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The new Mazda 2, or Mazda Demio as it is known in Japan, has bagged the 2014-2015 Japan Car of the Year award by the Japan Car of the Year Committee. The previous winner was the Mk7 Volkswagen Golf - the first non-Japanese car to win the award. Prior to the Golf, Mazda also won the award with its CX-5.

All passenger vehicles with an expected annual sales figure of over 500 units launched in Japan between November 1, 2013 and September 30, 2014 are eligible for qualification. With the new Mazda 2, the company takes home the title for the fifth time since the inception of the award.

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""We are both honored and grateful that the Mazda Demio has received such a prestigious award. We will continue our quest to build cars that add a certain sparkle to the lives of their owners, and aim to become the one-and-only brand chosen by customers again and again," adds Masamichi Kogai, CEO of Mazda.

The new Mazda 2 is set to arrive in Malaysia very, very soon with bookings for the car already opened. Tentatively, our version will come powered by a 1.5 litre SkyActiv-G four-cylinder engine with 115 PS at 6,000 rpm and 148 Nm of torque at 4,000 rpm and likely to be paired with a SkyActiv-Drive auto transmission.

GALLERY: Mazda 2 at IIMS 2014