Sales of imported vehicles jump 15.6 pct in July

SEOUL (Yonhap) - Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea jumped 15.6 percent last month from a year earlier, helped by new car models and the free trade agreement (FTA) with Europe that lowered prices, a trade association said Wednesday.
A total of 8,859 imported vehicles were sold here in July, compared with 7,666 units sold a year earlier, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association (KAIDA).
Sales in July, however, dipped 1.2 percent from the 8,964 cars sold a month earlier.
"Sales of imported vehicles rose thanks to the FTA with the European Union that went into effect on July 1, and the unveiling of new car models during the month," said Yoon Dae-sung, a senior manager at KAIDA.
He added that while sales did rise compared to the year before, numbers fell off slightly from June mainly due to the unseasonably long monsoon season.
Cumulative sales of imported vehicles in the first seven months of the year also soared 22.0 percent on-year to 60,523 units, according to KAIDA, strongly supporting the organization's earlier forecast that for the first time sales of new imported vehicles here should top 100,000 units in 2011.
According to the association, German luxury automaker BMW maintained its best selling brand status for the sixth consecutive month since February with 2,274 units sold here last month. This was followed by Mercedes Benz with 1,522 units and Volkswagen with 1,106 units sold in South Korea.
By size, vehicles with a 2.0-liter or smaller engine were most popular, taking up 42.7 percent of the market share in July. This was followed by a 33.7 percent market share for cars with engine capacities more than 2.0 liters but below 3.0 liters.
By origin, European vehicles dominated the market with a combined 77.1 percent share of the market in the cited month, followed by Japanese manufacturers with 15.8 percent and U.S. automakers with 7.1 percent, KAIDA said.