The Fiat 500C made up 402 sales in Italy during January to leave it as country's best-selling convertible vehicle with comfortably more than double the volume of its closest rival, Smart's ForTwo (169).

Fiat Group has made a very strong start to the year in Italy with sales up 30.22 percent year-on-year during January, as well as month-on-month, as all three Fiat Group Automobiles brands, Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo, posted volume gains. It was a good start to the year for the Italian market which was up 30.22 percent last month, exactly the same as Fiat's rise, with a total of 206,341 registrations in January, almost 50,000 units ahead of the opening month of last year which saw 158,457 sales, although taken in context that the period in question was relatively unimpressive. The Italian registrations data comes from Italian automotive trade body UNRAE.

The Fiat Group saw 66,204 units registered last month in Italy which was almost 15,000 units up on the same month a year ago when when 50,840 units were sold and this meant it ended up 30.22 percent year-on-year for January. With the overall market also rising by 30.22 percent Fiat's share of the total market remained flat on 32.08 percent.

The Fiat brand accounted for 51,994 sales in January, more than 10,000 units up on the corresponding month last year when 40,263 units were registered; this equated to a 29.14 percent year-on-year rise which shrank its market share very slightly from 25.41 to 25.20 percent year-on-year. Lancia was the big winner from the Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) brand portfolio last month and was the only one to beat the market's rise, its 8,984 units in January versus 6,306 for the same month a year ago mean it was up 42.47 percent year-on-year with its market share rising from 3.98 to 4.35 percent. Lancia's position was once again boosted by its heavily government subsidised LPG vehicle offereing, and more than 4,000 Ypsilon and Musa models combined were sold in this format during January. Alfa Romeo's 5,103 units was up a 1,000 units versus January 2009's total of 4,114, boosted by a very strong month for the MiTo, but left it as the most sluggish year-on-year performer from the FGA stable, albeit up 24.04 percent, its overall market share shrinking slightly from 2.60 to 2.47 percent year-on-year; however with the brand urgently awaiting the arrival of the key new C-segment Giulietta on the Italian market next month it was a very steady performance. Of the Fiat Group's niche performance/luxury brands, Ferrari sold 85 cars in Italy during January. Of these 72 were the new California with the other 13 being made up of the brand-new 458 Italia, meaning that Maranello was up 14.86 percent year-on-year, while Maserati's 38 units saw its sales more than halve (-54.22 percent). The Trident's registrations were split between the GranTurismo (26) and the Quattroporte (12).

The Fiat Punto (including Punto Classic, Grande Punto and Punto Evo) kicked off the new year as it ended the old one, as the best-seller on the Italian market, its 20,496 units were more than a quarter ahead of its closest rival, sister Fiat brand model, the Panda, which sold 14,992 units. Ford's Fiesta was third (13,770) ahead of the Fiat 500 (7,358) in fourth with the Ypsilon (3,845) rounding out FGA interest in the Italian top-ten, occupying the final slot. Unusually the Punto was knocked off the top spot as the best-selling diesel, its 5,075 units in this format narrowly behind the Fiesta (5,229) with no other FGA model making the diesel top-ten for the month.

During January Fiat Group continued to take full advantage of generous government subsidies for consumers purchasing environmentally-conscious LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) and Methane powered vehicles, with the Punto (6,240) being the best selling LPG vehicle in Italy during January ahead of the Fiesta (5,322) and with the Panda (2,904) in third. Seventh in the top-ten was the Ypsilon (2,120) one place and just under 100 units behind its brand sister the Musa (2,026). It was a similar story amongst Methane-powered vehicles where the Fiat brand locked out the top four positions with the Panda (5,177), Punto (3,894), Qubo (1,656) and Multipla (313) leading the way.

The Fiat Panda and 500 held the top-two positions in A-segment last month while the Punto was on top of B-segment, with the Ypsilon in seventh and the MiTo reappearing in the top-ten, in ninth, after shifting 3,630 units, more than 1,500 units up on last January. It also meant the MiTo was Italy's best-selling coupé car for January, a class were it is curiously counted. In C-segment the Bravo (2,463) only managed fifth place despite some mild 'Model Year' upgrades while Lancia's Delta (1,831) continues to carve out a solid niche in Italy, and it was two places further back. In D-segment the Alfa 159 (788) continues to struggle, it only squeezed into the final slot in the top-ten, while the Fiat Croma (661) dropped out altogether. Of the Alfa 159 sales, 484 were for the 159 Sportwagon which made it the market's ninth best-selling station wagon for the month while the Croma was the sixth highest selling station wagon during January. Elsewhere the Fiat Sedici (674) was the sixth best-seller in 'Fuoristrada', the Brera (210) almost quadrupled its sales year-on-year to take third place in the class reserved for coupé cars. The Fiat 500C made up 402 sales in January to leave it as Italy's best-selling convertible with comfortably more than double the volume of its closest rival, Smart's ForTwo (169). Lancia's Phedra (147) was an impressive second in the class reserved for large MPVs while its sister model, Fiat's Ulysee (77) was fifth. Amongst the mid-size MPVs the Multipla (943) was fourth while the Musa (3,160) was comfortably the market's best-selling small MPV for the month with more than double the sales of its closest rival, Citroën's C3.