Car buyers in Turkey have increasingly opted for locally-manufactured automobiles after surging foreign currency exchange rates drove up imported car prices.

Consequently, the share of imported automobiles in total sales between January and August dropped to 69 percent from 75 percent in 2016.

According to the Automotive Distributors' Association, a total of 423,198 cars were sold in the first eight months of this year. 294,037 of these cars were imported while 129,161 were domestically produced.

Meanwhile, the total number of imported automobiles during the same period shrunk by 25 percent while local manufacturing went up 20 percent, compared to the first eight months of last year.

In addition, 132,793 light commercial vehicles were sold, 51 percent of which were locally manufactured while the rest was imported.

In total, some 555,991 automobiles and light commercial vehicles were sold during the first eight months of this year.

Compared to the same period of last year, the sales share of imported vehicles dropped in total dropped 4 percent to reach 65 percent.The data also revealed that Fiat led the market share in domestically manufactured vehicles, followed by Renault, Ford, Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda.As for imported vehicles, Volkswagen came first and was followed by Renault, Dacia, Opel, Ford, Peugeot, and Mercedes-Benz.