Honda foundering Toyota flowering

By Kim Tae-gyu

The country’s 24 imported auto brands combined to sell 8,758 vehicles in August, accounting for 8.76 percent of the market. This is the first time that their overall share topped the 8-percent mark in history.

Yet, not all the players fared well. Some struggled to find their feet last month such as Honda Korea, which saw the sales of their models plunge 23.6 percent from 627 in July to 479 last month.

As a result, the Seoul-based outfit was crowded out from the top five overseas brand list in terms of monthly sales to sixth: its Japanese rival Toyota nudged past Honda to assume fifth spot.

This sharply contrasts to perennial market leader BMW whose sales rocketed 76.6 percent during the same period. Runner-up