Vietnam's total automobile sales in the first 11 months of this year stood at 248,768 units, a year-on-year decrease of 14 percent, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association said on Friday.

Specifically, sales of passenger cars declined 13 percent to 184,418 units compared to the same period last year, those of commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses decreased 15 percent to 60,833, and those of special-purpose vehicles went down 27 percent to 3,517.

Sales of domestically assembled automobiles decreased 7 percent, while those of imported ones fell 24 percent, said the association.

In November alone, 36,359 automobiles were sold in the Vietnamese market, up 9 percent against October this year. Sales of passenger cars rose 13 percent to 28,755 units, those of commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses decreased 5 percent to 7,122, and those of special-purpose vehicles increased 25 percent to 482.

In the first 11 months of this year, Vietnam spent over 5.5 billion U.S. dollars on importing completely-built automobiles and components for assembly, posting a year-on-year decline of 18.5 percent, according to the country's Ministry of Industry and Trade.