This year’s marked increase of import automobiles has been fueled by the strong won and price cuts resulting from the FTA, and sales are rising rapidly at 20 percent.
According to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association’s sales figures released at the end of November, BMM 520D, which has traditionally been the best-selling important automobile, again topped the charts with 7,904 units sold. Its goal of selling 10,000 a year now seems unlikely, but the newly introduced 5-Series has been selling well since its September release, and maintaining the top position is a certainty. The BMW S Series, since it was introduced in 1972, has been BMW’s best-selling model, and has sold 6.6 million units worldwide. The sixth generation was introduced in 2010, and since then has sold 10 million units altogether.
The second best seller was Volkswagen Tiguan 2.0 TDI, BlueMotion, the success of which owes to recent popularity of SUVs. Its premium model was first introduced in Korea in 2011, and last year the Comfort Package and R-Lines were added. Sales were a meager 662 units in the first year of release, but last year jumped to 3,468, and this year again increased to 5,255 units sold, roughly twice last year’s figures.
The third best seller is the Mercedes-Benz E300. It has sold 4,668 units. The Mercedes-Benz E Series last month introduced the first diesel model BlueTEC Hybrid (Avangarde), adding the total number of series to twelve. This year in particular, with the introduction of the specially-designed Avangarde and Elegance models, more variety and options are offered to customers.
The fourth best seller was again Mercedes-Benz, the E 220 CDI (4,721 units sold). The fifth was Volkswagen Passat 2.0TD (3,796 units sold). Audi A6 TDI Quatro and Volkswagen Golf 2.0 TDI each sold 3,111 and 3.092 units, respectively, coming in at 6th and 7th places. The only non-German car among the top 10, Toyota Camry, occupied 8th place with 3,012 units sold. The Audi A6 2.0 TDI and BMW 320d were 9th and 10th places.