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Truck Trend's 2009 Best In Class
Every Full-Size, Compact, Pickup, SUV, Minivan, and More - 13 Winners in 11 Different Categories
From the March, 2009 issue of Truck Trend
By Editors of Truck Trend
After spending way too much time arguing about the merits of each vehicle, the editors of Truck Trend have come up with the winners of this year's Best in Class awards. Our choices lean more toward vehicles that provide a lot of value for the money, plus towing and off-road capability. We've also taken cargo-carrying capacity and fuel economy into consideration, as well as the variety of OE options available, including engines, transmissions, body styles, and bed lengths. With this story, we've included the vital specifications of every pickup, sport/utility vehicle, crossover, and minivan on the market in the U.S. We put the data in charts organized by category, so you can sift through the numbers and see why we've chosen what we have (and you can find plenty of evidence to back you up if you disagree). Please note that prices, compiled with help from IntelliChoice, reflect the specific models listed in each category, and for some charts, that may include optional equipment (specified in the charts). Specifications other than pricing came from the most recent versions of the manufacturers' press materials, accurate as of press time. To the best of our knowledge and the best of our abilities, all the columns line up properly and the information here is correct. Of course, that does mean there may be some mistakes. Feel free to let us know of any you've found. For now, grab a magnifying glass and get ready to pore over the specs and pricing data of every vehicle a truck guy (or gal) could ever care about. And if you think of a few categories we could include in our 2010 Best in Class Awards, feel free to drop us a line.
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 | The Crew Cab Pickup segment includes compact, midsize, and full-size trucks, which would seem to make it hard to pick one winner in this category. |  | Here's another category we continue to wrestle with. As car-and truck-based vehicles seem to move from their respective extremes closer to the middle, we have trouble determining which vehicle should go into which segment of the Best in Class story. |  | Not a lot has happened in the Compact Pickup segment lately. We wonder if the economy and the price of fuel will eventually bring more attention to compact trucks. |  | The challenge of being successful in the Compact SUV, is a tricky category is that an automaker has to make a vehicle that is everything to everyone, an impossible task. |  | These vehicles in the Factory Power Runner class often contain little or no utility, and those that do are skewed so far from that function that there's no point in discussing it. |  | Times are changing, and along with them, so is the full-size SUV. |  | There is no truck better suited for Hardcore 4x4 off-roading than the Power Wagon--it's so well equipped, it's seemingly unstoppable. |  | The Odyssey has been at the top of this category for quite some time now, and no one has managed to topple it for 2009 Best In Class Minivan. |  | The Topline Power Puller category focuses on the biggest monsters on the road, the baddest tow machines money can buy. |  | The Work Truck category are the trucks built to do hard work, every day, all year. |  | Every year, it gets tougher to put sport/utility vehicles into specific, well-defined categories, and this year is no exception. What's a midsize SUV? |
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