The Fiat Punto continued to be Italy's best selling car, adding a further 14,325 units to its tally in November, while the Panda (above) with 12,829 units was in its usual second place, ahead of the new 500 model (7,927) which has rapidly climbed to third place as it floods out of the Italian showrooms.

Fiat Group Automobiles saw its overall registrations remaining virtually unchanged year-on-year in Italy during November, and the automaker ended the relatively flat month with a 30.97 percent stake of the total market after selling 60,296 new vehicles. The whole market in Italy was in fact virtually unchanged year-on-year, 194,719 new vehicles equating to a 1.03 percent rise on November 2006, according to data released by automotive trade body UNRAE.

The 60,296 vehicles that the Fiat Group shifted in Italy during November was up 0.67 pct on the 59,889 units it managed to sell during the equivalent month the previous year. The Fiat brand (including the Fiat Professional division) was the best performer in the Fiat Group Automobiles portfolio with 47,302 sales last month, up 2.04 pct year-on-year. Lancia, with 7,639 units, was up 0.14 pct, while Alfa Romeo, 5,248 units, had another difficult month and dropped 9.92 pct. This left the Fiat brand with a 24.29 pct share of November's total new vehicle sales, Lancia with 3.92 pct and Alfa Romeo with 2.70 pct.

After 11 months of the year, the Fiat Group has seen total registrations of 730,184 vehicles, up an impressive 8.52 pct the same period last year. It now has a 31.37 pct share of all market sales YTD. The Fiat brand is by far the best performer, 562,014 sales YTD puts it up an impressive 9.94 pct year-on-year. Meanwhile for YTD, Lancia (98,307) is up 5.68 pct, while Alfa Romeo (68,647) is up 1.58 pct. This puts the Fiat brand on 24.14 pct of all sales YTD, Lancia on 4.22 pct, and Alfa Romeo on 2.95 pct.

The Punto (including Grande Punto and Punto) continued to be Italy's best selling car, adding a further 14,325 units to its tally in November, while the Panda (12,829) was in its usual second place, ahead of the new 500 model (7,927) which has rapidly climbed to third place as the recent Car of the Year award winner floods out of the Italian showrooms. The Lancia Ypsilon (5,978) was the fifth best selling car in Italy last month. The 500 has now seen deliveries of 35,000 units in Italy since its 4th July launch. For the year-to-date the Punto has just cracked the two hundred thousand unit sales barrier, with 206,698 having found homes in Italy so far this year; the Panda (160,686) is the second best seller YTD, and the Ypsilon (65,533) is fifth.

While the Panda was firmly on top of A-segment ahead of the 500, and the Punto sat astride B-segment, the Bravo continued to sell robustly in C-segment last month, and with 3,305 units registered in November that put it into 4th place. The Alfa 147 (2,547) was fifth in same category last month, and so for YTD the Bravo is on 38,065 sales, while the 147 has notched up 38,824 units. The Alfa 159 (2,266) was second in D-segment, and the sedan is now on 30,352 registrations YTD. Of the high performance/luxury representatives from the Fiat Group, the new Maserati Granturismo saw 46 registrations last month while its sister, the Quattroporte (19), and Ferrari's F430 (26) all made it into the top-ten best-sellers in F-segment. Elsewhere the Sedici (1,781) topped the small 'off road' category, while the Lancia Musa (1,516) was second in the small MPV segment, and the Doblò (416) was top of light LCV sales.