Fiat Group suffered a sharp 16.48 pct drop in its Italian sales right across the brands last month although it managed to outperform its domestic market which plunged by 19.5 pct to raise its total market share from 31.56 to 32.75 pct.

Fiat Group suffered a sharp 16.48 percent drop in its Italian new car sales year-on-year last month although it managed to outperform its domestic market which plunged by 19.5 pct to raise its total share from 31.56 to 32.75 pct. The Italian market recorded 184,275 vehicle sales last month, well down compared to 228,924 units a year ago, according to data released by transport body UNRAE.

With 60,338 registrations in June, this compared unfavourably with the same month a year ago when the Italian national carmaker notched up 72,235 units, and adds up to a year-on-year decline of 16.48 pct. The Fiat brand (including the Fiat Professional and Abarth divisions) saw 46,353 unit sales in June, down 15.67 pct, Lancia with 8,730 sales had the softest fall, losing 13.08 pct, while Alfa Romeo's total for the month of 5,137 cars plummeted 27.66 pct. Due to the overall market's sharp drop, the Fiat brand raised its market share from 24.01 to 25.15 pct while Lancia was also up, from 4.39 to 4.74 pct. Alfa Romeo however slipped from 3.10 to 2.79 pct.

After the first six months of the year Fiat Group has seen 404,058 units registered in Italy, putting it down 10.25 pct year-on-year. However its overall market share is up to 32.09 pct from 31.66 pct last year. For the year-to-date the Fiat brand has 344,062 units sales, which means it slides 6.82 pct, while Lancia with 54,138 units, is down 12.25 pct, and Alfa Romeo, on 27,954 sales, has shed 37.09 pct. Both Alfa Romeo and Lancia will receive a boost from brand new models next month: Alfa Romeo's MiTo is now on sale while Lancia's Delta has built up an order book of 5,000 units already.

The top-three best selling cars in Italy last month each carried the red-and-silver Fiat badge, but unusually it was the Panda (13,103) which came out ahead of the Punto (12,933) with the Car of the Year award winning 500 (7,838) next up, more than a 1,000 units clear of the Ford Fiesta. Fifth place when to Lancia's Ypsilon (4,776) while making it five FGA models in the June top-ten was the Bravo (3,852) in seventh. For the first six months of the year the Punto (99,417) is Italy's best seller, followed by the Panda (81,533) in second and the 500 (52,158) in third. The Ypsilon (34,836) is fifth and the Bravo (28,915) is ninth.

Fiat performed very well across the market segments in Italy last month: The Panda, Punto and Bravo topped A-, B- and C-segments respectively, while the Alfa 159 (2,533) was second in D-segment, with the Fiat Croma (2,083) just behind in third. For the year-to-date the restyled Croma (14,520) is second best seller in D-segment with the Alfa 159 (13,506) third.

Elsewhere, the Croma was also Italy's best-selling station wagon last month, the Sedici (1,053) topped its category in June, and with 7,276 units for year-to-date it is also the best seller for the first half of the year. Surprisingly the Fiat Multipla (1,720) also came out on top amongst the compact MPVs while Lancia's Musa (2,923) was the best seller amongst small 'monovolume' cars while Fiat's Idea (1,692) was third. For the first six months of the year the Musa (17,036) is the best seller more than 5,000 units ahead of Opel's Meriva. In the category for coupés the Alfa GT (124), Brera (109) and, for the first time, the brand new MiTo (98), were all present in the top ten. The Doblò (521) meanwhile was second in the 'multispace' category.