The new year has really started with a bang for Fiat Auto: the compact Grande Punto is now Western Europe's best-selling car, the stylish new Alfa 159 is biting into its premium segment grabbing customers away from its prestige brand rivals, while the Croma 'stationwagon' continues to exceed its sales targets.

What a difference a year makes: 2005 started with falling sales at Fiat Auto, ageing models, the only bright point being the 'Car of the Year' award winning Panda which dominated the picture in A-segment. Now Fiat Auto are looking towards the future tinged with a rosy glow, spearheaded by the exciting new Grande Punto, a car that has immediately captured the imagination of European car buyers. The stylish Giorgetto Giugiaro supermini, trounced its bitterest rivals from Renault and Ford last month despite the fact that January's sales figures don't include the UK, the fourth biggest carmarket in Europe, where the Grande Punto went on sale just a few days ago, as well as several other markets that are either waiting for the car to arrive, or are struggling to cope with the explosive demand it has created. In January 37,977 new Grande Punto models were sold putting it slightly ahead of the 'Car of the Year' award-winning new Renault Clio, with 36,016 sales, and well out of reach of Ford's Fiesta model, which saw 31,470 units being shifted. Fiat hasn't had a European best-seller for almost ten years, and today order book for the new Grande Punto has almost reached 145,000.

Fiat Auto has benefited from a period of European new car growth, raising its share for the first month of the year by 19.8 pct on January 2005. Fiat Auto obtained very positive results in several countries, most notably in Europe's biggest car market Germany, where volume growth was 67 pct compared to January 2005, with its total market share rising from 1.8 pct to 2.6 pct.
 

Strong improvements in Spain (+ 30.7 pct in volume, + 3.8 pct market share, an increase of 0.9 pct points) and France (+ 9.7 pct in volume, + 3.3 pct market share, an increase of 0.2 pct points).

Other Fiat models have not been left out: in the city car segment the Fiat Panda continues to rule the roost with a 29.5 pct market share. Growth is also being evidenced for the Fiat Croma with more than 3,600 being registered last month, giving it a 2 pct share of its of the segment, up from the 1.5 pct it achieved in December 2005. The Croma's order book has now almost reached 33,000, which puts it well above the first year sales targets set when it was launched late last spring. With the majority of sales being for higher specification and equipment-laden versions, including the large enveloping glass roof option, the Croma is now assisting Fiat's bottom line.

Alfa Romeo, with 12,430 cars sold turned in a year-on-year volume growth of 6.2 pct, stemming a run of results that saw it shedding around a quarter of its share during much of last year. The Alfa 159 now leads the fight back with 23,000 orders thus far and more than 4,200 being delivered during January, a performance that gives it a 2.3 pct share of its segment, a full percentage point more than achieved in December 2005. Lancia also had a very good start to the year, the Ypsilon and Musa both continuing to sell well and holding the line ahead of new model introductions that are still someway off.