Sales of imported light passenger vehicles in South Korea increased by 14% to 25,514 units in November 2019 from 22,387 units in the same month of last year, according to member data released by the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association.
Sales of German brands combined jumped by close to 34% to 16,459 units last month from 12,304 units a year earlier, helped by the launch of new models in recent months and also as BMW rebounded strongly from depressed year earlier sales.
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Japanese brands continued to suffer from a broad-based consumer boycott after the two countries fell out over demands for Japan to provide further compensation for South Korean World War II victims. Combined sales of Japanese brands fell by over 56% to 2,357 units last month, with Toyota-Lexus the worst hit with a 66% fall to 1,299 units.
Overall import sales in the first 11 months of 2019 were down by 10.6% at 214,708 units from 240,255 units in the same period of last year with the segment's overall performance also affected by a major recall by BMW following a series of well publicised engine fires last year.
The leading import brand, Mercedes-Benz, reported a 8.4% sales increase to 69,712 units in the 11-month period, while BMW sales were almost 18% lower at 39,061 units; Lexus 11,401 units (-3.5%); Volvo 9,805 units (+23.7%); Toyota 9,288 units (-38.9%); Chrysler 9,615 units (+42.3%); Mini 8,948 units (+4.3%); and Honda 7,715 units (+8.3%).
BMW Group Korea in October announced it was targeting more than 10,000 Mini sales in South Korea this year, as part of its efforts to recover from last year's hugely damaging recall involving some 171,000 vehicles – which the company said is in its final stages.
