be the guinea pig and try them out. General gives a 45 day money back so if they are not up to expectation back they will go for the Michelins.

Baoser

what tire size did you go with?

JBrady

At this point for me the stock wheels and tire size provide comfort with hazard clearance with performance. Performance in acceleration is affected by tire/wheel combo weight and these tires save 4 pounds each vs most others listed which many say is worth 10 times weight savings elsewhere since the tires/wheel combo must be rotated as well as accelerated linearly.

Stock size is 225/60-16. I chose the V rated (149mph) vs the available H rated (130mph)

I also intend to weigh the stock 5 spoke 16x7 wheels which I think come in around 26 pounds. I have shopped wheel choices under 19 pounds but require larger tires. This will be an inexpensive way to test lower weight in the unsprung tire/wheel weight. If the 10-1 ratio is accurate this should be the difference of pulling 160 pounds off the car from an acceleration standpoint (light buddy or chubby girlfriend/wife). For performance reasons I ALWAYS choose women that weigh less than 120 pounds

Thermactor

iTrader: (1)

I applaud you for staying with the stock wheels. Keep us posted please on how the Generals are.

While big wheels look fancy and sporty, they do not translate in any way to speed.

Spot on about fat chicks too!

LiCelsior

iTrader: (32)

i have those on my stock 16s and they ride pretty good. good quality for the price. although they are a little loud though.

j stuff

iTrader: (5)

I got yokohama avis's. Great tire for the price. Was like 60 something at tire rack

acidfire52

I have their winter tires on for the winter and was very pleased with them.

McSwine

I've had the General Altimax's for about 5000 miles now and have been extremely pleased with them. Compared to the Goodyear Assurance Tripletreds they replaced, they ride better and are tons quieter (the Goodyears were ungodly loud).

I think the Goodyears handled better because the sidewalls were so stiff. I don't do much canyon-carving in the tuna boat, so this is not much of a problem for me. All in all, an excellent tire and I would buy them again in a heartbeat, assuming they don't change much over the life of the tire.

Mugen_1

I bought these for my factory wheels too (as winter tires) - got all four mounted, balanced and installed for less than $380. Only had them on for like 2500 miles before putting my 20s and summer tires back on :P

JBrady

Thanks for the real world report. Never considered Generals until the Tire Rack rating.

McSwine

That's pretty much how I ended up with the Generals. That and my wife has some General Grabbers on her RAV4 that are a ton better than the Yoko's they replaced (and over $200 in savings over the Primacy's didn't hurt, either).

RA40

iTrader: (6)

At that weight, you will feel the change. Please weigh the wheels so that I know if mine was reasonably accurate. I have the number written down in my file and I vaguely recollect it was 25.8X pounds. Add in the center cap and it hits 26 and some odd. Total wheel-tire weight with the Michelin's was 52.X#'s.

On my 18 size, the Yokohama S-Drives are 24#'s and the co,bo with the chunky L-Sportline MIV cast comes in at 55.X#'s. Not too bad but it can be felt.

19psi

i can't say anything about these tires, but every other type of general i've had experience with in the past couple years has been fantastic. I don't see a better tire out there for the price; or even for a bit more money.

CarCrazy24

I've had great luck with General tires! Keep the stock wheels and go for it.

JBrady

UPDATE: RETURNING TIRES

Well, had some issues with this particular tire purchase. First was two of the four tires required more balance weight than I like to see. To me this indicates a quality variable.

One of the concerns I had BEFORE this purchase was sidewall strength. These have thin sidewalls which is where at least some of the weight is saved. That said thin doesn't instill strength confidence. Tires are V rated to 149mph but rating does not guarantee safe.

Also I was not crazy about the tread pattern and especially the sidewall look.

Next these particular tires were coated with some kind of rubbery paint or treatment or something that looked terrible. First thing I did was go through the car wash expecting it to was away... nope. Scrubbed them and still wasn't coming off. Went back to Discount Tire and they had guys scrub them, took a while and they even used tire shine and still some remained. Less than pleased but Discount made a good effort.

Discount doesn't do alignments and car had not been for a LONG time so went to Firestone for their lifetime alignment. This shop did a very good job but after the alignment the car still had a right bias pull. They rotated front to rear on right side with no improvement. Swapped front tires and presto, no pull but these are directional tires so can't leave that way. They put one of the tires on their VERY good balancer and there was a side to side run out AND a hop in the tire. I spun the other (on the front) and it had a hop.

All this and the car drives just fine and other than the pull is much improved over the nearly worn Goodyear RS-A that I removed.

All in all between my quality concerns and the other issues and the pull... these are comming OFF the car.

Bucking up another $200+ and going with my original intention the Michelin Primacy MXV4 in V rating. Discount tire is swapping at a fair price with me paying $60 labor again. Lesson learned. The Generals are 40k mile tires with the Michelins at 60k. $200 over the life of the tires is nothing and not worth the concerns and the trouble.