While Toyota, Japan’s largest automaker, announced recently that it is pulling out of the Korean marketplace, Subaru is moving in. Subaru has just announced that starting this April it will begin selling the Forester, Legacy and Outback models in South Korea.

Initially sales targets are set at just 600 vehicles annually, but Subaru has an ambition goal to grow that number exponentially to 3,000 units by 2015. Over the past year, Subaru has grown its share of the marketplace in North America considerably, with a revamped lineup of vehicles.

In a statement, Subaru said it believes its unique product offering with AWD standard on every vehicle will be attractive to consumers in Korea, where mountains are spread throughout the country and where the temperature varries much more than in Japan.

We’re surprised to learn the Subaru won’t offer it’s volume model, the Imprezza, in Korea and we’re certain more than a few enthusiasts are hoping Subaru will bring over the STI.

[Source: InsideLine]

If the recession is slowly beginning to end, it’s companies like Subaru that are leading the charge. The Japanese automaker recorded its best sales ever in July with 21,839 units sold, compared to 16,271 units during the same period last year. That’s an increase of 34 percent!

While a lot of credit can be given to the fact that in July Subaru brought the new 2010 Legacy and Outback to dealerships, both the Forester and Impreza out-paced the new models. Outback sales were up 33 percent over last July, while Legacy sales were up 34 percent. The Forester posted a 36 percent increase while the Impreza wracked up an amazing 41 percent climb. In fact, the only model to suffer decline was the Tribeca SUV, which is sold in such small volume anyway that it doesn’t have much of an effect on overall sales.

“Our sales reflect that our brand has solidly connected with customers,” said Subaru of America executive VP and COO Tom Doll. ”We have been consistent with everything we have done to build not only safe, durable, fun-to-drive vehicles, but also the Subaru brand.”

Official release after the jump:

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