It’s December and Car of the Year awards are being handed out. Over in Japan, the Mk8 Volkswagen Golf has won Japan’s 2021 Import Car of the Year award.

According to JCOTY’s committee, the reason why the Mk8 Golf won is due to its excellent packaging, powertrain, and driving performance. In addition to that, the Mk8 Golf’s 4V mild hybrid (MHEV) powertrain was also praised for its strong performance.

Also Read: VW Golf Mk8 to launch in more RHD countries, Malaysia by 2H 2021

The Mk8 Golf claimed 168 votes, putting it ahead of the Chevrolet Corvette (81 votes) and Mercedes-Benz C-Class (51 votes). In fact, this is not the first time the Golf won the coveted award; the Mk7 Golf won the overall Japan Car of the Year award back in 2013.

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For Japan, the Mk8 Volkswagen Golf was launched in March and the company received well over 1,000 pre-orders for the iconic C-segment hatchback since registration of interest was opened on 9-February.

Closer to home, the locally-assembled (CKD) Mk8 Golf TSI and Golf GTI were previewed late last month and are expected to reach Volkswagen showrooms pretty soon.

Also Read: Locally-assembled (CKD) 2022 VW Golf GTI Mk.8, Golf TSI R-Line previewed in Malaysia