Foreign luxury car sales in South Korea hit an all-time monthly high last month, driving up the share of foreign cars in the local auto market to the highest, industry data showed Thursday.

Foreign automakers sold 19,930 vehicles here in January, marking the highest in the country's history, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association (KAIDA).

The prior record high was 18,112 tallied in July 2014. The January figure was up 34.2 percent from a year earlier and higher 16.4 percent compared with the previous month.

Helped by brisk sales, foreign automakers posted an 18.1 percent market share in South Korea, topping the prior monthly high of 15.4 percent tallied in August 2014.

German carmaker Mercedes-Benz ranked top in terms of best- selling brand, with 4,367 vehicles sold in January. It was trialed by Audi with 3,550 units and BMW with 3,008 vehicles. Volkswagen ranked fourth with 3,003 cars sold and Ford came next with 909 units.

European cars were most popular, with 16,280 vehicles sold last month. The number accounted for 81.7 percent of the total, followed by Japanese brands with an 11.1 percent market share and U.S. models with 7.2 percent.

Audi's A6 35 TDI was the most popular model with 807 units sold here, beating Volkswagen's Passat 2.0 TDI and Tiguan 2.0 TDI BlueMotion, whose sales amounted to 791 and 767 respectively.

Vehicles with an engine capacity of 2 liters or less were most popular, posting a 52.1-percent share. It was trailed by cars with an engine displacement between 2-3 liters, which took up 28.5 percent.