April 20, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Korea’s imported vehicle sales jumped 24 percent in October from a year earlier on high demand for new models, industry data showed on Nov. 5.

The total number of newly registered foreign vehicles climbed to 20,813 last month from 16,833 a year ago, the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association said in a statement. 

“Customers chose Mercedes-Benz and Lexus models over BMW cars, which are still regarded as fire-prone vehicles due to faulty (EGR) components,” a KAIDA spokeswoman said.

In October, BMW vehicle sales plunged 52 percent to 2,131 units from 4,400 in the previous year. In contrast, Mercedes-Benz vehicle sales jumped 40 percent to 6,371 from 4,539 during the same period, the statement said.

BMW has yet to complete the recall of about 106,000 models with fire-prone EGR coolers and pipes by the end of this year. The German carmaker has been plagued by dozens of engine fires, mainly its best-selling 520d sedan. BMW identified the EGR parts as the “root cause” of the fire incidents.

The three best-selling models for the one-month period were the Mercedes-Benz E 300 sedan, Lexus ES300h sedan and Mercedes-Benz E 300 4MATIC sedan, the statement said.

In the January-October period, the total number of imported cars sold in the country stood at 217,868, up 14 percent from 190,394 units a year ago, KAIDA said.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)