Fiat Auto turned in another very positive sales month in Italy during October, with their market share up 12.06% year-on-year to an impressive 31.33%, as all three of their main brands posted very healthy rises. The Fiat brand was up by 11.54%, Alfa Romeo sales rose 25.54% and even Lancia gained 6.10%, as they all bucked an almost flat market, according to registration data revealed by motor industry trade body ANFIA.

In fact the Italian new car market gained just 0.08% last month, as 186,891 new vehicles were registered. The national carmakers proved to be the big winners, while imported brands lost 4.58% year-on-year. Big losers in this fall included Mitsubishi (-44.10%), Land Rover (-31.00%), Mazda (-25.11%), Renault (-23.47%), Citroën (-16.85%), Volkswagen (-18.48%), MINI (-18.81%), Mercedes-Benz (-15.16%) and SEAT (-14.04%). Against this, foreign winners included Nissan (+75.36%) and Peugeot (+25.97%), although these gains were posted against the backdrop of fairly low volume sales in Italy for these two brands.

Altogether, the Fiat brands shifted 58,534 new vehicles last month, up by 12.06% on October 2005 when 52,258 units was the total achieved. This raised their combined market share to 31.33%, from 27.98% twelve months ago. The Fiat brand (including Light Commercial Vehicles) led the way in terms of volume: 44,744 new vehicles, up 11.54% on October 2005’s total of 40,113.  This raised its market share from October 2005’s figure of 21.48%, to 23.94% last month.  Meanwhile, Alfa Romeo saw their year-on-year sales jumping by 25.54%, with a total of 5,834 new cars comparing very favourably to the 4,647 sold during the equivalent period in 2005. This allowed their overall market share to rise from 2.49 to 3.12%.  Lancia rounded out an excellent month for the Fiat Auto brands, especially as it follows from a recent negative run as sales of the popular Ypsilon have declined in anticipation of the facelifted model.  Last month saw 7,863 new vehicles registered, compared to 7,411 in October 2005. This worked out as a 6.10% year-on-year rise, and in turn raised its market share from 3.97 to 4.21 pct.
 

For the year to date (Jan-Oct 2006), Fiat have sold 612,122 vehicles in total, up by 15.19% year-on-year. Of this figure, 464,024 vehicles have been Fiat-branded, while Lancia account for 85,339 units and Alfa Romeo 61,711. For the year as a whole to date, the Fiat brand is up by 18.52% in comparison with 2005, while Alfa Romeo is up a healthy 16.59%, and Lancia is almost unchanged, down by just 0.57%.

The Fiat Punto (combining the new Grande Punto and outgoing Punto model) was as usual the best-selling Italian car in October, a position it has made its own for many years.  It sold 17,438 units, adding up to a total of 198,747 for the year to date.  Second place went to the Panda (13,358) which firmly cements its second spot for the year to date (126,251).  The Lancia Ypsilon was the sixth-best seller during October (4,640) and it has now sold 56,787 for the year to date, while the Alfa 147 made it into the top ten in ninth place (2,222).  The Punto was also Italy’s best-selling diesel car last month (9,685), putting it firmly at the top for the year to date (106,330) and in fact more than 46,000 sales ahead of its closest diesel sector rival, the Ford Focus.