The market share of import cars is expected to reach 3.8 percent next year, up from 3.6 percent this year, Hur Moon, the newly appointed executive vice chairman of Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association, said yesterday.

While sales of Korean-made cars in the 11 months to November rose only 1.9 percent from a year ago, new registrations of imported cars here jumped 30 percent to 27,090 units, far beyond earlier forecasts.

The better-than-expected sales growth is largely attributed to the increased number of relatively low-priced import autos released by Honda, Peugeot and Ford, but the most expensive luxury sedans such as the BMW 7-Series, Audi A8 and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class also gained remarkable momentum this year.

Sales of the BMW 7-Series, which comes in four trims priced between 133.4 million and 255 million won, soared 132 percent year-on-year to 677 units.The Audi A8, sold for between 113.3 million and 236.5 million won, saw sales of 409 units, up 113 percent from a year ago.

The local arm of Mercedes-Benz, which unveiled the New S-Class in late October, already received more than 600 orders for the new car in 40 days, a figure that nears the total sales volume of the S-Class last year. November sales tripled from a year ago to 243 units, putting customers on the wait list - two months for the 202.6 million won S500 and a month for the 160 million won S350. Sales of the S-Class in the 11-month period this year surged 12.3 percent to 676 units.

The number of high-end Porsche cars sold here also increased to 121 units from 85 units a year ago. Porsche importer and distributor Stuttgart Sports Cars said it already received four orders for the Cayman S which hit local showrooms yesterday.

"These premium cars were mostly sold to businessmen in the past but the diversity of our customer group is expanding to high-income professionals, celebrities and rich housewives," an official at the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association said.

Despite the rising sales of foreign car marques, the average repair fee for an import car is still 2.7 times higher than that of Korean-made cars, the Korea Insurance Development Institute said.

A bill for a new front bumper cover of the Volvo S80 2.9, for example, claimed about 880,000 won, 8.8 times more than that of the Equus VS450. The Swedish car itself costs about 3 million won less than the Equus, the most expensive Korean car made by Hyundai Motor Co. sold at around 73 million won.

The front fender used in a Mercedes-Benz C200, priced at 57.4 million won, costs 360,000 won while it takes less than 10,000 won to exchange the same part of the much more expensive Equus VS450.

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