Volkswagen's Golf has won Japan's Car of the Year 2013/2014 award, writes Brian Byrne.
This is the first time that an imported car has won in the 34-year history of the awards, and at 504 out of 600 points it was a new record for the competition.
The Golf also holds the European and World COTY awards. The GTI version won the Performance Car category in the recent Continental Irish Car of the Year 2014 awards organised by the Irish Motoring Writers Association.