Foreign Auto Renaissance
According to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association, 39 models of 15 brands hit yearly high sales in Korea last month. Eight percent of the models available in Korea reached new yearly highs, while the number of newly-registered imported vehicles decreased by 14.7 percent from a month ago. Most of the 39 models were the main models put to the forefront by their respective automakers.
It was BMW that led the trend. BMW is currently selling 72 models in Korea, and no less than eight of them reached yearly high sales last month. The sales volume of the 420d Gran Coupe, for example, skyrocketed from 23 to 124 between June and July this year. Mercedes Benz, in the meantime, sold 143 B200 CDIs last month, whereas the model’s sell-through for the 12 months of 2014 had been 465.
The back-to-back records are pretty unusual, in that July is a low season when many people go on vacation, and the number of imported cars sold in Korea is on the decline these days.
It seems that foreign car brands beat the low season and the downturn by means of marketing efforts in the form of an aggressive expansion of their lineups.