The Toyota Avalon, one of six Motorist Choice winners for the Toyota and Lexus brands.

Arch-rivals Toyota and General Motors both have reasons to celebrate with the announcement of the annual Motorist Choice Awards. The two makers outranked the rest of the competition in terms of both customer satisfaction and low vehicle operating costs. Together, they landed nearly half of this year’s trophies.

The Motor Choice Awards are a joint project teaming consultancies AutoPacific, Inc., and IntelliChoice. First launched 10 years ago, the awards try to balance touchy-feely customer satisfaction rankings against hard vehicle cost of ownership data.

Beyond the overall winners, there were 23 separate category choices split up among 13 separate brands and 10 manufacturers. Toyota was the overall winner, with more wins than any other manufacturer, split between its Toyota and Lexus brands. These included the Toyota Avalon HEV, named best Large Car, and the Lexus RX, named best Luxury Crossover.

“It’s an accomplishment in itself to bring to market a vehicle that satisfies a consumer emotionally, physically and financially,” said Dan Hall, vice president of AutoPacific. “Toyota is in the envious position of having achieved this combination across two brands, as well as the car and truck segments.

Significantly, half of the six Toyota/Lexus winners use hybrid powertrains.

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GM dominated the truck side of the awards with vehicles such as the Cadillac Escalade.

While Toyota’s winners were split between the car and truck ledgers, GM dominated the truck side with models such as the Chevrolet Tahoe, tops in the Large SUV category. The maker landed five segment winners overall, representing three of its brands. The GMC truck division claimed three of those segment trophies.

“One of the great things about General Motors’ wins this year is that they have cornered the large SUV and truck market,” said Hall. “Whether consumers are looking for luxury, premium, or middle-of-the-road, GM has a winning vehicle there.”

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The 12 remaining segment winners included Honda, with three trophies, Hyundai and BMW with 2 wins each, and Volvo, Subaru, Volkswagen, Mazda and Ford, each with 1 win.