08.04.2011 FIAT'S SALES FLAT WHILE ALFA ROMEO'S TRIPLE AS GERMANY GAINS GROUND DURING MARCH

ALFA ROMEO GIULIETTA 1.4 TB QUADRIFOGLIO VERDE
ALFA ROMEO GIULIETTA 1.4 TB QUADRIFOGLIO VERDE
ALFA ROMEO GIULIETTA 1.4 TB QUADRIFOGLIO VERDE

Alfa Romeo, driven once more by demand for the new Giulietta totted up 1,332 sales in Germany last month, which made it the best performing brand year-on-year on the market, up 153.7 percent year-on-year.

Fiat Automobiles put a year of plunging sales in Germany behind it in March to finish the month flat year-on-year although it still underperformed the market which continued its recent resurgence; Alfa Romeo suffered no such problems: its market share tripled for the period.

In total 327,921 new cars were sold in Germany during March, up 11.4 percent on the same period last year, as Europe's biggest new car market continues its steady rebound from the deep slump that followed the ending of state supported incentive schemes last spring.

With 7,814 registrations last month the Fiat brand was flat on it's March 2010 performance (-0.1 percent) in Germany to take a 2.4 percent market share. The only other volume brand in negative territory on this market last month was France's Peugeot (-7.8 percent) while the list of losers was completed by Lada (-35.7 percent), Chevrolet (-15.5 percent), Suzuki (-10.9 percent), Land Rover (-7.2 percent) and Daihatsu (-1.4 percent).

Alfa Romeo, driven once more by demand for the new Giulietta totted up 1,332 sales in Germany last month, which made it the best performing brand year-on-year on the market, up 153.7 percent year-on-year. That gave Alfa Romeo a 0.4 percent share of all March sales. With its sales trebling, Alfa Romeo's closest rival in year-on-year terms was Nissan/Infiniti, up 118.4 percent. The other big winners were Mitsubishi (+51.4 percent) and Toyota/Lexus (+38.4 percent).

Lancia, which has almost faded from sight on the German market, posted a  rare - and unexpected - gain in sales, its 185 units last month was up 7.6 percent year-on-year. Lancia took just an 0.1 percent share of the market for the month.

After the first quarter of the year the German new car market is one of the better performers in Europe, up 13.9 percent on the opening three months of last year and is as ever the volume leader at 763,403 units.

The Fiat brand has 17,954 registrations for the year to the end of March, relatively flat on last year (-0.9 percent) and it takes a 2.4 percent share of all sales for the period. The only other mass brand to lose market share during the first quarter was Peugeot while the list of losers so far in 2011 is completed by Chevrolet, Chrysler, Daihatsu and Lancia.

There were no such struggles for Alfa Romeo however, and, after a dismal start last year, its market share has almost doubled for the year-to-date (+94.7 percent) albeit to only 3,022 units. Alfa Romeo was the best performing brand on the German market during the first quarter in year-on-year terms, the next best was Mitsubishi which saw its registrations up by more than a half (+58.7 percent). The big other winners for the first three months of 2011 included Volvo (+56.1 percent), Subaru (+41.2 percent), Porsche (+39.7 percent), Lada (+39.0 percent) and Toyota/Lexus (+36.9 percent).

Lancia, which eagerly awaits the imminent arrival in the German showrooms of the new-generation Ypsilon, has managed to shift 349 cars during the first quarter of 2011, which is down 13.2 percent on the opening three months of last year.

 

© 2011 Interfuture Media/Italiaspeed