Fiat Auto turned in another very strong sales month in Italy during May, taking a 30.73 pct overall share - its fifth consecutive month well above the psychological 30 pct threshold - of their key domestic market, with the Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia brands all increasing their own market share. The new Grande Punto continues to drive Fiat's performance forward and now has a 270,000 strong order book while the new Alfa 159 and 159 Sportwagon are making ground and have racked up 50,000 orders. However truly meaningful year-on-year comparisons are difficult to make as last year's figures were badly affected by a transporter drivers' strike which severely limited vehicle deliveries'.

In fact the Fiat brand was last month up by 68.57 pct on May 2005, with Alfa Romeo up by 63.96 pct and Lancia by 52.35 pct. The biggest market climber last month was VW, up by 80.08 pct (16,513 units,) while other winners included Peugeot, up 77.62 pct (10,659 units,) and Mercedes-Benz, up 75.74 pct (8,527 units.) The total Italian market came in at 225,920 units sold which was broadly in line with analysts forecasts.

More meaningful conclusions can be drawn by comparing market share year-on-year. The Fiat brand (including Light Commercial Vehicles) sold 52,302 vehicles in May to claim a 23.15 pct share of the overall market as opposed to a 20.53 pct share recorded in May 2005 when 31,026 new vehicles were registered. Alfa Romeo sold 7,485 cars last month (3.31 pct of the market) as in contrast to 4,565 in May 2005 (3.02 pct) while Lancia sold 9,653 units last month (4.27 pct) to register an overall market share rise on May 2005's total of 6,336 vehicles which gave them 4.19 pct of the market at the time.
 

The smaller brands had mixed fortunes last month: Fiat owned Ferrari sold 61 cars during the period, 14.08 pct down on May 2005's total of 61 cars; Maserati saw 53 cars registered, compared to 68 last year and were down 22.06 pct. The Audi-owned Lamborghini marque were up 14.29 pct after selling three more cars that May 2005's total of 21 units.

For the first five months the Fiat brand sees its sales up 28.46 pct year-on-year, Alfa Romeo is up 18.83 pct and Lancia up 4.82 pct. 259,257 vehicles registered this year gives the Fiat brand a 23.34 pct of total market sales for Jan-May as opposed to the 20.36 they claimed during the same period last year when they shifted 201,815 units. Alfa Romeo have sold 35,052 cars in the first five months of this year to take a 3.14 pct share (29,498 and 2.98 pct for Jan-May 2005) while Lancia have shifted 48,404 vehicles this year, a 4.34 pct market share (46,179 units and 4,66 pct for Jan-May 2005.)

The big market winner in May was - as is now usual - the new Grande Punto with 21,458 sales (including the outgoing Punto Series 3 model in its total) with the Panda firmly in second place with 13,984 sales. Ford's Fiesta was the third best seller in May (7,510) ahead of a strong performance by the Lancia Ypsilon which saw 6,601 units sold. This puts the Punto on 116,940 sales for the year so far, the Panda second with 66,535, and the Ypsilon fifth with 32,952. While the Panda lead A-segment and the Punto is dominant in the B-segment, the Multipla leads its own segment (15.8 pct share) and the Doblo (54.7 pct.) The Alfa 159 and 159 Sportwagon lead their own respective segments and have already racked up 50,000 orders.

The Punto is also Italy's best selling diesel with just over half of its sales (12,646 units) last month being of the diesel powered variety, more than double managed by the second placed Ford Focus (6,317.) The Panda was in fourth place (4,536,) the Fiat Stilo in seventh (3,090,) while the Alfa 147 was eighth (2,788) just ahead of its biggest sister, the Alfa 159 (2,773.) Fiat have now sold 61,007 diesel Puntos so far this year. Fiat have also sold 20,366 Multijet-engined Pandas in the first five months while Alfa Romeo's best-selling diesel over the same period has been the Alfa 147 (14,309) and Lancia's, the Ypsilon (13,660.)