Altimax 365aw First Hand Experiences?

Joined
Mar 2, 2008
Messages
61
Location
PA
Hello all,

Ive been preemptively looking for a set of tires for my wife’s new car, we live in Central Pa and I have experience using Nokian WRG 3&4. Her AWD Vibe had WRG4’s on it now, and I would probably not buy them for her new car based solely on how noisy they are on the highway (I actually checked to see if a hub bearing was bad). My default would be the new Cross Climate 2, I want something that will do well in snow and rain. I’ll be taking her car skiing, and she travels down to souther VA a couple times a year for family visit is, so quiet is also a good trait.

Other than a few mentions of the Altimax 365aw on here, and Tirerack showing a wet/dry test between it and the Firestone, I have not been able to come across any first hand account of how it is. Tirerack kinda showed that neither the Firestone or General were very good in the wet, and no snow testing has been done for it yet. Does anyone have any first hand experience with it, wet and snow performance, and noise levels from the tire itself are the metrics I’m mainly worried about….
 
The 365AW is a new tire that just came out last summer, so this is the first winter people will be using them in :unsure:

I can vouch for them. They got out of today's snow with no problem :cool:
 
According to Consumer Reports tire test, the General Altimax 365AW placed 4th in its category which was among tires such as the 1st place finisher, the Michelin CrossClimate2. The 365AW showed excellent results in all categories and even better than in some key areas of the other 3 top finishers. The General would be my choice.
Best
*
Snow Traction
*Ice Braking
*Noise
---------------------
Better
*Handling
*Hydroplaning
*Rolling Resistance
-----------------------
Good
*Dry Braking
*Wet Braking
*Ride Comfort
 
If the TR testing is to be believed this tire is acceptable but unimpressive. The video highlights the tire's shortcomings and is worth watching;

May 3, 2021

General AltiMAX 365 AW (Grand Touring All-Season, 225/50R17 94V)​

  • What We Liked: It feels surprisingly athletic on the dry track.
  • What We'd Improve: It needs a significant improvement in wet traction.
  • Conclusion: We're excited to see how it performs in the snow.
 
I have a thread in here too asking about the 365aw as well.. Another member suggested (among others) the Hankook 4S2. A little reading suggests that this could be a good or comparable tire to the CC2 for less money. I may end up putting those on the car mentioned in my thread in fact
 
The_Eric, I’ve looked into the Hankook too, but that’s a very hard one to find any info about other than some euro videos on YouTube, some not in English. From what I can discern about the Hankook it seems like it’s been in the euro market for a couple years, so it’s tech and compound might be a bit dated compared to the CC2 and 365AW.

I can find loads of people praising the CC2, but for a car that will see about 5000 miles a year idk if I want to pay the price difference between them and the 365aw…
 
According to Consumer Reports tire test, the General Altimax 365AW placed 4th in its category which was among tires such as the 1st place finisher, the Michelin CrossClimate2. The 365AW showed excellent results in all categories and even better than in some key areas of the other 3 top finishers. The General would be my choice.
Best
*
Snow Traction
*Ice Braking
*Noise
---------------------
Better
*Handling
*Hydroplaning
*Rolling Resistance
-----------------------
Good
*Dry Braking
*Wet Braking
*Ride Comfort
Thanks for that, I don’t have access to any consumer reports stuff. The few small first hand reports don't realLu complain about wet traction like Tire Rack does…
 
I believe it was Simple Tire that had the Nokian eNTYRE 2.0 for $80/tire. It's an all season tire but is designed for winter driving. For 205/55R16 which I think is your size.
 
Thanks for that, I don’t have access to any consumer reports stuff. The few small first hand reports don't realLu complain about wet traction like Tire Rack does…
Tire Rack drives harder & harder around a wet track without letting up on the throttle. That’s only important if you drive like crazy. Keep in mind that lower rated/scoring tires today are still better than many high(er) rated/scoring tires just a decade ago.
 
Got 3k miles on them and they are great. Quiet, and very good in 2-4 inches of snow, rain and dry they are also good. 2012 Honda Fit. The previous version, RT43’s i got 65k miles of all season use. They handled great but were just ok in the snow.
 
Tire Rack drives harder & harder around a wet track without letting up on the throttle. That’s only important if you drive like crazy. Keep in mind that lower rated/scoring tires today are still better than many high(er) rated/scoring tires just a decade ago.
In addition to my statement about the TireRack, I believe that Consumer Reports test vehicles & tires in a similar fashion however, IDK exactly how either sources(TR & CR) performs all of their testing.

I have driven on winter tires for several years(winters only) and I don't feel unsafe with them. As the matter of fact, it's just the opposite. I do wish for a quieter winter tire but from CR's testing, the 365AW rates a FULL GREEN in the noise category. These General AltiMAX 365AW could be my next tire as I am getting tired of winter/spring tire changeovers, even though it gives me a chance to look things over(brakes, suspension parts) during the process.
 
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