The annual vehicle satisfaction study from California-based market-research firm AutoPacific places two new-for-2010 models at the top: the 2010 Suzuki Kizashi and the 2010 Lincoln MKT.

The Kizashi was the highest-rated vehicle overall in the 14th Annual Vehicle Satisfaction Awards.

“This is an amazing win for Suzuki,” said George Peterson, AutoPacific’s president, in a release. “The Kizashi is Suzuki’s most important vehicle, and this performance in our research is exceptional.”

This is indeed good news for Suzuki, as the brand has been facing dealership service issues in recent years. In the latest J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI), an annual measure of dealer service performance over three years of ownership, the automaker ranked at the bottom, among all brands. But Suzuki has made gains in Power’s Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI) and now ranks mid-pack—an indicator that the automaker has made some substantial changes at the dealership level.

The 2010 Lincoln MKT was the highest-rated vehicle among trucks and SUVs in AutoPacific’s annual satisfaction measure.

Vehicles are rated in 48 different categories that pertain to various areas of the ownership experience, and overall results are based on the research firm’s polling of more than 42,000 new-vehicle owners during the first few months of ownership.

AutoPacific divides vehicles into a total of 27 different vehicle segments—such as ‘luxury mid-size car,’ or ‘premium mid-size crossover SUV’—and a winner was named for each of these. Ford had the most segment winners, followed by Toyota, GM, Honda, and Nissan.

Other new-for-2010 models that ranked at the top of their segments included the Chevrolet Camaro, Mercury Milan Hybrid, Volkswagen GTI, and Toyota 4Runner.

On a brand basis, Buick was the popular brand with the highest satisfaction while Cadillac came out on top among premium brands.

AutoPacific

This story originally appeared at The Car Connection