Italy's new car registrations fell last month by 6.4 pct, with Fiat's Auto Division remaining steady as it followed the shrinking market trend, although Lancia once again continued on its upward path.

However, the squeeze was generally felt by most of the major carmakers and Fiat were able to maintain a virtually unchanged market share of 27.21 pct, as opposed to 27.92 pct in April 2004. Big fallers last month included Ford, down 18.52 pct, Citroen (-22.65 pct) and Renault (-8.05 pct), while to only real winner was VW Group, up by 16.70 pct, to give the German firm a 6 pct market share.

The Fiat brand itself dropped by 9.1 pct, equating to 39,583 vehicles registered last month, giving them a 20.26 pct market share. This result compares well to April 2004 when 43,559 vehicles were sold, a 20.87 pct share. With Fiat focusing on higher-margin retail sales, and with the new Croma 'station wagon' imminently due in the showrooms and ready to offer a timely to boost sales, this result, which was bolstered by yet another highly successful month for the Fiat Light Commercial Vehicle arm, was somewhat better than most market watchers had been expecting, and satisfied expectations.

This autumn will also see the arrival of the all-new next-generation Fiat Punto, which is set to be the Italian carmaker's most important new model introduction for many years, and all the initial signs suggest it will be a another small-car winner.

Alfa Romeo had a difficult April, registering 4,969 cars, down 26.85 pct on the equivalent period in 2004 when Fiat's 'sporty' brand sold 6,783 units. The new Alfa 159 saloon and Brera sportscar, which were unveiled for the first time at the Geneva Salon in March cannot come quick enough, and in this division it is at present a case of keeping everything steady. Last month's performance left Alfa Romeo with a 2.54 pct share of their domestic market.
 

However, set against these results comes another sterling performance from Lancia, which once again, posted strong results last month as their snowballing recovery continues to gather pace. Registrations rose by 8.58 pct to 8,608 cars, to give them a 4.41 pct market share, up from 7,928 vehicles sold in April 2004, which then equated to a 3.80 pct share of Italian new car purchases.

The Lancia Ypsilon 'pocket flagship', first seen two years ago, is building into a real market sales winner right across Europe, and now Fiat's 'luxury' brand's latest offering, the Musa 'mini-MPV', is also contributing to the fight back, as it too now rolls out across Italy and the wider markets.

These two models are set to be joined in the Lancia range shortly by the Zagato-design Ypsilon 'Sport', a car that received rave press and public reviews when it was presented in concept form at the Geneva Salon back in March, and which has all the ingredients to emulate the runaway sales success that the new MINI has created for BMW. If fact for sheer style, good looks and excitement value, it is head and shoulders above the MINI.

Total Italian new vehicle registrations in fact came in at 195,800 last month, compared to 208,730 a year ago. Taking the first four months into account, 836,157 new vehicles were registered, as opposed to 886,169 for the similar period last year, which equates to an overall market decline of 5.6 pct.