Hi.

2008 Civic EX-L owner with about 29K miles. I needed two new front tires, so I researched online in forums and at Tirerack.com on the most recommended replacement tires for Civics 205/55/R16. I live in MA, so I want good all-season tires that are relatively quiet and are relatively decent for light snow. I opted for the General Altimax HP. I wound up ordering them thru Town Fair Tire because after shipping and installation, it was going to be about even, and I wanted the tires installed ASAP. So, I ordered them over the phone on Saturday and made an appointment to have them installed on Monday (yesterday). I showed up and spoke to the guy at the service desk. He went out to located my tires, which were special delivered from the warehouse because they were out of stock at my local dealer on Saturday. Anyways, he shows up at the service desk with my tires, and he asks me why I opted to buy these tires. I told him I researched replacement tires for my car and that this General Altimax HP was mentioned often in reviews and Tirerack had it listed as a best buy, and the review was everything I was looking for in a replacement tire. The Town Fair Tire guy went on to tell me that there is no warranty for this Altimax HP tire. I told him I had difficulty finding the mileage warranty for this tire, and he told me General does't give an official mileage warranty for this tire. He told me he had other comparables that might be a better option for me. And he sold me on these Hankook Optima K406 tires. He said they were a very decent all season tire that were relatively quiet and could handle 1-4 inches of snow without difficulty. Really tried to sell me on the tread comparison between the two tires. THe Altimax HP only has two straight center grooves, while this Hankook Optima K406 has three, and so on. I don't know much of anything about tires. I asked him how much they cost, and he said list for $125, but he'll give them to me for the price of the Altimax HPs at $104. Got them installed and out the door. No problem with the tires themselves a day later. Haven't really had the opportunity to pay attention to them yet anyways. But I decided to do some research on the tires this morning, and I can't find much of anything. They appear to be older, discontinued tires. They are not even listed on Town Fair Tire's website. I can't find any reviews via google anywhere. Although, I do believe that they are actually SUMMER tires. Also, I found that the General Altimax HPs are actually rated with a 55K mileage warranty from General Tire. So I feel that I may have gotten hosed by Town Fair Tire, who was maybe looking to get rid of some older Hankook tires. These Hankook Optima K406 tires are not even listed on Hankook's website. Thoughts?? Thank you.

I'm seriously considering going back and demanding that they give me the Altimax HP tires that I originally requested.

 

I already called them back, and I told them I want the General Altimax HPs installed instead. No problem. I feel much better about it now.......thank you.

 

Town Fair does have the 30 day satisfaction guarantee. They also tried to talk me out of the tires that they ordered for me. I used the Everett location and wasn't too satisfied with the quality of work. The new tires weren't balanced properly (shimmied above 70MPH) and the inflation pressures were all over the place from 24-40 PSI.

 

Actually, I went back last night to swap the tires, and I wound up having a converstion with the guy who steered me to the Hankook Optima K406s. He asked why I didn't like them, and I discused with him my concerns as I stated above. He seemed stumped as to the fact that there is no information on the web about these tires, or the fact that they aren't even on Hankook's website, but he told me that I'd be giving up a lot of protections, like the road hazard protection (which apparently General doesn't offer). I asked him why a tire co wouldn't extend such an offer, and he told me that other brand name companies, like Michelin, also don't offer tht protection. Anyway, he was nice about it and all, and he reminded me that I do have 30 days to drive on them, and that he'd hold onto the General Altimax HPs for me in case I ultimately decide to swap them out. So I went with that for now. But I will continue to try to find some more info on this Hankook model. I'll contact Hankook Tire America Corp and other tire sellers to see what the deal is with this model.

 

OK, so I did some more research on these Hankook Optimo K406 tires that Marco at Town Fair Tire sold me on as being all season tires. WRONG! I contacted Hankook Tire USA Corp sales and marketing via their website. I got a response back. They told me that these Optimo K406 tires are SUMMER tires that are OEM tires for certain Hyundai and Daewoo cars in Korea and South America. They are not marketed in the US, and thus, the US sales and marketing team has no further details on this tire model, other than what I had already found out during my extensive google search. So, the plan was to return these tires to Town Fair Tire and get my originally ordered General Altimax HPs. A small fly in the ointment, though. On MLK Day evening, I noticed that one of them was flat in my garage. Took it off and found I had run over a screw. GREAT! Didn't know if that might negate my 30 day free test drive ability to return these tire; the road hazard protection I had would certainly cover fixing or replacing the tire, but I didn't want to end up STUCK with these tires, since one of them might mow be considered damaged goods.

Well, fortunately, it all worked out exactly as I had hoped. I drove down, spoke to another gentleman at the service desk, told him the whole story, and asked him what we could do about this. I just wanted my General tires instead, and was hoping that I wouldn't be hit with any other charges. He wound up just taking back the Hankooks and giving me my General Altimax HPs and deducted the road hazard protection program fee from my bill.

In conclusion, I'm not too pleased with Marco's mistaken knowledge regarding the Optimo K406, but in the end, they did waht I had hoped they would, so I am a happy customer.

 

I didn't know that TF was in the gray market tire business. The role of the salesperson is to sell you something that you don't want. They were clearly trying to sell you something that they were going to make more money on than what you wanted to begin with. I don't know what your time is worth but at least you got to drive around on a set of tires for free. Is this the beginning of the end for TF.
For me, I didn't like the quality of service at TF and won't go back.

 

You know, a co-worker of mine figured that, since I had originally ordered the tires over the phone, not in stock and to be delivered from the warehouse, when I got to the shop to purchase and install the Generals, the guy Marco probably tried to sell me on the Hankooks so that he could get the sales commission. I don't know how that operates or what, but just a thought.

BTW, so far, very pleased with the General Altimax HPs.

 

It's always a good idea to run a search before buying.

https://www.hondacivicforum.com/foru...ad.php?t=72366

The two best all-season Ultra High Performance tires as rated by Consumer Reports are the Falken Ziex ZE-912 and the Nitto Neo Gen ZR. General has the Exclaim UHP, which placed 5th. The Hankook Ventus V4 ES H105 placed dead last (15th). I have the Falkens and they are excellent tires.