South Korea Imported Car Sales Rose 67% in January - Still not a big deal

Thursday 1:51 am ET

SEOUL February 20, 2003; Jeongjin Lim writing for Dow Jones reported that sales of imported cars in South Korea jumped by 67% on year to 1,414 units in January, continuing a trend of double-digit growth, the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association, or Kaida, said Thursday.

South Korean's demand for foreign cars remained robust mainly due to the introduction of several new models in recent months and an increase in after- sales service shops, Kaida official Eun-Seok Park said.

"Koreans' lifestyles have changed a lot; they are now more open to imported goods than before, and are more interested in diversity and want to be different from others," she said.

At present there are about 140 foreign car models sold in Korea, she added.

The best-selling foreign model in January was the Lexus ES300 from Toyota Motor Corp. , with 140 cars sold. This was followed by the BMW 735.

The most popular foreign car brand was the BMW, which sold 412 cars and imported 14 different models.

Meanwhile, Kaida said it has changed the method it uses to compile monthly car sales data, starting January. It now compiles its data based on the number of cars registered, rather than the number of cars sold by dealers.