Elastic and inelastic cross-sections for pion scattering on 12 C at pion kinetic energy ranging from 50 to 260 MeV are computed using three independent methods of π ± -nucleus optical potential, the 3α-particle model of the nucleus, the equivalent local Kisslinger potential and the Laplacian one. Reasonable fits to the measured values are obtained for 12 C without adjusting free parameters. The ability of these methods to account for elastic, inelastic, total and reaction cross-section data are somewhat similar. The Kisslinger-based local potential is the more suitable for describing the elastic and inelastic cross-sections of π ± -nucleus scattering. It seems that the 3α-particle model of 12 C is not useful in the description of pion scattering on 12 C at least in the ∆-resonance region.