Last month Italian new car registrations climbed by a healthy 6.04 pct year-on-year to 209,512 units, from 197,578 achieved in February 2005, reported national transport body UNRAE yesterday. Fiat itself claimed a market share of 30.83 pct last month, up from the 29.08 pct achieved in Feb 2005, and importantly comfortably well above the psychological 30 pct barrier.

Boosted by the market-leading new Grande Punto model Fiat branded cars saw their sales rise by a market-busting 19.23 pct to 48,866 units, from 40,983 sold a year ago. This served up to give them a 23.32 pct share of the Italian market, up from 20.74 pct in Feb 2005. The new Grande Punto was revealed this week to have an order book now above 165,000, and this model, which was also the best-selling car across Western Europe in January, continues to drive Fiat's revival forward.

Fiat's specialist brands endured a more difficult month though. Alfa Romeo lost 7.70 pct year-on-year after selling 6,265 new cars (as opposed to 6,788 in Feb 2005), reducing their share of the Italian market from 3.44 pct to 2.99 pct. Lancia slipped very slightly, down 2.25 pct after selling 9,469 new vehicles (9,687 in Feb 2005). Their share of the overall market was down to 4.52 pct, from 4.90 pct achieved a year ago. Maserati sold 38 new cars last month, down from 50 units a year ago.
 

The Fiat Punto was again Italy's undisputed best selling car last month with 23,313 deliveries (this figure including the existing Punto model range as well as the new Grande Punto) up from the 16,227 sales that the outgoing Punto achieved in Feb 2005. Next up last month was the A-segment dominating Panda with 12,144 sales (its volumes up from 11,335 units in Feb 2005) while the Lancia Ypsilon was in a solid fourth place, it also increasing its total volumes, from 6,178 units in Feb 2005, to 6,498 last month. Completing Fiat Auto's presence in the top ten best sellers list the Alfa 147 was in ninth place with 3,809 registrations. Benefiting from a market repositioning of entry-level models it posting good gains on the 3,674 units which were sold during the equivalent period last year.

Other pleasing performances last month were turned in by the Croma station wagon (2,117 units sold), the Musa (2,557) which in fact outsold the Fiat Idea in the 'mini MPV' segment (2,246), Multipla (2,407), Phedra (335), Alfa GT Coupé (407) and the Doblò light commercial (706.) The Alfa 159 sold 1,547 units last month, while the brand-new Brera sportscar claimed 163 sales.