"The Golf is the heart of our brand – and therefore we're especially delighted to win this award", said Dr Diess at the presentation event.

This is reflected too in the car's record of success in the "Best Cars" poll, as this is the sixth time in succession that the Golf has won in the "Compact Class" category and also the popular model's 32nd award in total in the 42-year history of the poll (formerly "The Best Cars").

The Golf thus continues to be a major player in the motoring world. Its story of success too is an exemplary one, beginning all of 44 years ago. With over 34 million units built across seven generations, the Golf has been setting standards in the compact class for decades and continues to this day to take on a pioneering role in the introduction of leading edge vehicle technologies.

The Polo was voted top in the "Sub-Compact Cars" category with 33 per cent of the readers' votes. It's 43-year history of success shows that the Polo too is one of the key pillars of the Volkswagen brand. With around 17 million units sold to date, the Polo is one of the world's most successful compact cars. The recently launched sixth generation has a fully new exterior design, which makes the car – now as a rule with four doors – appear sportier and more grown up. At the same time, the new Polo is now bigger than its predecessor in every dimension.

In the "Mini Cars" category the readers crowned the up! the winner. While the up! is admittedly the smallest and newest Volkswagen of this trio, with more than 1 million vehicles sold (since 2011), it too can show a formidable record of success.

The small car has a very clear design, a comprehensive set of standard features and a multitude of options for personalisation. Highlights of the range include the new 85 kW / 115 PS up! GTI and the special edition up! beats with a 300-watt sound system.

Two Volkswagen SUVs also did well in the poll: in the "Compact SUV / Offroad Vehicles" category the company's top SUV, the Tiguan, took second place and the T-Roc, only launched last autumn, celebrated a surprise success in third.

The auto motor und sport international readers' poll is celebrating its 42nd anniversary this year. In addition to the German edition, 15 other European and three non-European magazines from the "auto motor und sport" group took part in the poll. In total, 378 models in eleven categories were on the nominations list to be voted the best cars of 2018.