The rapidly growing 'bounce' in Fiat's fortunes trickled down to the Spanish new car market during November and December last year, and a run of declining market share was abruptly reversed. Positive year-on-year performances in the closing months of 2005 leave Fiat well placed to claim a bigger slice of the action, driven forward by the already successful new Grande Punto which has been well received in Spain.

Fiat ended 2005 in Spain having sold 34,770, cars by down 18.8 percent on 2004. However, after loosing market share in the Spanish new car market (excluding large 'off road' category vehicles) for the first ten months, the tide was abruptly turned in November when 2,960 new cars equated to a 6 pct year-on-year rise. This performance was rendered even more respectable as the total Spanish car market fell by 4.0 pct in the penultimate month. Fiat's positive trend continued straight into December as well, when 3,191 new cars registered saw the Italian carmaker's share climb up by 4.6 pct, against a overall market that declined by 0.4 pct. Best selling Fiat model in 2004 was the Punto (11,514) followed by the Stilo (9,030) and the Panda (8,996).

The Spanish car market has in recent years been the personal domain of the giant French manufacturers. Renault were the biggest seller in the country last year with 188,896 new cars, while Citroën were in second place (162,963) and Peugeot third (150,173). Behind this trio came the locally-built, Audi-owned SEAT brand (149,660), Ford (149,281) and GM's Opel (130,958). Both Ford and Opel have have local assembly facilities.
 

Fiat, the 13th best selling brand last year, have a lot of ground to make up, but they now have the impetus to take sales away from the French firms who have seen their market shares slipping across Europe recently, and who are known to be very concerned about the impact that the new Grande Punto is going to have on their own products. Renault in particular, have seen their current 'family' styling fall out of fashion very quickly, and Spain's best selling car, the Megane (115,354 sold in 2005) is expected to see its market share hit during 2006.

Alfa Romeo, who sold 12,390 cars in Spain last year (down 12.9 pct), will to be boosted by the market arrival of the Alfa 159 this year, as well as a repositioning of the entry-level versions of the Alfa 147. Lancia sold 3,567 cars (-21.7) in 2004, while Maserati were virtually unchanged after selling 64 cars. Outside the Fiat Auto brands portfolio, Ferrari sold 109 cars, up 13.5 pct.