South Korea's Imports of German Cars Drop First Time in 13 Years

Imports of vehicles produced in Germany or by German automakers dropped for the first time in 13 years, apparently due to a large cut in inbound shipments of Volkswagen and Audi cars mired in an emissions scandal, industry data showed Tuesday. 
In the first five months of the year, imports of German vehicles came to 51,736 cars, down 12.7% from the same period last year, according to the data from the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA). 
This marks the first on-year drop since a 7.2% decline in 2003. The decline also follows years of large increases for German cars. In 2015, imports of German vehicles jumped 26.3%, following a 33.7% spike in the previous year and 13.1% in 2013, according to South Korea's (Yonhap) News Agency. 
Such a decline, however, comes mostly from large cuts in imports of Audi and Volkswagen vehicles that are suspected of passing the local authentication process with fabricated test results on emissions, noise level or fuel efficiency. 
In the January-June period, imports of Audi and Volkswagen cars plunged 10.3% and 33.1% on-year, respectively. 
Imports of Mercedes-Benz cars, on the other hand, gained 6.8% over the cited period, while those of BMW vehicles slipped 4.3%.