Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) wasn't able to carry the sales success it saw in Italy and Germany last month forward into France and although Alfa Romeo was up 5.1 percent, Fiat and Lancia both lost quite a lot of ground.

A total of 188,534 new cars were registered in France last month with the major domestic brands faring the beat with 99,360 sales split between Renault excluding Dacia (37,715 units; +13.9 percent) and PSA's two divisions: Peugeot (31,749 units; +9.2 percent) and Citroën (29,884 units: +13.7 percent), this all adding up to a 12.3 percent year-on-year hike, while imported brands accounted for 89,174 units and saw a 5.6 percent fall. The total market combined climbed by 3.0 percent.

FGA's Fiat brand saw 5,770 of its cars finding French buyers last month which equated to a year-on-year fall of 17.1 percent and abruptly reversed a recent strong run in France which saw the Turinese marque up 24 percent year-on-year during June. While Fiat faltered Alfa Romeo was in pretty good form and with 1,152 of its sporty models, driven by demand for the MiTo, finding new owners and it was up 5.1 percent year-on-year as it outperformed both the overall market (which gained +3.0 percent) and the imported brands combined (-5.6 percent). Lancia also struggled in France in July and the 411 cars it sold equated to a year-on-year fall of 28.0 percent.

Of the Fiat Group's niche high performance/luxury brands Ferrari sold 30 cars in France last month which left it down 6.3 percent year-on-year and 22 units for Maserati saw the Trident brand's sales shrink by almost a quarter (-24.1 percent); meanwhile Fiat Group's new U.S. alliance partner Chrysler Group LLC has fallen off the sales map in France with just 80 registrations combined between the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands in July, putting it down 74.4 percent year-on-year.

After the first seven months of the year a total of 1,319, 849 new passenger cars have now been sold in France and the overall market is almost flat compared to the same period last year (-0.3 percent). Fiat accounts for 49,785 of these registrations and that means it is up 5.9 percent year-on-year, Alfa Romeo has 7,191 sales and its the best year-on-year performer in the FGA brand portfolio, up 21.4 percent, while Lancia's total of 3,128 cars means that it is also in positive territory, up 11.4 percent, wrapping up a market-beating performance from all three FGA brands.

The Fiat Group's niche brands are having a good year too, the 223 cars that Ferrari has sold in the first seven months of the year means it is up 55.9 percent year-on-year while 175 units for Maserati, split between its Quattroporte and GranTurismo models, puts the Modenese firm up 10.1 percent on the same period last year. Chrysler has a combined total of 761 sales after the first seven months of the year, dropping it by 58.8 percent year-on-year.