Japanese tire manufacturer Bridgestone has been around since the 1930s and has manufacturing facilities around the world. Pirelli is even bigger than Bridgestone, and has a similarly diverse range of factories, stretching from Argentina to its home country of Italy. Both Bridgestone and Pirelli are leading names in the industry, but is one brand a better choice? According to the latest data, no brand is definitely superior to the other. Instead, the 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 tire segment. It was ranked third most satisfactory, while Bridgestone was ranked at the bottom of the ranking, in sixth place. Pirelli also beat Bridgestone in the passenger car tire segment, ranking fourth out of 11 manufacturers, while Bridgestone came in seventh.
In the performance-sport segment, both brands fell behind the segment average, although Bridgestone was slightly ahead of Pirelli. Bridgestone also achieved an impressive ranking of third place in the truck/utility segment, while Pirelli was not ranked. Overall, respondents to the JD Power survey favored Pirelli’s car tires over Bridgestone’s in the luxury segment, while Bridgestone was the better choice for truck and utility tires.
Read more: 21 Major Tire Brands of 2025 Ranked
Other data show a mixed picture
Selection of car tires in a shop – Hryshchyshen Serhii/Shutterstock
Rather than dividing their results by segment, as the JD Power study does, some reports give each brand a single overall score. These overall scores can be useful in showing how a brand performs compared to its peers in the industry, and neither Bridgestone nor Pirelli are top performers in this regard. In its independent testing, Consumer Reports gave both brands average scores. While it ranked Bridgestone slightly ahead of Pirelli, both were significantly lower than rivals such as 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 each major tire brand based on factors such as customer reviews, reported life compared to rivals, and availability at major retailers. In that analysis, we scored Pirelli ahead of Bridgestone, placing the Italian brand in third place while its Japanese rival ranked sixth. Those scores put both brands ahead of much of their competition, though like Consumer Reports, we gave Michelin the top spot for its unrivaled range of top-performing tire models.
Certain tire lines get high ratings from buyers
Pirelli Sottozero winter tire in snow – Roman Vyshnikov/Getty Images
While the overall range of both brands may not be as consistent as some rivals, certain tire lines from Bridgestone and Pirelli rank at the top of their respective classes. Car and Driver Study tested several Three-Peak Mountain Snowflake all-weather tires and found Pirelli’s Cinturato WeatherActive tire to be the best in the segment. Bridgestone’s WeatherPeak model was not far behind, ranking third.
Tire Rack also has a long-running survey that asks customers to rate the tires they buy from the retailer. Some segments see either Bridgestone or Pirelli rank highly: for example, in the all-season road/sport truck segment, multiple models in Pirelli’s Scorpion Zero line are ranked best in class. Likewise, in the all-season crossover/SUV touring segment, the Pirelli Scorpion WeatherActive takes top honors, while the Pirelli Scorpion AS Plus 3 is third highest ranked. In that category, several Bridgestone Alenza models are also highly rated, although not as high as Pirelli.
Bridgestone’s Blizzak line is one of the highest rated among Tire Rack customers in the passenger winter/snow tire segment, with both studless snow tires and run-flat winter tires ranking at the top of the chart. The brand’s performance winter tires are also highly rated, although Pirelli’s Winter Sottozero line ranks 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 bearing in mind that both brands still have mixed reputations in general. So, it’s always worth digging up reviews of the particular tire model you’re considering to make sure it’s one of Pirelli’s or Bridgestone’s top-rated offerings.
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Read the original article on SlashGear.