SEOUL, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Imported car sales in South Korea kept rising in November on demand for German luxury models, though the growth rate slowed down, industry data showed Wednesday.
The number of imported vehicles newly registered here was 22,387 in November, up 0.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA).
The growth rate was down from a 23.6 percent increase in October. For the first 11 months of this year, the imported car sales advanced 13 percent to 240,255 units compared with the same period of last year.
Strong demand for German luxury brands continued last month. German carmaker Mercedes-Benz sold 7,208 cars here in November, ranking first among foreign automakers.
It was followed by another German automaker BMW, which sold 2,476 vehicles last month. Volkswagen came next with 1,988 vehicles sold here, trailed by Lexus with 1,945 vehicles sold and Toyota with the sale of 1,928 cars.
Meanwhile, car sales by five local automakers, including Hyundai, Kia, Ssangyong, GM Korea and Renault Samsung, in the domestic market inched down 0.3 percent over the year to 138,862 units in November.
