[THE INVESTOR] Sales of imported vehicles in Korea dropped 15 percent in September from a year earlier as fewer working days weighed on the monthly numbers, industry data showed on Oct. 5.

The total number of newly registered foreign vehicles fell to 17,222 last month from 20,234 a year ago, the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association said in a statement.

“The sales decline is due to the Chuseok holidays, which fell on the last week of September, and lack of supply in some brands,” KAIDA Vice Chairman Yoon Dae-sung said in the statement.

The three best-selling models were the Audi A3 40 TFSI sedan, Volkswagen Passat 2.0 TSI sedan and Ford Motor‘s Explorer 2.3 sport utility vehicle, it said.

In September, BMW’s vehicle sales plunged 61 percent to 2,052 units from 5,299 a year earlier as dozens of fire incidents in the engine compartment of its vehicles, mainly the 520d sedan, have been reported in Korea this year.

In the January-September period, imported carmakers sold a total of 197,055 autos, up 14 percent from 173,561 units a year ago. The gain was helped as Audi Volkswagen resumed sales in Korea starting last November after suspending normal operations in 2016 and 2017 following an emissions cheating scandal.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)