The process
As with our Car and Sport/Utility of the Year deliberations, the rules governing Truck of the Year are simple: Eligible trucks must be all-new or significantly revised and on sale to the public by January 1, 2004. Test units must be available for us to conduct our extensive battery of performance tests and over-the-road evaluations.
We live in these trucks, driving to and from work, dashing to the grocery store, making home-improvement-center runs--even the odd trip to the dump. We explore their "pickup" aspects: loading, securing, and unloading cargo from the bed. We cycle them through all the instrumented tests we perform on passenger cars--acceleration, braking, slalom, lateral acceleration, even our exclusive figure-eight course. Then we run the acceleration and braking tests again--this time with the trucks loaded with sandbags (representing half their rated payloads). It's like running the 100-yard dash with a suitcase full of bricks.
The next step is to convoy the trucks on a road trip over two-lanes, backroads, Interstates, and mountain twisties, swapping driver seats many times to experience all of the trucks back to back in rapid-fire succession and jot notes while muscle memory is still fresh. At the end of the day, with notebooks in hand, the entire staff convenes behind closed doors to share insights and opinions. After hours of hashing, rehashing, and consensus building, we pick a winner.
Final judgment is based on a truck's significance, superiority, and value. By significance, we mean the vehicle's impact on the market. Will it be embraced by a large number of buyers? Does it advance the art and science of the pickup truck? Superiority is clear cut: Is this truck a standout among its direct competitors? And value: In its market segment, does this rig offer a lot of bang for the buck?
"It wasn't long ago that pickups were the manual typewriters of automotive science: sturdy but low-tech beasts."