In C-segment, the Bravo (4,505) was second placed last month, finishing up just shy of the category-topping VW Golf (4,766), while for the year-to-date the Bravo (above) is on 25,025 units, topping the category more than 2,000 units clear of its German rival, and significantly up year-on-year. The Fiat Panda (above) was the comfortable best seller in A-segment last month, with the Fiat 500 in second place; for the year-to-date these two models are the runaway segment leaders, with 68,378 and 44,303 registrations respectively.

With 204,607 vehicles registered during May, the Italian new automobile market lost 17.56 per cent year-on-year, when compared with May 2007’s total of 248,194 units sold. Fiat Group, with registrations of 66,957 units in May compared to 76,552 the same period a year ago, was able to ride out much of the sharp downturn to end the month, down 12.58 per cent, in the process raising its overall market share from 30.87 to 32.73 per cent.

Splitting the Fiat Group brands up, the Fiat brand (including the Fiat Professional and Abarth divisions), with 51,644 units registered in May compared to 58,367 a year ago, was down 11.52 per cent.  Lancia, unusually, was the best year-on-year performer in the Fiat Group brand portfolio, albeit down 10.89 per cent with 8,952 registrations compared to last May’s total of 10,046. Alfa Romeo, with 6,231 units registered last month as opposed to 8,050 a year ago, was down 22.60 per cent. This all added up to give the Fiat brand a healthy 25.24 per cent share of the market, up from 23.52 a year ago, while Lancia was up from 4.05 to 4.38 per cent and Alfa Romeo down from 3.24 to 3.05 per cent.

After the first five months of the year, Fiat Group has 842,864 registrations, down 9.21 per cent on last year against an overall market down by 10.04 per cent. This puts Fiat Group’s share of the overall market for the year-to-date up from 31.68 to 31.97 per cent. The Fiat brand, with 273,943 units year-to-date, is down 5.24 per cent, Lancia (45,365 units year-to-date) is down 12.17 per cent, while Alfa Romeo (22,808 units year-to-date) has lost 37.73 per cent. For the first five months of the year, the Fiat brand has a 25.52 per cent share of all sales, Lancia sits on 4.23 per cent, while Alfa Romeo weighs in with 2.12 per cent.

As usual, the Fiat Punto (including Punto and Grande Punto) was the best-selling car in Italy, and last month it added another 15,042 units. Making a clean sweep for Fiat in the top three sellers was the Panda (13,453) and Car of the Year-winning 500 (9,063). Also appearing in the overall top ten was the fifth-placed Lancia Ypsilon (5,753), while sitting in eighth spot was the Fiat Bravo (4,503).

The Fiat Panda was the comfortable best seller in A-segment last month, with the 500 in second place; for the year-to-date these two models are the runaway segment leaders, with 68,378 and 44,303 registrations respectively. In B-segment, the Punto was out on top, with the Ypsilon third and its stablemate, the Musa, tenth. For the year-to-date, these three models hold the same respective positions in the category’s top 10, with the Punto on 86,361 units, the Ypsilon on 30,028 and the Musa on 14,106.

In C-segment, the Bravo (4,505) was second placed last month, finishing up just shy of the category-topping VW Golf (4,766), while for the year-to-date the Bravo is on 25,025 units, topping the category more than 2,000 units clear of its German rival, and significantly up year-on-year. With 2,609 registrations last month, the Alfa 147 claimed 6th place in C-segment.

In D-segment there was more success for Fiat Group with the Alfa 159 (3,188) coming out on top ahead of the Croma (2,765) with BMW’s 3-Series (2,418) pushed into third place. For the year-to-date, the Croma (12,404) sits atop the segment, while the Alfa 159 (10,965) is in third. In F-segment Maserati’s GranTurismo sold 45 units, two more than Ferrari’s F430.

By category, the Croma was Italy’s best-selling station wagon last month and the Fiat Sedici (1,027) topped small SUV sales. In the Coupé category, the evergreen Alfa GT added another 206 sales to its impressive total, while the Brera was on 112. In ‘multispace’, the Doblò (516) was a clear leader ahead of its long-time rival, Renault’s Kangoo (432), and with 2,736 units YTD, the Doblò is the category leader after the first five months of the year.