Affluent Korean youths sharply increased their purchase of imported cars last year despite overall economic woes and weak demand for locally made cars, industry reports showed Wednesday.
The reports by the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association and the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association (KAIDA) showed foreign-made cars registered to people in their 20s jumping 36.1 percent on-year to 4,801 units last year.
The jump contrasts with the 6.4 percent contraction of new car purchase by people under 29 who bought a total of 140,777 cars in 2011.
The weak sales pushed down market share of young car owners in the country by 1.3 percentage point to 10.9 percent in 2011. In 2010, newly registered cars owned by drivers in their 20s stood at 150,366 units.
Korean carmakers sold over 7.75 million vehicles last year, up 13.4 percent from the year before. The increase was mainly fueled by rise in export demand, with domestic market sales, edging up just 0.5 percent to around 1.46 million units.
However, import car sales reached a record high of 105,037 units last year, up 16 percent from the previous year.
Industry sources said that while people purchased fewer cars due to the economic uncertainties, there was a sharp hike in purchases of foreign cars from those that could afford such vehicles.
"Economic uncertainties hurt automobile sales overall, but not high income earners whose demand for foreign made cars actually increased," a KAIDA official said. (Yonhap)