Are Bridgestone Tires Better Than Pirelli? Here's What The Data Says

Japanese tiremaker Bridgestone has been around since the 1930s and has manufacturing facilities worldwide. Pirelli is even older than Bridgestone, and has a similarly diverse range of factories, stretching from Argentina to its home country of Italy. Both Bridgestone and Pirelli are major names in the industry, but is one brand a better choice? According to the latest data, neither brand is definitively above the other. Instead, data suggests that each brand has some models that perform particularly well in certain segments, so let's break down exactly which segments each brand excels in.

We can start by looking at JD Power's 2025 study, which examined customer satisfaction with new-car and truck tires. The study broke down satisfaction scores by segment, with Pirelli scoring well in the luxury tires segment. It was ranked third most satisfying, while Bridgestone was ranked at the bottom of the table, in sixth place. Pirelli also beat Bridgestone in the passenger car tire segment, ranking fourth out of 11 manufacturers, while Bridgestone came in seventh place.

In the performance-sport segment, both brands lagged the segment average, though Bridgestone was slightly ahead of Pirelli. Bridgestone also achieved an impressive third-place ranking in the truck/utility segment, while Pirelli was not ranked. In general, JD Power survey respondents favored Pirelli's car tires over Bridgestone's in the luxury segment, while Bridgestone was the better choice for truck and utility tires.

Rather than break down their results by segment, as the JD Power study does, some reports give a single overall score to each brand. These overall scores can be useful for showing how a brand performs relative to its industry peers, and neither Bridgestone nor Pirelli is a top performer in this regard. In its independent testing, Consumer Reports gave both brands middling scores. While it ranked Bridgestone slightly ahead of Pirelli, both were significantly lower than rivals like Michelin and Continental. Notably, the performance-focused study also ranked more affordable brands, such as Kumho and Hankook, above both Bridgestone and Pirelli.

In 2025, SlashGear also ranked every major tire brand based on factors such as customer reviews, reported lifespan compared to rivals, and availability at major retailers. In that analysis, we scored Pirelli ahead of Bridgestone, putting the Italian brand in third place while its Japanese rival ranked sixth. Those scores put both brands above much of their competition, although much like Consumer Reports, we gave the first-place spot to Michelin for its unrivaled range of top-performing tire models.

While the overall range of both brands might not be as consistent as some rivals', certain tire lines from Bridgestone and Pirelli rank toward the very top of their respective classes. A Car and Driver study tested various Three-Peak Mountain Snowflake-rated all-weather tires and found Pirelli's Cinturato WeatherActive tire to be the best in the segment. Bridgestone's WeatherPeak model wasn't far behind, ranking third.

Tire Rack also has a long-running survey that asks customers to rate tires they buy from the retailer. Some segments see either Bridgestone or Pirelli rank particularly highly: for example, in the street/sport truck all-season segment, multiple models in Pirelli's Scorpion Zero line are rated among the best in class. Likewise, in the crossover/SUV touring all-season segment, the Pirelli Scorpion WeatherActive takes top honors, while the Pirelli Scorpion AS Plus 3 is the third highest ranked. In that category, several Bridgestone Alenza models are also ranked highly, albeit not as highly as Pirelli.

Bridgestone's Blizzak line is one of the top-rated among Tire Rack customers in the winter/snow passenger tire segment, with both its studless snow tires and run-flat winter tires being ranked at the top of the table. The brand's performance winter tires are also highly rated, though Pirelli's Winter Sottozero line scores well here as well. These models are by no means an exhaustive list of every highly-rated Bridgestone and Pirelli tire, but it's worth keeping in mind that both brands still have a mixed reputation overall. Therefore, it's always worth digging into reviews of the particular tire model you're considering to ensure it's one of Pirelli or Bridgestone's highest-rated offerings.