South Korea November 2015: Tivoli hits highest Ssangyong ranking in 11 years

The Ssangyong Tivoli hits a record 12th place in November at home.

* See the Top 30 All-brands, Top 53 All-locals & Top 140 foreigners by clicking on the title *

The South Korean new car market posts another very dynamic month in November at +15% to 164.702 registrations, lifting the year-to-date total to 1.624.059 units. Once again sales are boosted by a record performance from foreign manufacturers, up 39% year-on-year to 22.991 sales and 14% share vs. +12% and 141.711 units for local carmakers. Hyundai (+17%) easily keeps the lead, even widening the gap with Kia (+12%). GM Korea (-7%) and Renault Samsung (-30%) struggle but Ssangyong shoots up 56%.

Volkswagen is already making up for a catastrophic October result. Picture Yeoinwoo

Volkswagen leaps 66% year-on-year, going from just 947 sales in October to a whopping 4.517 and #1 foreigner this month, potentially catching up on the bottleneck created by diesel uncertainty a couple of months ago. BMW (+37%), Audi (+56%), Mercedes (+44%) and Land Rover (+65%) all post fantastic results, as do Peugeot (+83%), Volvo (+68%), Infiniti (+134%), Jaguar (+131%) and Cadillac (+163%).

The Hyundai Sonata is back in pole position in South Korea.

After three consecutive months of Hyundai Avante reign, the Hyundai Sonata (+35%) jumps back into a pole position it holds year-to-date but that it hadn’t snapped since June. The Hyundai Avante (+26%) follows, ahead of the most popular of the three recently relaunched Hyundai Group SUVs: the Santa Fe (+47%). The Kia Sportage is up 88% to #7 and the Hyundai Tucson up 90% to #11.

The last Ssangyong to rank that high was the Rexton in 2004.

But the hero SUV of the month is the Ssangyong Tivoli: by gaining two spots on October it hits a record 12th place, simply the best ranking any Ssangyong model ever achieved since BSCB started following South Korea monthly in June 2010… In fact, we have to go back to 2004 to see Ssangyong models reaching similar levels at home: the Rexton finished that year at #11 and the Musso SUT at #14.

The foreign models ranking reflects the resurrection of Volkswagen: below the traditional strong sellers Mercedes E-Class and Audi A6, the VW Tiguan shoots up 21 spots on October to #3, overtaking both the BMW 5 Series and 3 Series, the VW Jetta is up 29 to #6, the Golf up 20 to #8, the Passat up 17 to #13 and the VW CC up 48 to #15.

Previous month: South Korea October 2015: New Kia Sportage in Top 5

One year ago: South Korea November 2014: Kia Morning #1, Hyundai Aslan up

Full November 2015 Top 30 All-brands, Top 53 All-locals and Top 140 foreigners below.