Repair costs for import cars produced by companies such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz average 2.6 million won ($2,300), far exceeding the average of 840,000 won for the five Korean-made brands.

Over the weekend, the Korea Insurance Development Institute released the import car repair costs paid by nonlife insurance companies in 2011.

The institute’s report showed that import car repair charges were three times higher than those for domestic cars.

Further, components of import cars were five times more expensive than those for the made-in-Korea brands ― Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, GM Korea, Renault Samsung Motors and Ssangyong Motor.

There were about 263,000 auto insurance payout cases for foreign-made premium cars in 2011, taking up only 5 percent of the total number, but they accounted for 12 percent of the total in terms of the amount paid out to policyholders.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)