Vietnam's total automobile sales in the first eight months of this year stood at 151,903 units, a year-on-year plunge of 25 percent, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association said on Friday.

Specifically, sales of passenger cars declined 26 percent to 109,694 units compared to the same period last year, those of commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses decreased 22 percent to 39,787, and those of special-purpose vehicles fell 36 percent to 2,422.

Sales of domestically assembled automobiles decreased 19 percent, while those of imported ones stumbled 33 percent, the association said.

In August, 20,655 automobiles were sold in the Vietnamese market, down 14 percent against July this year, in which sales of passenger cars went down 12 percent to 15,419 units, those of commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses down 19 percent to 4,966, and those of special-purpose vehicles down 20 percent to 270.

In the first eight months of this year, Vietnam spent over 3.5 billion U.S. dollars on importing completely-built automobiles and components for assembly, posting a year-on-year decrease of 28 percent, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.