Imported car sales in South Korea hit a new record monthly high last month due to brisk sales of diesel and hybrid models amid high oil prices, a local trade association said Friday.

Sales of imported cars in April reached a new high of 10,668 vehicles in April, up 30 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributers Association (KAIDA) . For the first four months of this year, imported auto sales amounted to 33,923 units, up 17.8 percent from the same period of last year.

The April figure breached the previous record high of 10,648 vehicles tallied in March. The brisk sales were mainly attributed to growing demand for diesel and hybrid models amid higher oil prices. "Imported car sales grew in April due to strong demand for diesel and hybrid models caused by high oil prices as well as rollout of new models by some automakers," said Yoon Dae-sung, executive director of KAIDA.

German automaker BMW ranked first in terms of best-selling brand last month with 2,727 vehicles sold here. It was followed by Mercedes-Benz with 1,673 units, and Volkswagen with 1,330 units. Audi ranked fourth with 1,228 units, and Toyota came next with 998 units sold here.

The most popular model was BMW 520d with 899 units sold last month to beat 320d made by the same company with 565 units sold. It was followed by Toyota's Camry with 518 units sold.

By size, vehicles with an engine capacity of 2-liter or less were most popular, posting 50.3 percent market share in April. This was followed by cars with an engine displacement of between 2 and 3 liters that accounted for 33.8 percent of market share.

By origin, a total of 8,108 European cars were sold here last month, taking up the market share of 76 percent. It was followed by Japan with 17.8 percent market shares and the United States with 6.1 percent.