Fiat Auto comfortably rode out a falling Italian new car market last month to keep their total share above the key 30 percent threshold for the sixth consecutive month. While Fiat (including the Fiat, Fiat Light Commercial Vehicles, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Ferrari brands combined) saw its overall Italian market share climbing by 1.7 pct year-on-year to 30.74 pct after 63,353 new vehicles were registered, the total market fell by 12.56 pct (206,794 vehicles in June 2006 compared to 236,486 vehicles the equivalent period a year ago). Stripping out the non-Italian brands the performance by Fiat is even better as the foreign owned brands were down by 17.67 pct.

Fiat branded vehicles (including LCV) were up 6.11 pct as 47,872 units were registered to give them 23.15 pct of the Italian market, up from the 45,114 vehicles which were sold in June 2005, which equated to a then 19.08 pct market share. The new Grande Punto continues to drive the Fiat brand forward with the Punto (including the outgoing model) topping the best-seller list in Italy with 19,222 sales last month. The smaller Panda model, with 14,195 unit sales, was in a comfortable second place in June as usual with more than double the registrations of the third placed Toyota Yaris.

The Alfa Romeo brand was up 6.33 pct with 6,184 new cars being registered last month, a 2.99 pct share of the total market; as opposed to June 2005 when 5,816 sales gave them a 2.46 pct share. Lancia failed to follow the lead set by Fiat and Alfa Romeo, taking a hit after a 18.34 pct fall in sales with 9,182 vehicles were registered last month as opposed to 11,244 in June 2005. This saw their Italian market share dipping slightly from 4.75 pct a year ago to 4.44 pct last month. The popular Ypsilon, Lancia's best performing model, slipped down the best seller lists after 5,419 units were shifted.
 

Of the specialist Italian brands Ferrari were up 14 pct year-on year (57 new registrations last month), Maserati were up 5.45 pct (58) while Audi-owned sportscar brand Lamborghini was up 166.67 pct after more than tripling sales to 16 cars last month.

For the first half of the year (Jan-Jun 2006) Fiat has sold more than 400,000 vehicles, up by almost 20 pct year on year. Fiat-branded vehicles account for 307,540 of these, up 24.55 pct on Jan-Jun 2006. The Fiat brand now has a 23.22 pct share of the Italian market, up from 20.11 pct during the equivalent period last year. Of these 136,281 unit sales are of the Punto (including the new and old models) and 80,867 are of the smaller A-segment Panda.

Alfa Romeo has sold 41,254 cars this year so far, up 16.82 pct year-on-year, and the 'sporty' brand now holds a 3.11 pct share of the market, up from the 2.88 pct share they claimed in the first six months of last year when 35,314 cars were sold. Lancia is slightly up on last year with 57,637 sales so far this year as opposed to 57,422 during the first six months of 2005. Up 0.37 pct year-on-year Lancia's slight rise underperformed the overall market, being down fractionally to a 4.35 pct, compared to 4.68 pct in the same period last year.