Registrations of foreign-brand cars hit a new monthly record in July, the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association said Tuesday.

According to the business lobby for foreign car brands here, 14,953 vehicles were newly registered in July, up 38.9 percent from the same period last year.

BMW maintained its top position with 3,023 unit sales in the month, while Volkswagen with 2,696 slightly outperformed Mercedes-Benz with 2,567.

The best-selling models were BMW’s 520d that sold 848 units, Volkswagen Golf 2.0 TDI with 688 and Volkswagen Tiguan 2.0 TDI BlueMotion with 543.

This year’s accumulative car sales by foreign brands here was 89,440 as of July, a 22.5 percent increase from last year’s 73,007.

The growth trend has already exceeded the earlier market projection of 10 to 15 percent growth based on the prolonged sluggish economy.

“July sales were positively affected by new launches by some brands and aggressive marketing activities,” said KAIDA’s executive managing director Yoon Dae-sung.

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