Import car sales in Korea reached an all-time high in November.

The Korea Automobile Import and Distributors Association reported on Wednesday that new registrations rose to 12,470 in November, a 35.1 percent increase from a year ago.

The accumulated number of vehicles sold was 120,195 in the first 11 months this year, up 23.7 percent from last year’s 97,158 units, the lobby group for foreign carmakers here said.

BMW continued strong sales with 2,703 new registrations, followed by Volkswagen with 2,022, Mercedes-Benz with 1,867, Audi with 1,405 and Toyota with 935.

Smaller models drove up car sales, with vehicles with an engine power capacity of 2,000 cc or under, making up 52.7 percent of the total cars sold.

European brands held dominance, selling 9,360 cars, or 75 percent of the total, followed by Japanese brands with 17.4 percent and U.S. brands with 7.6 percent.

The best-selling model of the month was BMW’s 520d, which sold 772 vehicles. The mid-sized sedan is also expected to become the best-selling model for 2012.

Mercedes-Benz’s E300 and Toyota’s Camry, which sold 539 and 468 vehicles, respectively, were also among the month’s popular models.

“New models of some brands and consumption tax cuts had a positive impact on November car sales,” said Yoon Dae-sung, executive managing director of KAIDA.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)