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2018 Best Half-Ton Truck Challenge: How the Judges Scored
2018 Best Half-Ton Truck Challenge: How the Judges Scored

2018 Best Half-Ton Truck Challenge: How the Judges Scored

2018 Best Half-Ton Truck Challenge: How the Judges Scored

It's a long-held belief here at PickupTrucks.com that to find out which pickup truck is the best in a given class, you must combine empirical tests and expert judges' opinions.

For our recent 2018 Best Half-Ton Truck Challenge, we spent a week testing five competitors: the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 1500, 2018 Ford F-150, 2019 GMC Sierra 1500, 2019 Nissan Titan and 2019 Ram 1500 (Toyota declined our request to send a Tundra). We scored the trucks in 16 empirical tests and 10 subjective categories. Each competitor could earn a maximum 2,200 points, 1,600 of which came from objective tests such as acceleration, braking, dynameter and capacities. The remaining 600 points were awarded in the 10 subjective categories that targeted the trucks' comfort levels, handling, utility, visibility and value. Judges could award up to 10 points per category; their totals for each truck were multiplied by two. We double the judges' scores so that they account for 22 to 27 percent of total scoring.

Some readers let us know they'd like to see a deeper dive into how the judges scored, so that's what we're doing here. Our expert judges for this Challenge were PickupTrucks.com Editor Mark Williams, Cars.com Detroit Bureau Chief Aaron Bragman and automotive freelancer journalist/longtime pickup owner Andy Mikonis. You'll notice in the charts below that there was a good amount of disagreement among our judges, as well as agreement. While we're testing, we share our thoughts with one another but, like most pickup buyers, everyone has their own priorities and preferences.

Here's how the judges' scoring broke down by category, followed by the grand totals.

Interior Layout

Even though the Ram 1500 did well in all interior categories, layout can be a personal taste question. Interior layout scoring considers how easy it is to reach function controls and how easy those controls are to see and use.

Interior Quality

Perceived quality was probably the category in which our judges agreed the most. The Ram 1500 blew its competitors away here with material choices and an amazingly well-done design. Our judges have to focus like a laser beam on the details, so the scoring reflects forgivable quality hiccups and cost-cutting choices that are not.

Interior Storage

This is an area that's seen tremendous improvement in the last 10 years, with all the major truckmakers providing more unique ways to stow cargo and offer security solutions to buyers. The more you can make your interior like a Swiss army knife, the more points you'll like receive from our judges.

Overall Interior Comfort

For this test, the judges moved through all the seats in each contender's cabin to see how comfortable each seat is and what accommodations and compromises have been made for front and rear passengers. Think legroom, storage, layout and quality. Not surprisingly, the Ram 1500 made a strong showing.

How It Drives Empty

Since many vehicles, including pickups, are driven empty most of the time, we spent time checking how well these trucks were suited for daily drive duty. We considered things like cabin noise, whether the ride was smooth or bumpy, and how the brakes responded.

How It Drives With a Trailer

If there's one absolute requirement for pickups, it's that they handle a good-sized trailer with a certain level of confidence, which is why we tow with them. For this category, we look at what comes in the truck's trailer package. Does it include towing mirrors, sway control and light-check technology? We also consider how the brakes handle the extra load.

Bed Features and Access

The business end of the pickup truck needs to be more than a big tub for carrying sacks and rocks. It needs to solve day and night storage, cargo-loading problems and provide tie-down and storage solutions. The RamBox storage system is impressive but, like everything, it comes with trade-offs. Access into the bed also is key here.

Visibility

Being able to see over a large hood or down the side of long pickups can be tricky, especially if the truck lacks 360-degree camera technology. The adjustability of side and rearview mirrors can create visibility issues, too, as can the adjustability of interior lighting. We also factor in trailer detection and towing mirrors.

Engine Layout

This category allows judges to consider the practicality of engine layout in terms of adding fluids, maintaining batteries, changing filters or just getting access. How well does the engine compartment provide a novice pickup owner with schematic information on fuse replacement?

Worth the Money?

Our long-standing value category gives judges a chance to evaluate the content on a given trim level. What kind of bang-for-the-buck proposition does each player offer?

Grand Totals

When you see the grand totals for each judge, as well as each vehicle, you get a pretty clear sense of which categories resonated with our judges and where they thought the manufacturers were not doing as much as they should when compared with their competitors.