The Italian new car market suffered badly during March and the Fiat Group reflected the overall sharp fall, however its big hitting models had a strong month and they filled five of the top six places on the market.

The Italian new car market suffered during March and Fiat Group, with a total of 65,742 registrations during the month, reflected the overall sharp fall, reports automotive trade body UNRAE. However Fiat's big hitting models had a strong month, its cars filled five of the top six places on the market. The Italian new car market saw a total of 212,326 registrations last month, a sharp fall of 18.76 percent compared to March 2007's total of 261,370.

The Fiat Group racked up registrations of 65,742 vehicles last month, a 20.76 pct drop on March 2007's total of 82,770 units. This meant its overall market share shrank slightly from 31.68 to 30.97 pct year-on-year. With 52,397 registrations the Fiat brand (including the Fiat Professional and Abarth units) outperformed the overall market's fall, although it was still down 16.41 pct; Lancia with 8,752 vehicles sold lost 25.49 pct; and Alfa Romeo, suffering from the continuing closure of its main factory for part of the month, saw 4,445 registrations, a year-on-year drop of 45.90 pct. The Fiat brand thus raises its overall share of the Italian market to 24.98 pct, while Alfa Romeo slips to 2.09 pct, and Lancia to 4.12 pct.

After the conclusion of the first quarter of this year, Fiat Group has amassed 207,047 registrations, a total which is down -11.63 pct on the same period for last year. It has taken 31.23 pct of the overall market so far this year. The Fiat brand has 168,338 sales for YTD, Lancia is on 27,431 YTD, and Alfa Romeo 10,857.

With 16,231 registrations the Punto (including Punto and Grande Punto) was Italy's best selling car during March; the Panda (12,580) was in second place and the 500 (7,242) fourth. Last month the Fiat Bravo (6,122) also continued its very impressive recent sales surge to take fifth place, while Lancia's little Ypslion (6,051) made it five FGA models within the top six. For YTD the Punto (53,001) is top of the best seller lists, and more than ten thousand units ahead of the second-placed Panda (42,420). Three more FGA models are also in the top ten for March: the 500 (25,959) is fourth, the Ypsilon (18,331) one place behind and the Bravo (16,048) ninth. The Punto was also the best selling diesel on the Italian market last month with 6,781 registrations, and it holds the top spot for YTD (21,999).

In the individual categories the Panda topped A-segment in March, ahead of the 500, the Punto held sway in B-segment, while the Bravo was a clear winner in C-segment. In D-segment the Fiat Croma (2,583) was the second best seller only to the BMW 3-series (3,097), with the Alfa 159 (2,109), suffering from temporary factory closure, third. For YTD the Croma is Italy's best selling D-segment car with 7,765 units; it was also the country's best-selling estate car last month. Other winners for Fiat in March were the Sedici (1,179) which topped the class for small SUVs, while the Doblò (403) topped the multispace category as usual. The Alfa GT coupe (201) continued its solid run, despite the limited production, while the Fiat Ulysse (268) was second in the category for larger MPVs.