New car registrations in Italy climbed 8.62 pct year-on-year during March to 250,328, up from 230,328 in this period last year. The good performance during March continued a run that has seen the Italian market climbing each month this year. For the first three months the total market is up by 8.96 pct with 700,027 new vehicles registered, up from 642,491 during Jan-Mar 2005.

Fiat Auto have continued their excellent recent sales run, outperforming the overall domestic market once again, their brands grabbing a combined 30.60 pct share of the Italian market, as opposed to the 28.11 pct they recorded back in March 2005. A total of 57,468 new Fiat branded vehicles (including Light Commercial Vehicles) hit the Italian roads last month to give them a 22.96 pct share of the new vehicle market. This total was up by 25.48 pct year-on-year, as last March 45,799 vehicles were sold, equating to a 19.87 pct share.

Alfa Romeo saw its registrations rise 8.62 pct year-on-year in March, with 8,066 new cars being sold. This gave them a 3.22 pct overall share of their domestic market, unchanged on March 2005 when they sold a lesser 7,426 units. The Lancia brand meanwhile slipped 4.39 pct year-on-year, with 11,063 new models being sold last month as opposed to 11,571 in March 2005. This gave them a 4.42 pct share of their market, down from the 5.02 pct they claimed in March 2005. Of the other Fiat brands Maserati sold 50 cars last month (62 in March 2005), down 19.35 pct year-on-year, while Ferrari sold 43 cars (77 in March 2005), down 44.16 pct.
 

For the first three months of the year combined Fiat Auto are up by 18.20 pct year-on-year, with 215,308 new passenger cars and light commercials being sold, giving them a 30.76 pct share for the year so far. (The period Jan-Mar 2005 saw 182,157 vehicles sold, a 28.35 pct share). Of this total 162,740 were Fiat-branded vehicles, which gives them a 23.25 pct market share for the year so far. Meanwhile Alfa Romeo are up by 7.78 pct, with 21,481 new cars being sold in the first three months (19,931 in Jan-Mar 2005), while Lancia has sold 30,756 cars (31,135 in Jan-Mar 2005), down by 1.22 pct. For the first three months Alfa Romeo have an overall 3.07 pct share (3.10 in Mar 2005) while Lancia hold 4.39 pct (down from 4.85 pct in Mar 2005).

The exciting new Fiat Grande Punto model continues to exert its vice-like grip on the Italian car buyers. 26,206 (including the outgoing Punto version) were sold last month to bring the model's total for the year up to 77,039 units. The Fiat Panda was next up, with 14,468 registrations in March (40,554 Jan-Mar 2006) while the Lancia Ypsilon saw 7,120 sales last month (20,748 for the year so far). The Punto is also the Italian market's most popular diesel: 12,887 were sold last month bringing its year total to 38,821. Other Fiat diesel model sales last month included the Panda (4,299) and the Alfa 147 (3,221).