With 6,515 Fiat models sold in France last month the Italian carmaker is up 14.3 percent year on-year. It's range in France will shortly be boosted by the arrival of the facelifted B-segment Grande Punto model, now known as the Punto Evo, which has just been launched to the media during a glamorous ceremony on an Italian aircraft carrier (above).

Fiat (+14.3 percent), Alfa Romeo (+30 percent) and Lancia (+15.8 percent) have all posted very positive year-on-year sales gains on the French new car market during September, mirroring the overall market which gained some ground as it claws its way into positive territory for the year so far.

A total of 183,110 new cars were sold in France during September which put the market up a healthy 14.0 percent year-on-year. Of these 103,595 (+13.7 percent) came from the three mass-selling domestic brand names, Citroën, Peugeot and Renault, while the remaining 79,515 (+14.4 percent) were imports, with VW, Ford Toyota and Opel being the biggest winners in terms of volumes.

With 6,515 Fiat models sold in France last month the Italian carmaker was up 14.3 percent year on-year, and was the fifth best-selling imported brand. Alfa Romeo, driven by demand for the MiTo, weighed in with 885 units in September which put it up a strong 30 percent over the same month last year and made it the best year-on-year performer from the Fiat Group Automobiles brand portfolio, while Lancia's 388 units also beat the market as it was up 15.8 percent. Of the Fiat Group's niche luxury/performance brands Ferrari sold 15 cars (+7.1 percent) and Maserti 15 (-42.3 percent).

After the first nine months of the year France has seen 1,613,501 new cars sold which puts the market up by 2.4 percent year-on-year and solidly into positive territory. Of these, 869,825 units are from the three domestic brands which tip the balance ahead of imported cars, 743,676.

Fiat has amassed 59,854 sales for the year-to-date, which is up 4.9 percent year-on-year, double that achieved by the overall new car market. Alfa Romeo has 8,669 sales for the year-to-date which is up a 20.6 percent on the same period last year, while Lancia's 3,751 units during the first nine months of the year keeps it well ahead of the market, up 5.4 percent year-on-year. Of the Fiat Group's niche brands, Ferrari is on 252 units for far this year in France, putting the Prancing Horse up an impressive 45.7 percent year-on-year while Maserati's 193 sales is also a positive result and leaves it down very slightly with a year-on-year decline of 4.5 percent.

Fiat's North American partner Chrysler Group had another very troubled month in France, the Chrysler and Dodge brand's both saw their sales in September tumble by more than half, with 65 units (-52.2 percent) and 67 units (-53.5 percent) sold respectively, while Jeep's 80 units was a better performance that its two sister divisions but it still meant the "off road" brand shed a quarter of its sales (-24.5 percent) year-on-year. For the year-to date the Chrysler brand is now on 866 units sold in France, putting it down 59.6 percent year-on-year, Dodge has the biggest sales tally so far (1,105 units) coupled to the smallest year-on-year decline (-43.4 percent), while Jeep adds 915 units and is down 51.8 percent.