Volkswagen Golf named Japan's best car

Volkswagen’s Golf has been named 2013 Car of the Year – in Japan! It is the first time a foreign car has taken out the award in its 34-year history.

The home award of the Japanese car brands, the JCOTY award makes it a hat-trick of major gongs for the seventh-generation Golf.

The JCOTY ceremony was held in conjunction with the 2013 Tokyo motor show at the Tokyo Big Sight venue last week.

In a contest that was expected to see the Golf trade blows with the Honda Fit/Jazz for line honours, the Golf polled strongly from the outset and ended up amassing a commanding 504 votes from the 60 jurors in attendance.

The Fit/Jazz came in second with 373 votes and the Volvo V40 placed third with 167 votes.

“This is a very special award for us in so many ways,” commented Shigeru Shoji, president of Volkswagen Japan.

“Firstly, our Golf 7 has become the first ever imported car to win Japan’s COTY award, and we achieved this in our 60th year since Volkswagen imports started into Japan.”

In three new minor awards that were introduced this year, Mitsubishi’s plug-in Outlander PHEV picked up the ‘Innovation Award,’ the Mazda Atenza (Mazda6) won the ‘Emotional Award’ and the jointly developed Suzuki Spacia and Mazda Flair Wagon mini-cars captured the ‘Small Mobility Award’.

The ‘Special Achievement Award’ went to the Daihatsu Move for its front seat lift design. The technology was created to assist senior citizens and people with disabilities enter and exit vehicles.

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