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Peter Lyon14 Oct 2014
NEWS

Mazda2 is Japan's Car of the Year

New Mazda2 beats Mercedes' latest C-Class to this year's Car of the Year Japan award

In a monumental battle for the country’s most coveted car trophy, the new Mazda2 has claimed a narrow victory over the latest Mercedes-Benz C-Class to win the 2014 Car of the Year Japan by just 19 votes.

In a tightly fought contest, the Mazda2 polled the maximum 10 votes from 22 of the 59 jurors, while the C-Class picked up 10 votes from 18 jurors. Each juror is allocated 25 votes, must give 10 votes to their best car and spread their remaining 15 votes among their four next best cars.

In the end, Hiroshima's new compact car polled 423 votes, while the C-Class finished with 404 votes.

The result means the stylish, all-SKYACTIV new Mazda2, which will be launched in Australia in two weeks and goes on sale here in mid-November, has handed Mazda – whose CX-5 snagged the 2012 COTYJ trophy — Japan’s top automotive award twice in three years. The 2 is the fifth Mazda to win the award.

The BMW i3 came third with 340 votes, Subaru’s Levorg (which is under consideration for Australia) was fourth with 124 votes and the Suzuki Hustler 660cc mini-car (not sold here) finished fifth with 65 votes.

In the three minor award categories that were introduced last year, the BMW i3 picked up the ‘Innovation Award,’ the Honda N-WGN captured the ‘Small Mobility Award’ and the ‘Special Achievement Award’ went to Toyota for its fuel cell vehicle program.

All passenger vehicles with an expected annual sales volume of more than 500 units and announced or launched in Japan between November 1, 2013 and September 30, 2014 are eligible for this year's COTYJ award.

In an interesting result from Prime Research, a global leader in strategic communication research, Japan's COTY award picked up five places over the past 12 months to jump from 10th to fifth on the global car awards rankings.

The fact the Volkswagen Golf 7 became the first imported car to win the Japanese gong in its 33-year history last year sent shockwaves throughout the industry and generated enough international media coverage to propel the award to fifth behind the World Car Awards, Germany’s Goldenes Lenkrad (Golden Steering Award), the European Car of the Year and the North American Car of the Year.

“With the Mazda2, we have rewritten the rule book for compact cars. Our new SKYACTIV technology, excellent mileage, reasonable pricing and unique design all contributed to our victory today,” said Mazda’s Executive Vice-President Kiyoshi Fujiwara after accepting the coveted trophy at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo on Sunday.

Can Mazda make it two in a row with its widely anticipated new MX-5 next year?

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Written byPeter Lyon
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