While attention has recently been focused on the new 500, the Fiat Grande Punto continues to play a leading role in Fiat's revival and is B-segment's best seller across Europe for the first three quarters.

While public and media attention has in recent months been focused on the new 500, which earlier this week won the prestigious Car of the Year 2008 award, the Grande Punto continues to play a leading role in driving forward Fiat's revival and it was the best selling B-segment car in Europe for the first three quarters of the year. The data comes from JATO Dynamics.

With 255,7227 unit sales for the first three quarters of the year (to 30th September) the Grande Punto went into the final quarter more than 10,000 unit sales clear of its B-segment nearest rival, the Renault Clio (244,494). Tightly packed behind these two models for the first three quarters comes the rest of the big segment players: the Ford Fiesta (242,154), Vauxhall/Opel Corsa (241,209) and Peugeot 207 (236,902). Further back is the VW Polo (165,644), Toyota Yaris (136,773) and the Citroën C3 (132,205).

The Grande Punto is down 4.4 pct year-on-year for the first three quarters, last year it had amassed 268,145 unit sales by the same point. Now two years old, the slight drop is well within expectations especially when up against newer rivals such as the Vauxhall/Opel Corsa in a fashion-conscious segment. By contrast the Renault Clio, launched at a similar point to the Grande Punto has lost 11.3 percent year-on-year. During the most recent financial quarter (July to September), the Fiesta was Europe's biggest selling car in B-segment with 72,333 units shifted. It was closely followed by the Corsa (70,517), 207 (69,133), Clio (68,372), Grande Punto (63,727) and Polo (53,392).

The B-segment has the largest share of the European market by a considerable margin, with 27.0 percent market share in the first nine months of 2007 - say JATO Dynamics. Its total volume for the YTD is 0.5 percent less than a year ago, which represents a smaller fall than the total market has experienced over the same period. However, recent months have seen a decline in the segment’s volumes, with third quarter volumes 3.0 percent lower than the same period in 2006. The slight decline of the B-segment can be mainly be attributed to the increase in A-segment sales - add JATO - caused by the introduction of some key new models that include the Renault Twingo (Q3 sales up 158% on the old model’s performance a year earlier), the Fiat 500 and the Smart fortwo (up 94.6% in Q3).

“It’s interesting to note that the B-segment decline is at its smallest in the UK, where some of the key new A-segment cars such as the Fiat 500 are yet to launch,” says Nasir Shah, Global Business Development Director at JATO. Apart from the good market performance of some of the new models, many established A-segment models are suffering in the markets, with the exception of Italy, where government-sponsored scrapping incentives have benefited many models. The Fiat Panda remains the top selling car in the A-segment.

information courtesy of JATO Dynamics