Fiat brand sales were up by 7.4 percent last month across Europe, outperforming the overall market by almost two percentage points, and putting the Fiat up by a healthy 7.1 percent year-on-year. This rise was boosted by the arrival of the 500 last month, which joined the recently-introduced Bravo, and the now-stalwart Grande Punto range, in continuing to push the Turin carmaker's registrations upwards.

With European automotive manufacturer trade body ACEA choosing to report July sales figures in September, a snapshot of pan-European new car registrations for last month is provided by JATO Dynamics, the world’s leading provider of automotive data and intelligence, which reports that the European market for new cars grew by 5.6 percent (or 69,124 units) in July 2007 compared with July 2006, to a total volume of 1,311,084 units. The encouraging July performance means that the first seven months of the year has seen the total market remain virtually static, with a marginal growth of less than 0.1 pct (8,221 units) to 9,685,098 units.

July sees Volkswagen once again remain Europe’s top-selling car brand, announced JATO Dynamics ahead of Opel/Vauxhall (up 7.1 pct in July), Ford (up 10.9 pct in July and 1.4 pct YTD), Renault and Peugeot (up 4.7 pct in July and 0.2 pct YTD). The order of brand performance this month reflects the order of the top five brands year-to-date. (JATO splits the carmaking group's up into individual brands).

Citroën, the other half of PSA, is next up and is also worthy of note with sales increasing by 11.4 pct in July, thanks largely to strong sales of the C4 Picasso and Grand C4 Picasso, taking the brand’s total sales for the YTD 2.4 pct higher than a year ago. The Fiat brand was next up, said JATO, with a 7.4 pct rise (7.1 pct YTD).
 

Toyota saw registrations rise 5.1 by on July 2006 (5.1 pct YTD), BMW sales increased by 17.4 pct in July, (0.6 pct YTD) and Audi continues to increase its share of the market, with sales increasing 8.3 pct in July (5.8 pct YTD).

The Peugeot 207 was once again Europe’s top-selling new car in July 2007 with 37,600 units sold (up 64 pct), ahead of the Volkswagen Golf (36,741 units, up 5.3 pct), Opel/Vauxhall Astra (33,971 units), Ford Focus (33,629 units), Opel/Vauxhall Corsa (32,142 units, up 54.9 pct with its new model), Fiat Grande Punto (30,113 units), Renault Clio (29,612 units), Volkswagen Polo (26,979 units), Ford Fiesta (26,335 units) and Volkswagen Passat (26,007 units). The 30,113 unit sales recorded the Grande Punto (which includes the outgoing Punto model) was 6.4 pct down on July 2006 when 32,186 of the Turin-built 'supermini' models were sold. For the YTD 253,007 Punto models have been sold, down by 2.8 pct on the first seven months of 2006 when 260,417 units were registered.

Of the ‘Big five’ markets in Europe, Britain (176,277 units, up 4.9 pct), Italy (213,058, up 9.2 pct) and France (183,340, up 21 pct), all demonstrated decent growth, added JATO, in July; and they replicated this positive pattern in their year-to-date figures. The German market continues to struggle, and whilst its year-to-date figure remains down by 8.3 pct, its July performance (258,639 units) is a considerable improvement, down only 2.7 pct on last year.