As always, this year’s AutoPacific Vehicle Satisfaction Awards (VSAs) are derived only from feedback by actual owners, not based on the subjective opinions of journalists. Further, the VSAs also distinguish themselves by looking at the big picture and taking into account all factors of the vehicle-ownership experience that contribute to satisfaction.
That’s the case even when the big picture involves compact pickups, which are enjoying an unsurprising sales rebound this year—no doubt due in part to high fuel prices. In fact, the highest-rated compact pickup in the 2012 VSAs—the Nissan Frontier—has leveraged its highly versatile capabilities to achieve a sales jump of more than 27.3 percent through the first four months of the year.
(Note: This year's VSAs gathered input from approximately 75,000 new-vehicle owners who evaluated their cars and trucks across 48 separate measures of satisfaction.)