Fiat comfortably outperformed the European new car market, which fell by 4.1 percent year-on-year, last month, turning in the strongest showing of any carmaker with its sales up by 10.1 pct. Driven on by the success of new models, Fiat and Alfa Romeo were the Auto Division's star performers up 14.4 pct and 14.9 pct respectively, shows data revealed this morning by ACEA, the European motor manufacturers' trade association.

Several countries had fewer working days than last year, partially accounting towards the fall, but ACEA admitted this morning that "the drop seems to confirm that market conditions remain uncertain. However for Fiat Auto there were no such worries as Europe's best performer of the year continued to woo buyers into the showrooms, attracted by new models including the Fiat Grande Punto and Alfa 159 and 159 Sportwagon.  In fact the only other European-based carmaking group to record any rise at all was DaimlerChrysler, up by just 1.2 pct. The others all fared badly: Renault worst hit, down by 12.5 pct, followed by GM - 8.3 pct; PSA Peugeot Citroën - 6.2 pct; Ford Europe - 3.7 pct; and the European market leader, the VW/Audi Group, which tipped into negative territory, down 2.1 pct. Aside from Fiat and DaimlerChrysler, only Toyota (up 8.3 pct) and (Suzuki + 2.9 pct) registered any gains whatsoever.

Fiat Auto saw its European market share (data including the 23 EU member nations, plus the EFTA signatories) jumping positively by almost a full percentage point, from 6.3 pct in June 2005 to 7.2 pct last month, as 107,988 new vehicles were registered compared to 97,167 in June 2005. Splitting the brands up: Fiat-branded vehicles (including LCV) were up 14.4 pct year-on-year to raise its market share from 4.6 to 5.5 pct year-on-year (81,589 vehicles last month compared to 71,338 in June 2005).
 

Fiat's "sporty" Alfa Romeo brand also continued its climb back up the sales ladder this year: up 14.9 pct year-on-year, helping to raise its overall European market share by 0.1 pct to 0.9 pct. (13,996 new registrations last month, up from 12,178 in June 2005). Lancia, for so long the bright star of the division struggled again last month, shedding 16.4 pct year-on-year to see its total market share contract from 0.8 to 0.7 pct. (10,964 new registrations last month, down from 13,114 a year ago).

At the half-way point of the year the Fiat Group cements its position of recent months as being the best performing carmaker in the European market, being now up 20.1 pct year-on-year. Of its big European rivals only the VW/Audi Group (+ 7.0 pct) and DaimlerChrysler (+ 3.2 pct) actually made positive gains in June while of the smaller players only four of the Japanese brands: Suzuki (+ 19.2 pct) Mazda (+8.8 pct); Toyota (+ 7.5 pct), Honda (+ 3.6 pct), made any headway at all.

Fiat has now sold 644,712 new vehicles across Europe this year, up more than 100,000 on Jan-Jun 2005 when 536,642 vehicles were registered, an excellent performance driven on in a major part by the exciting new Fiat Grande Punto, a car that continues to create strong demand, drawing buyers away from its closest segment rivals in droves. Fiat's market share for the first half-year comes in at 7.7 pct (6.5 pct a year ago), well on its way to CEO Sergio Marchionne's stated target of 8.0 pct.

Fiat-branded vehicles (including LCV) account for 494,267 of these registrations, up 26.1 pct year on year (392,103 year-on-year) a performance which sees its share jump from 4.8 pct to 5.9 pct year-on-year. Alfa Romeo is up 10.6 pct year-on-year, its total market share for the first six months of this year up 0.1 pct to 1.0 pct. (80,718 new registrations for Jan-Jun 2006 compared to 72,993 during the same period last year). Lancia though is fractionally down (- 1.8 pct), with 67,065 new registrations this year (68,296 during Jan-Jun 2005) keeping its total European market share very steady on 0.8 pct. Of Fiat's specialist brands, 2,662 unit sales this year see them down 18.1 pct on Jan-Jun 2005's total of 3,250.