General G Max AS05 review
 

I had to stick to a budget this time around and these are running high $300 range after a mail in rebate so ordered 'em up and had them installed. After the first 1k miles I've come to the conclusion that they're better than the Conti EC DWS 06, by a lot. They are relatively quiet, track very well in the rain, corner like they're on rails, have brought the break point up by about 20% in hard cornering, emergency braking is amazing, don't get noticeably firmer when it's very cold, mpg's are about the same and they seem to ride about the same as the last two sets of tires I had on the car. I've only been up to 90mph so far but they are so much more confidence inspiring than the stockers were and are quite a bit more stable the the Conti was. I haven't had a chance to put them in the snow or on hot pavement yet, also haven't done a series of full tanks of summer blend gas to get a true reading of what the mpg affect will be so will update as I get to do that.

I bought General snow tires, and since then have been really impressed with the brand.

The tires got a solid workout in the rain today. They are fantastic! The car tracked straight and true through some deep puddles, weren't deflected hitting varying water depths at highway speed and I never felt them begin to hydroplane. Braking was predictable and consistent.

I'm really quite happy with my purchase. If you get them from Tire Rack now through the end of April there is a $70 rebate on a set of 4 which brings them to under $100 per tire. I don't know of a better performance oriented tire with that kind of value.

I have the GMAX AS05 on my C300 4matic. Definitely enjoyable ride and cannot complain about the price for quality.minimal noises IMHO.

For 20k (so far) these tires have been fantastic. I mean really good daily driver fun tires. Great ride, great handling, quiet enough, confidence inspiring in the rain and my mpg's are at least as good as the last few tires I ran. Today I found out where they straight up suck. They are scary in the snow. I had to let the clutch out in third if I didn't want to go sideways and going uphill is a strategic attack kinda thing. I had a ball, my wife needs to go get her hair colored again :)

I have been driving 245/40-17 General AS-05 for two years now. Next summer will be my third with the same set. They are still the best deal I can see on the market right now. I am thinking if should squeeze another summer or just refresh them in March.

Ironically (I guess...?), General Tire is owned by Continental, so it doesn't surprise me that both companies offer similar performing models...

I, too have been enjoying these tires for a little bit now. Same positive comments as most of the people above are providing. I think another key thing that sold me on these tires for the value, was their weight. I was trying to keep the weight to a minimum as I went with 18" wheels for my upgraded wheel/tire set. Compared to many other brands, these are some of the lowest weighing tires. I run 235/40/18, and they come in around 22 lbs. At this size, many other high performance tires run an average of 24-25 lbs (aside from the Continentals).

Know exactly what you mean. RWD cars without snow tires are an adventure in the snow. I'm impressed with General ever since I replaced the original set of tires with Generals for my CX-5. I don't have the space to store a dedicated set of tires for different seasons so I need to go with an all season tire. Thanks for your review of the G-MAX AS-05.

Yup proper shoes make all the difference. This car is actually one of the best two wheel drive cars in the snow that I've ever driven because it's well balanced and "properly" powered but with anything other than the best winter specific tires it's useless because it's so lightweight. My top choice for a true 4 season tire would be the Nokian WRG4 but since I had dedicated winter tires when I got the GMax's I didn't get them. I only needed it once this past winter so it wasn't' a big deal but I may well go for a set of these Nokians for next winter if I can get back to earning some semblance of a real living again.

I dunno why people go on about how "well balanced" this car is. 55/45 is not good for a rwd car. And drive grip in the snow suffers massively due to this abysmal weight distribution, not because the car is (relatively) "lightweight". My s2000 was WAY better in the snow. Same weight, but 49F/51R weight distribution, 12% more weight on the drive wheels. I really wish they'd make a 2-seat version of the ft86 with the rear wheels moved well forward for improved weight distribution...

Anyway, love the AS-05 tires on wife's Mazda3! Great wet and dry grip, great handling feel, and deal with bumps very well, smooove ride considering the apparently decent sidewall stiffness. Should be great on our cars if little to no snow usage. But the poor f/r balanced ft86 really needs good snow tires in the white stuff...

I would go a step further. ANY RWD car needs snow tires if you want to stay on the road in those conditions. My 2007 E92 (6MT) was great going in the snow but directional stability was squirrely above 25 mph in >2 inches of snow and that was a car with excellent F/R balance.

And i would go another step further. ANY car needs snow tires on the snow/ice :)