Fiat Group saw 80,691 registrations on home soil last month, up more than ten thousand units on the same month last year, a year-on-year rise of 14.75 percent; however it underperformed the overall market which was up by 19.61 percent. It all meant the Fiat Group’s Italian overall market share for March contracted slightly, from 32.64 to 31.31 percent. According to Italian automotive body UNRAE, the Italian market saw 257,694 units sold last month to continue the strong start to the year.

The Fiat brand saw 64,192 registrations last month, that was up just under ten thousand units of March last year and equated to a 17.23 percent year-on-year increase in sales while Lancia was once again the big winner in year-on-year share improvement terms, 11,668 units in March was up more than two thousand units on the same period last year and added up to a year-on-year jump in sales of almost a quarter (+24.33 percent). However Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) was dragged down by Alfa Romeo, which had a dismal month, it saw its sales drop by one-fifth to 4,715 cars, which was one thousand three hundred units less than March last year and added up a year-on-year decline of 21.76 percent. With the fading demand of the Alfa 159, Alfa Romeo is now heavily reliant on the B-segment MiTo which added 3,156 more sales last month. This all meant that the Fiat brand's share of its home market last month was down from 25.42 to 24.33 percent, Lancia climbed from 4.36 to 4.53 percent, while Alfa Romeo slipped from 2.80 to 1.83 percent. Of the Fiat Group’s two niche luxury/performance brands, Ferrari’s 61 units (the California accounted for the bulk of these, 37, with the new 458 Italia adding up to another 18) put it down 27.38 percent while Maserati’s 55 cars (the GranTurismo was the best selling Trident model with 36 units) was down 22.54 percent.

After the first three months of the year the Italian market has seen 666,247 new cars sold and is up 23.33 percent on the same period last year while the Fiat Group is on 209,599 sales and has slightly underperformed the market although it is up by more than a fifth (+20.10 percent), although its share of the market for the first quarter slides from 32.31 to 31.46 percent. The Fiat brand has 164,730 sales for the year-to-date and is up 20.58 percent year-on-year, Lancia is on 29,998 units and climbs 31.43 percent while Alfa Romeo has sold 14,521 of its cars, down one hundred units on the same three month period last year, and is almost unchanged year-on-year (-0.68 percent). It means that the Fiat brand’s market share is down from 25.29 to 24.73 percent year-on-year, Lancia is up from 4.22 to 4.50 percent, while Alfa Romeo drops from 2.71 to 2.18 percent. Ferrari is on 213 units year-to-date (-13.41 percent) and Maserati on 137, down 35.38 percent.

The Fiat Punto (including Punto Classic, Grande Punto and Punto Evo combined) was Italy’s top-selling car for March with 21,396 of the B-segment hatchbacks finding buyers, but it came under real fire for its top-dog position from Ford’s Fiesta which sold 19,546 units to end the month less than two thousand units shy of the traditional number one seller and in doing so the Fiesta comfortably bumped the Panda (17,086) down to third place. Citroen’s C3 (10,728 found favour with Italian buyers to claim fourth spot ahead of the Fiat 500 (9,535). Lancia’s Ypsilon was the ninth best-seller of the month and comfortably breached the five thousand sales mark barrier with 5,908 of the B-segment superminis finding buyers. For the year-to-date the Punto, driven on by the arrival of facelifted Punto Evo last autumn, is clear at the top as Italy’s best-seller with more than sixty thousand units having been sold (61,013). The Panda (47,802) is second but has the Fiesta (45,787) breathing down its neck. The 500 (22,132) is fifth while the Ypsilon (14,166) is tenth.

The Punto was knocked into second place amongst diesels, and in the class for LPG cars the Fiesta (11,251) leapt to the top of the rankings in March with almost double the sales of the Punto (6,092) and for the year-to-date it means the Fiesta (22,607) has overhauled the Punto (19,606) thanks to last months sales surge. Amongst methane-powered vehicles the picture was better for Fiat with the Punto (4,284), Panda (3,958), Qubo (3,530) and Multipla (1,021) locking out the top-four positions and holding the same order for the year-to-date with the Punto (14,651) being the top-selling methane car in Italy so far this year.

In A-segment the Panda and 500 took the top-two positions while the ageing Seicento (1,316) squeezed into the final slot in the class top-ten for March. In B-segment the Punto was the best-seller and the Ypsilon fifth, while in C-segment the Fiat Bravo (4,158) continues to lag VW's Golf and Ford's Focus, although it has now brought its year-to-date tally up to 8,948 units. Lancia's Delta (2,336) had a good month and was the seventh best seller in C-segment. In D-segment the Fiat Croma (923) was the tenth best-seller, as well as being Italy's seventh highest sold station wagon, but the Alfa 159 once again contributed to the brand's sales decline with a second month when it failed to crack the D-segment top-ten. The Fiat Sedici had a solid model as the third best selling car in Fuoristrada, the MiTo (3,156) was the country's top-selling coupé, while in Multispace the Fiat Qubo (4,304) and Fiat Doblò (1,022) took the top-two positions and for the year-to-date it is the same story with 8,871 and 1,756 sales respectively.