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S. Korea's foreign car sales see decline for 2 months

Xinhua, September 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

Foreign luxury car sales in South Korea reduced for two months in a row after hitting the record high in June, industry data showed Friday.

Foreign automakers sold a total of 18,200 vehicles in August, down 12.1 percent from a month earlier, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association (KAIDA).

After peaking at 24,274 in June, the foreign car sales declined to 20,707 in July and fell below the 20,000 level in August.

For the first eight months of this year, the imported car sales came to 158,739 units, up 23.2 percent compared with the same period of last year.

Mercedes-Benz ranked top in terms of best-selling brand, with 3, 662 vehicles sold here in August. It was trailed by BMW with 3,642 units sold and Volkswagen with 3,145 cars. Audi ranked fourth with 2,796 vehicles sold, and Peugeot came next with 633 units.

Volkswagen's Passat 2.0 TDI was the most popular model with 854 units sold, beating Audi's A6 35 TDI, of which sales were 795 units. Volkswagen's Golf 2.0 TDI ranked third with 740 units.

European cars were most popular, with 15,370 vehicles sold last month. The number took up 84.5 percent of the total, followed by Japanese brands with a 10.2 percent market share and U.S. models with 5.3 percent.

Vehicles with an engine capacity of 2 liters or less were most popular, posting a 60.2 percent market share. It was followed by an engine displacement between 2-3 liters, which accounted for 32. 2 percent. Endi