Pirelli Cinturato WeatherActive vs Firestone Weathergrip tires

What’s the deal with all-weather tires, anyway? They form a fairly new category in the tire world, filling a role where all-season tires often aren’t quite up to the job. Anyone who’s tried to safely navigate when there’s 3-4 inches of snow on the roads knows that most all-season tires are not going to be able to deliver the kind of traction, braking, and control you need (in most cases), so all-weather tires are designed for enhanced winter traction with redesigned tread formulations, more aggressive tread patterns, optimized sipe networks, and other features that are all designed for more consistent traction in snow and slush. In other words, they’re tires that fill a niche between all-season tires and winter tires, without the headache of having to remove winter tires and store them once temperatures get above 40-45 degrees F.

Are you familiar with SimpleScore? SimpleScore is the system that the SimpleTire team has developed to give you a quick at-a-glance idea of a tire’s capabilities and performance. We look at the tire’s spec sheet, reviews, manufacturer information, and other data points, then take that and distill it down to a 1-10 score for the categories of traction, handling, and longevity, as well as an overall average SimpleScore for each tire. For the Pirelli Cinturato WeatherActive and Firestone Weathergrip, the SimpleScore numbers shake out as follows:

Pirelli Cinturato WeatherActive

• Traction: 9.8
• Handling: 9.8
• Longevity: 9.2
• Overall average SimpleScore: 9.6

Firestone Weathergrip

• Traction: 8.6
• Handling: 8.6
• Longevity: 9.2
• Overall average SimpleScore: 8.7

As you can see, the Pirelli and the Firestone both have their own sets of strengths and weaknesses, and both come in at distinctly different price points (which we’ll touch on in a bit). But the SimpleScore is the 30,000-foot view that doesn’t tell the whole story, so let’s get into it in a bit more depth in this product comparison.

Pirelli Cinturato WeatherActive tires

First off, we have the Cinturato WeatherActive. For its entire time in existence, Pirelli has built a reputation among drivers for their innovation, value, and quality, and the Scorpion WeatherActive is a tire that keeps that legacy alive. The Pirelli Cinturato WeatherActive is a newer iteration of the popular Cinturato family of tires; it’s certified with the tire industry’s Three Peak Mountain Snowflake rating for severe winter service. On the highway, the Cinturato WeatherActive delivers braking, cornering, and steering responses that are all direct and accurate, with a 3-rib directional tread pattern, stiffer sidewall, and shoulder that enhance rigidity and reduce tread squirm during hard cornering. The Pirelli WeatherActive fights any tendency towards hydroplaning with a zigzag central groove and angled grooves, routing water and slush away from the tire’s contact patch. You can expect a quiet and composed ride with the WeatherActive too, with a tread pitch that’s randomized and computer-tuned to negate certain resonances and frequencies for low noise on the highway. In subfreezing weather, the tread compound of the Cinturato WeatherActive is designed to stay flexible for winter grip but still has durable wear properties for long miles. Pirelli covers the Cinturato WeatherActive with a 60,000 mile limited manufacturer tread life warranty. After looking at average numbers for the WeatherActive, we came to SimpleScores of 9.8 for traction, 9.2 for longevity, and 9.5 for handling – results that show the Pirelli WeatherActive to be not just a great value, but a great performer all around. SimpleTire’s price on the Pirelli Cinturato WeatherActive starts at $208.55 per tire.

Firestone Weathergrip tires

Up against the Pirelli Cinturato WeatherActive is another all-season tire with the Three Peak Mountain Snowflake certification: the WeatherGrip from Firestone. Firestone loaded up this tire with innovative features like their Hydro-Grip Technology Package that includes a fat, rounded contact patch, chamfered shoulder blocks, full-depth grooves, and open shoulder slots that all work together for a distinct advantage in grip and performance. Winter traction comes from Firestone’s Snow Traction Claw Technology, a pattern of snow vices on the intermediate ribs, high-density zigzag sipes, and interlocking grooves; we give this tire a SimpleScore of 8.6 for traction. The internal construction of the Firestone WeatherGrip includes a single-ply nylon casing, capped by a steel belt package and a nylon reinforcement layer. The Firestone WeatherGrip is covered by a 65,000 mile warranty, and we give it a SimpleScore of 9.2 in the longevity category. Braking performance, cornering, and steering response are confident, neutral, and predictable for a SimpleScore of 8.5 for handling. SimpleTire’s price on the Firestone Weathergrip starts at $126.99 per tire.

Pirelli Cinturato WeatherActive vs Firestone Weathergrip tires on traction

In the traction category, how do the Pirelli Cinturato WeatherActive and Firestone Weathergrip stack up against each other? The Pirelli registers a SimpleScore of 9.8 vs. a SimpleScore of 8.6 for the Firestone. That’s quite a disparity in SimpleScores; the Firestone does bring plenty of innovative features to the table, like its Snow Traction Claw design, a well-executed system of sipes, and the entire Hydro-Grip design package of an elongated contact patch, open shoulder slots, full-depth grooves, and chamfered shoulder blocks. The Pirelli, on the other hand, is designed with a directional tread and sweeping, angled grooves that do a superior job of evacuating water from the contact patch to resist hydroplaning, and a system of notches and full-depth 3D sipes for enhanced winter traction. That’s along with its polymer/resin rubber formulation for flexibility in winter conditions, all of which add up to a real edge in performance when it comes to grip. Our decision:

ADVANTAGE: Pirelli Cinturato WeatherActive

Pirelli Cinturato WeatherActive vs Firestone Weathergrip tires on handling

With SimpleScores of 9.8 for the Pirelli and 8.6 for the Firestone in the handling category, this one’s not even close. The Pirelli is the faster tire of the two, sporting a quicker speed rating, further made possible by the greater tread depth. All the tread features that help the Pirelli deliver such outstanding grip also work towards steering response, cornering ability, and overall road manners that are exemplary. A vehicle’s momentum means that it will try to continue moving in a straight line as you start to round a corner, and that inertia will be enough to distort the tread face of a tire and cause “tread squirm” as part of the tread starts to lose contact with the road. The reinforced shoulder and stiffer sidewall of the Pirelli are designed to resist tread squirm and deliver cornering performance that’s more precise and direct, for a tangible improvement in control and braking. Our decision

ADVANTAGE: Pirelli Cinturato WeatherActive

Pirelli Cinturato WeatherActive vs Firestone Weathergrip tires on longevity

When we’re talking about the longevity category, it usually comes down to one thing: limited manufacturer’s tread life warranty. In this case, the Pirelli has a 60,000 mile warranty vs. a 65,000 mile warranty package for the Firestone, but both tires mark up a SimpleScore of 9.2. Seeing that there’s a 5,000 mile difference in tread life coverage, why is it a tossup in the SimpleScore ratings? The Pirelli’s internal construction, consisting of a 2-ply polyester casing, twin steel belt package, and 2-ply polyamide reinforcement layer gives the Cinturato WeatherActive excellent stability at highway speed and also enhances long, even tread wear properties. In this case, our decision is:

ADVANTAGE: Tie

When to use each

When it comes to consistent, confident traction year-round, the Pirelli Cinturato WeatherActive and Firestone Weathergrip are both excellent choices in all-weather tires. You’ll find the Pirelli to be the quicker tire here, also made possible by the higher tread depth. Its directional pattern enables the tire to handle better than the Firestone, available with a symmetric tread pattern.

As we noted up top, all-weather tires are a good choice when you have to deal with difficult winter weather but you don’t want to have to deal with specialized winter tires. Winter tires use a softer tread compound that stays flexible for grip at subfreezing temperatures (think the traction of a rubber boot vs a hard-rubber hockey puck), but that tread compound wears quickly on warmer days. When temperatures get above 40-45 degrees, tire manufacturers recommend swapping your winter tires for all-season tires again - leaving you with the headache of dismounting them and finding a place to store them for the next nine months until winter comes around again. All-weather tires are a great way around that; if that sounds like your situation, you can’t go wrong with either the Pirelli or the Firestone.

Which one should you choose?

This is where this particular comparison gets tricky. Yes, the Cinturato WeatherActive is clearly out in front of the Firestone Weathergrip in all the pertinent SimpleScore categories, with a big gap between their ratings and performance (although the two tires are on an even footing in the Longevity category). That’s offset, though, by the fact that there’s also a big disparity in the prices of the two, with the Pirelli’s starting price almost $100 more than that of the Firestone. So which to choose? Honestly, it all comes down to your budget and what you can afford. If we were looking for a premium all-weather tire and had premium money to spend, we’d go for the Pirelli. If we wanted a top-quality tire for all kinds of weather conditions but were watching our spending pretty closely, we’d go with the Firestone.