Fiat-the past-now-futur

The Fiat Punto (including Punto Classic and Grande Punto) will welcome the new-generation Punto Evo (above during its media launch this week) into the market this month with its leadership of Italian sales undisputed, it was the best-seller in Italy last month with 16,105 units, clear of the Panda in second place with 14,524.

With 59,779 cars sold across Italy last month Fiat Group was up 9.34 percent year-on-year as it turned in another strong month of sales to outperform the overall market's rise and with the Fiat and Lancia brands driving forward this showing. According to data released by UNRAE a total of 189,476 new cars were sold in Italy last month which added up to a year-on-year rise of 6.77 percent. It all meant that the Fiat Group raised its share of the Italian market for the month of September from 30.81 to 31.55 percent year-on-year.

The Fiat brand saw 45,695 registrations during September which put it up 7.96 percent year-on-year and raised its share of the market for the month from 23.85 to 24.12 percent. Lancia was the biggest winner though, and with 9,371 registrations, it was up 23.86 percent year-on-year while its share of the market last month was nudging five percent (4.95 percent versus 4.26 percent during the same month a year ago). Alfa Romeo continued to struggle, it underperformed the overall market but its sales were virtually unchanged (-0.60 percent) with 4,657 units last month compared to 4,685 during the same month a year ago. Of the Group' specialist luxury/performance brands, Ferrari sold 27 cars last month (-20.59 percent) led out by the new California (14), while Maserati saw its sales more than half year-on-year to 29 (-53.97).

AWith three quarters of the year now gone Fiat Group has sold 535,940 cars on its home market which is down 2.03 percent year-on-year; however that equates to less than 12,000 units down the same period last year. The overall market for the first nine months of the year meanwhile is down 5.86 percent. The Fiat brand accounts for 415,418 cars so far this year in Italy which is down 3.59 percent on the same period last year while its share of the market climbs from 25.18 to 25.78 percent; Lancia has 76,008 sales for the year-to-date and is up 2.61 percent year-on-year while its share of the Italian market climbs from 4.33 to 4.72 percent.

Alfa Romeo's 43,467 cars sold after the first nine months is also above the market's rise, it is up 6.13 percent year-on-year for the year-to-date while its share rises from 2.39 to 2.70 percent. Ferrari meanwhile is on 544 cars for the year-to-date, down just 1.09 percent, and Maserati is on 503, equating to a year-on-year drop of 25.70 percent.

The Fiat Punto (including Punto Classic and Grande Punto) will welcome the new-generation Punto Evo into the market this month with its leadership of Italian sales undisputed, it was the best-seller in Italy last month with 16,105 units, clear of the smaller Panda which was in second place with 14,524 units. The Panda has just received a "Model Year 2010" makeover. The Fiat 500 (6,051) made it three Fiat-brand cars in the top-ten best sellers in Italy during September while the only other Fiat Group Automobiles interloper in the top-ten last month was Lancia's Ypsilon in eighth place with 4,470 sales. For the year-to-date the Punto (135,045) is the clear market leader, just over 6,000 units ahead of the Panda (128,908) while the 500 (63,398) occupies fourth place and the Ypsilon (37,412) is eighth.

The Panda and 500 were one-two at the top of A-segment last month while the Punto ran out clear winner in B-segment with the Ypsilon in fourth and Lancia's Musa (3,025) in eighth. The Alfa Romeo MiTo (2,338) dropped out of the B-segment top-ten last month but it now has 22,469 sales for the year-to-date, just ahead of the Musa's 20,758. The MiTo however was still Italy's best-selling coupé car in September as it is counted in this category, and in the same category Alfa Romeo's Brera and GT made welcome returns to the top-ten with sales of 90 and 89 units respectively. The Musa was also the best selling small MPV category vehicle after achieving almost double the sales of its closest rival, the Opel Agila.

In C-segment the Fiat Bravo (3,434) was third behind the VW Golf and Ford Focus and the positions for the year-to-date are the same with the Bravo now on 30,311 units. The Lancia Delta added 1,720 units last month to leave it the fifth best-seller in C-segment, a position it also occupies for the year-to-date with 16,371 sold. In D-segment the Alfa Romeo 159 (1,136) fell behind the Fiat Croma (1,177) with the two cars taking up fourth and third places in the segment respectively. For the year-to-date the Alfa 159 has 10,751 sales while the Croma is on 9,071. Fiat scored more success in "Multispace" with the Qubo (719) edging out the Doblò (518). For the year to date these two lock out the top spots in the class with 9,877 and 3,946 sales respectively.