In its first full month of UK sales, (March), Fiat Auto’s new Grande Punto has already proved to be a spectacular success with UK customers. So much so that Fiat Auto is currently the fastest growing volume brand in the UK, with sales up 64% compared to March ’05.

This came despite the fact that the UK new car market that was last month 1.6 percent down on the same period last year, Fiat Auto’s March 2006 sales performance – 10,699 units and a 2.45 percent UK market share – included over 5,600 examples of the Grande Punto.

“Grande Punto is a great product and this is a good start,” says Giulio Salomone, who is the Managing Director of Fiat Auto UK, “and we are on-track to achieve our annual objective.”

The Fiat Grande Punto was officially launched at the Frankfurt IAA last September, and since the beginning of the year it has been Europe's best-selling car. Within the next few weeks it commences production at a second factory (Mirafiori) as Fiat cope with demand that is higher than had been expected. It the 'compact' B-segment category its European sales have been higher than the recent 'Car of the Year' award winning Renault Clio and Ford's Fiesta model range.
 

The Grande Punto arrived in the UK in mid-February and during its first weekend on sale Fiat Auto UK reported more than 12,000 visitors streaming into the showrooms and 1,285 firm orders being booked that weekend.

At the same time two Grande Puntos were making a two month long, high-profile appearance in the shop windows at the Harrods Department store, in Knightsbridge, London. Visitors to the Brompton Road store were able to experience the new car for themselves at close quarters, and even have the chance of a test drive them in the store's own carpark. Numerous posters and plasmas installed at key locations throughout the store informed Harrods' customers that Grande Punto had moved in.