South Korea's annual imports of automobiles topped $10 billion for the second consecutive year in 2016 despite lingering repercussions stemming from Volkswagen's emissions scandal, industry data showed Wednesday.

According to the data by the Korea International Trade Association, South Korea imported a total of $10.63 billion (about 12.1 trillion won) worth of foreign vehicles last year, but the reading marks a 1.4 percent dip from the previous year's $10.78 billion.

The country's foreign auto imports topped $1 billion in 2003 for the first time since the local automobile market of South Korea was open to foreign brands in 1987.

Except for 2009, the imports of foreign vehicles have increased at an annual rate of between 5.3 percent and 44 percent in the past decades. In 2015, auto imports surged 18.3 percent on-year as well, the data showed.

Due to Volkswagen's diesel gate, imports of foreign vehicles with a diesel engine of 2.5 liters or below dropped 19 percent on-year last year to $3.37 billion, marking the first on-year decline.

Imports of cars with a diesel engine of 2.5 liters or above also sank 23.6 percent to $1.63 billion over the cited period, the data showed.

Reeling from a sales ban here, Volkswagen saw its sales here plummet 63.2 percent to 13,178 units last year, with the sales of Audi cars also plunging 48.6 percent to 16,718 units over the cited period, they showed.

Instead, other foreign automakers, such as BMW and Toyota, expanded their presence here last year.

BMW's 520d was the best-selling model here among foreign brands last year with a total of 7,910 units sold, followed by Benz's E-300 with 6,169 units and Lexus's ES300h with 6,112, the data showed. (Yonhap)