Vietnam's total automobile sales in the first nine months of this year stood at 179,155 units, a year-on-year plunge of 22 percent, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association said on Monday.

Specifically, sales of passenger cars declined 23 percent to 130,324 units compared to the same period last year, those of commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses decreased 20 percent to 46,183, and those of special-purpose vehicles fell 36 percent to 2,648.

Sales of domestically assembled automobiles decreased 17 percent, while those of imported ones stumbled 33 percent, said the association.

In September alone, 27,252 automobiles were sold in the Vietnamese market, up 32 percent against August this year, in which sales of passenger cars surged 34 percent to 20,630 units, those of commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses up 29 percent to 6,396, and those of special-purpose vehicles down 16 percent to 226.

In the first nine months of this year, Vietnam spent over 4.1 billion U.S. dollars on importing completely-built automobiles and components for assembly, declining 24.5 percent on-year, according to the country's Ministry of Industry and Trade.