The Fiat Bravo (2,561) was fourth in C-segment in Italy during December, allowing the five-door hatchback to close the year with 60,644 registrations.

Having sold 50,902 vehicles during December Fiat Group Automobiles has wrapped up 2007 with a total of 781,451 new vehicles registered in its home market, up 9.21 percent on the previous year, when its saw 715,558 registrations. The data was revealed by automotive trade body UNRAE.

The Italian market turned in another impressive month of sales during December with registrations totalling 160,746, up 14.08 pct year-on-year. This brings the entire year's sales in Italy to 2,490,570 up 7.07 percent. Fiat Group Automobiles though was in even better form, the 50,902 units its shifted last month was up a massive 19.37 pct year-on-year (42,642 during December 2006). This raised Fiat's share of its home market from 30.26 pct during December 2006 to 31.67 pct last month.

The Fiat brand (including Fiat Professional) saw 40,581 units registered last month to record a 23.61 pct year-on-year rise; Lancia with 5,381 units, was down 1.86 pct; and Alfa Romeo (4,886) turned around a recent slump to record a 15.13 pct year-on-year rise. This saw Fiat's Italian market share rise year-on-year from 23.30 to 25.25 pct, Lancia slipped from 3.09 to 3.35 pct, and Alfa Romeo climbed from 3.01 to 3.04 pct. For the full year Fiat has seen 602,907 registrations, up 10.83 pct, Lancia (103,710) was up 5.28 pct, and Alfa Romeo (73,545) was also up, by 2.40 pct. While Fiat Group Automobiles sees its total share of the Italian market last year come in at 31.38 pct, up from the 30.77 slice it took during 2006, of the three brands Fiat climbed 23.39 to 24.21 pct, while Lancia (4.24 to 4.16 pct) and Alfa Romeo (3.09 to 2.95 pct), were down very slightly against the overall market.

During December the Punto (including Punto and Grande Punto) was once again Italy's best selling car with a further 17,225 units notched up. The Fiat Panda (8,010 units) was third in the top ten, the Lancia Ypsilon (4,131) was in fifth place, while the 500 (3,763) was one place further back. For the full year the Punto has seen 224,167 registrations, while the Panda is second (168,810) and the Ypsilon (69,673) sixth.

While the Panda was December's best seller in A-segment, second place in the category for the new 500 sees it close the year in Italy with 33,250 registrations having gone on sale in July. The Punto topped B-segment as usual but the surprise came in C-segment where the Alfa 147 (2,780) took the top spot last month and it closes the year with 33,624 sales. The Bravo (2,561) was fourth in C-segment, allowing it to close the year with 60,644 registrations. In D-segment the Alfa 159 (1,702) was second, and it finishes the year with 32,075 units having been shifted. A facelift for the Fiat Croma (1,081) gave its range a boost, it was fourth last month in D-segment, ending the year with 19,006 sales.

In the small off-road category the Sedici (1,366) was second in December and it wraps up the year as the best seller in the class with 19,453 sales. In the compact MPV category the Multipla (1,179) was the third highest seller last month and it ends the year with 18,651 unit sales. In the small MPV class the Fiat Idea (1,283) was second in December while the Lancia Musa (1,100) was third. The Musa finishes 2007 top of the category, with 30,962 units registrations. In the coupé class the Alfa GT continues to prove popular with Italian buyers: last month it was second in the category, adding another 241 sales to bring its total for the year to 3,885 units, while in the small LCV class the Doblò (541) was top seller in December to finish the year top of the category with 8,711 units.