"Best In Class" has been a favorite phrase for car commercials and billboards forever, particularly in the pickup truck market. Now that are raging especially hard over who's "," it's time to settle the real debate: does anyone give a damn?

From where I'm standing, "Best In Class" claims are meaningless annoyances to cut through when you're trying to make an educated buying decision. My main grievances:

What class are we even talking about? "Classes" within pickup trucks alone are confusing to car-nerds, let alone the average consumer. (Check out our explainer if you want to know more)."Best In Class" ratings are often achieved using a very specific trim of a certain model; i.e. the 2015 Ram 3500's 30,000 pound capacity claim; which is only attainable with their rear-drive single-cab dually.How many people are actually running their vehicles to the ragged edge of performance? Whether it's towing capacities, top speed... I never see any of these being tested on public roads. Where people spend most of their time driving.Capacity ratings like towing and payload are made up by the manufacturers. If a competitor releases a better figure, all a company has to do is "re-certify" and boom; better capacity. It happens over and over again.

And yet, company representatives call me every day (no, really. Every day.) to remind me " their vehicle is best-in-class, and that I better stop telling people "best-in-class" is stupid because they've just spent tons of money earning the right to put that on their dealership posters and by the way, the other guy's truck is a steaming heap of duty with only, like, one cupholder."

What the hell do I know. It's time to turn this debate over to The People, do "best in class" claims matter to you? Do they affect your decision to buy a new vehicle? Drop a simple "yes or no" in the poll here and tell us why in the comments.

Image: Andrew P. Collins (graphics from Chrysler, Ford, Stuart Caie/