Italian new car registration figures for October, just released, see Fiat Auto grab a 27.6 percent market share, pretty much in line with September (27.7 percent).

Year-on-year however, the figure is down 1.4 percent, effected mainly by a 40 percent decline in Alfa Romeo sales last month, attributed by senior management to a drop off in sales of the popular Alfa 147 as customers wait for the arrival in the showrooms of the facelifted model, officially unveiled at the Paris Mondial de l'Automobile at the end of September.

As well as the tailing off of 147 sales, the new four wheel drive Crosswagon, which premiered back in March at the Geneva Salon, only began deliveries in mid-October, several weeks later than originally planned, and once on-stream is expected to provide a welcome fillip to the order book. This new model, which represents the brand's return to all-wheel traction after almost a decade, is expected to carve out strong 'niche' sales.

Fiat's sales also dropped, by 11.4 percent year-on-year. However, bucking the trend was once again Lancia, which continued its steady turnaround, its share up 2.45 percent, helped in no small part by the continuing strength of orders for the new Ypsilon.

Overall, the Italian car market slumped by 8.2 percent year-on-year, its fourth consecutive month of falling sales, which leave it up just 0.05 percent year-on-year thus far. Total Italian new car registrations last month weighed it at 174,500.

However, for the first ten months of the year, the trend for Fiat Auto is still upwards. Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia, increased their Italian market share by 1.1 percent year-on-year, with their slice of sales rising to 28.2 percent (up from 27.9 percent year-on-year).

Big losers on the Italian market last month included Ford, which slipped by 6.2 percent, VW were down by 12 percent, while its Skoda brand, saw sales tumble by more than half.

Best performer was South Korean economy carmaker Kia, which was up 131.5 percent, partially helped by a raft of sales incentives.