mrzoop

2003 996 C4S (same tire size as Turbo). This is more about my experience with these General G-MAX tires than a real review. On a recent road trip to the P. Parade in Southern Indiana I experienced a tire failure on my Sumitomo's after 17K miles. They needed to be changed anyway. Being stuck in our rather rural location, the only option for next-day replacement was a set of the General's. The General's had above average reviews so I gave the OK for installation. This turned out to be a big mistake. I noticed some loose and dangerous handling within a few miles. As I drove the 1000 miles home the handling characteristics became worse. ABS warnings and PSM warnings came on at just about every corner. I pulled over and checked the installation and tire condition again and again. Air pressures, mounting and overall visual inspection continued to show no apparent problems. I even adjusted air pressures from 30 to 60 pounds and it still felt like driving on balloons. Sliding, skidding and little to no grip was a consistent feature. When arriving home I took the car to two local gurus that suggested many things like suspension, trans mount, engine mounts, etc. Before tearing into the undercarriage my local guy suggested trading out my set of tires and wheels for another spare set they had in the shop. After a test drive with the spare tires and wheels it was obvious that there was a manufacturing error with the Generals on my car. We ordered new set of Michelins which were installed a week later. The manufacturer (Continental) responded with a boiler-plate form letter from Germany offering to replace the tires with the same thing. The small rural tire shop that did the installation can also do nothing. The car now drives as it should with the Michelin's. The Generals with about 1000 miles on them are in the dumpster.

Capt. Obvious

Interesting. Quite a few people on here (myself included) run the G-Max tires and are quite pleased with them. Personally, I have experienced none of what you describe with tires over the last several thousand miles. My use of the tires has included canyon carving, drag racing, normal street driving, and several pulls to 140+ mph.

It seems to me like there was a defect of some sort in the tires you received?

Road King

Well that's interesting. I didn't realize that Conti owns General.

I've got a fresh set of the Conti Extreme Contact Sports on my car, maybe 500-700 miles in? Did a few light canyon runs and they're working well - as expected.

And now that PS4s are available in 295/30/18 there's now 2 Tier 1 tires available for our cars in a moderately aggressive compound.

garrett376

I, too, read the comments here about the G-Max being a favorable option, and got the G-Max tires for my stock 996tt wheels and they lasted on my car for 1 or 2 days since they handled so poorly, and PSM didn't like them. There's a fun set of turns on my way to work that I can do up to 65mph with no PSM intervention on Yoko AD08R tires. The G-Max tires could hardly go 45 without PSM getting upset, and the car felt very nervous/unsteady. Maybe they need a long break-in period? I don't know, but boy they transformed my FEAL suspensioned 996tt into what felt like I was driving a VW Thing. Thankfully Discount Tire has a guarantee so I had them removed and replaced with the AD08R tires, which are fantastic (albeit more expensive).

pirahna

My cab has G-Max's for the last 1000 miles and I have been very pleased with them. They aren't as good as the PS2's on my other car but they are great for the price and the kind of driving I do with the cab. Sorry to hear you had issues with yours.

leftlane

I have them on my TT cab also and I am totally happy with them - zero problems in the last year.

Carlo_Carrera

Same with me. I put G-Maxs on my 996TT a few months ago and they have been great.

bmw1986

I've been running the G-Max for a couple years now. Have been quite happy with them. I had used the Sumitomo HTR before that. They were good as well but wore out much faster. I can easily get 10k miles out of the G-Max.

Djbrand1

I recently have been using the G-Max tires in stock sizes and have been very pleased with them as well. Found they have great levels of grip on the street and had the opposite experience where they cured a bit of my early PSM intervention with a previous set of tires, Nankangs.

Road King

Having just spent 5+ years on AD08Rs, I agree, they're excellent performing tires. But they do get loud over time and howl like a wild banshee. When I removed mine they were unbearably loud, and they were far from worn out as the picture attests....but oh did they grip, and turn in sharply!

cgfen

I've used AD07 and AD08 for several years.
Recently bought AO52s.IMO, grippier than the AD's, quieter, less stiff sidewalls, likely won't last as long, but I'm good with that.

ABORh911

I have put just over 10,000 miles on my General G-Max RS tires since July of 2018 and have had no issues with them at all, although the most aggressive driving I do is swerving to avoid Michigan's lovely potholes.

Road King

What I find most interesting is that most the G-Max reviews are positive, but there's a few that are the exact opposite. It's definitely intriguing to say the least.

ram_g

This thread reminds me a little bit of the forum debates around my 1991 Corvette ZR-1 tires. The original Goodyear sizes are no longer made and pretty much the only readily available tires in the OE sizes are Nitto 555G2s. Michelin PS3s are available but in a slightly larger rear size that occasionally causes very minor rubbing.

The point is, the reviews on the Nittos are very "bimodal" - they either work great, or they are absolutely terrible in every way.

Seems a bit similar here with the Generals.

FRUNKenstein

Hmm, 15 months and ~3,000 miles on my G-Max RS and they've been great. Good grip, low noise. They survived intact an impact with road construction that bent 3 of my rims.

Apparently, there is something going on with some of the tires they produce as I assume that several people reporting the same problems can't be chalked up to simply being "too picky." A bad batch of tires being produced from time to time? It would have been interesting to see if a replacement set of G-Max tires on the OP's car would have exhibited the same symptoms.