Alfa Romeo was the best performing brand year-on-year in the UK last month, boosted by demand for the MiTo (top) while Abarth saw its sales climb last month thanks for demand for the 500 Abarth (bottom).

The UK new car market took another big sales hit in March despite it signifying a new registrations month: Fiat Group Automobiles had a mixed month, the Fiat brand mirrored the market's fall, although Alfa Romeo (the best performing brand year-on-year) and Abarth BOTH registered highly satisfying months. With 313,912 cars registered last month in the UK, the market lost 30.50 percent year-on-year, and without the incentives to scrap older vehicles that has seen the German, French and Italian markets surge last month, the UK market continued to slump. The data was released today by automotive body SMMT.

The Fiat brand saw 8,0001 registrations last month in the UK to give it a 2.55 pct share of all car sales; however this was 32.81 pct down on last March when 11,908 cars were registered, closely reflecting the overall market's fall. There was better news at Alfa Romeo, buoyed by demand for the new MiTo which went on sale in January, it accounted for 1,114 cars to take an 0.35 pct share of the market. Compared to the same month last year when it saw 1,030 registrations and took a 0.23 pct share of the market this added up to an excellent 8.16 pct year-on-year surge in sales. This was the best performance by any brand on the market and in fact it was the only brand to find itself in positive territory year-on-year (discounting the distorted data for GM brand Corvette which sold 10 cars in March and was thus up 233 pct year-on-year). Abarth, which has seen its demand boosted since the arrival of the popular 500 Abarth version into its showrooms where it joined the Grande Punto Abarth just in time for the new March registration plate and doubled the Scorpion brand model range, also had a very useful month with 228 of its high performance cars being registered, although there is no year-on-year data to compare as its cars weren't on sale in March last year. The special 'esseesse' kit is also now available for ordering in the UK now and it is reported that of the 700 cars that have initially been allocated to the UK customer ordering is strong.

For the year-to-date the Fiat brand has 11,461 registrations and a 2.39 pct share of the overall UK market which is down 27.65 pct on the opening quarter of last year when it saw 15,907 registrations. Alfa Romeo accounts for 1,608 sales for year-to-date and has a 0.33 pct share of the overall market. The sporty brand is 14.10 pct down on the opening three months of last year when it notched up 1,872 registrations. The Abarth brand has 308 unit sales for the year-to-date and has a 0.06 pct share of the market.

March has been the the UK's largest volume month in six of the ten years since the switch was made to the twice-yearly plate change, including in each of the past five years. March typically accounts for 17.9 pct of the annual market and last year took a 21.2 pct share, in a robust 451,642 unit market, prior to volumes falling sharply as the recession impacted. The March market fell by 137,730 units in 2009 and by 202,991 units over the first three months of the year. The March total was 16,000 units or 4.9 pct below expectations and pushed the 12 month rolling total to 1.93 million units. Volumes, the SMMT believes, could now slide below 1.7 million units by the end of the year.

The UK sales slowdown continues across all sales types, fuel types and segments – although once again the mini segment bucked the trend and rose 84.0 pct in March following the arrival of new models over the last 12 months. Diesel penetration rose by three percentage points in March, to 43.4 pct and to 44.0 pct over the first quarter, up from 40.4 pct and 41.9 pct respectively last year. The share of the market taken by private buyers rose from 49.3 pct last March to 50.7 pct. “March new car registrations are a barometer of confidence in the economy, from businesses and consumers alike. The fall in the market shows that government needs to do more to boost confidence,” said Paul Everitt, SMMT chief executive in a statement this morning. “A scrappage scheme will provide the incentive needed and the evidence is clear that schemes already implemented across Europe do work to increase demand. The UK is the only major European market not to implement a scheme.”