The award-winning Fiat 500 (top) and the recently facelifted four-wheel-drive Sedici "crossover" (middle and bottom) seen above on the Fiat automobiles stand during last month's Frankfurt Motor Show.

Fiat is continuing its strong run of sales in Germany this year through September after posting a 65.8 percent jump in registrations which equates to more than three times the overall market’s rise, while Alfa Romeo is also in positive territory and is up by 9.7 percent. Last month 316,266 new passenger cars were registered in Germany as the market continued to surge which equated to a year-on-year gain of 21.0 percent.

As German consumers continue to show favour towards smaller, more efficient cars, the Fiat Automobiles’ model range, including the Panda, 500 and Grande Punto all performed well in September, and the Italian carmaker weighed in last month with a total of 11,999 sales which gave it a 3.8 percent share of the whole market for the month and put it up 65.8 percent on September 2008. This performance meant Fiat was the second best performing volume manufacturer year-on-year with only Hyundai ahead of it. The South Korean carmaker was up 85.5 percent on September 2008 on the back of 7,227 registrations. In total Fiat was the third best performer - counting all brands on the market - as the only other carmaker to beat it apart from Hyundai was Lada which was up 123.2 percent but had just 404 sales to its name.

The biggest selling brand in Germany last month was domestic giant VW with 73,788 registrations and that put it up 45.8 percent year-on-year while its captive Skoda brand also performed particularly well, up 59.4 percent. Opel and Ford were also big volume winners, up 35.3 and 25.6 percent respectively. The three German “prestige” brands continued to be shunned by domestic buyers and they all lost ground year-on-year despite the overall market being up by more than a fifth. Audi lost 27.8 percent and BMW shed 16.0 percent, while Mercedes-Benz recorded the softest blow of the trio, although it still fell by 8.4 percent.

Alfa Romeo was also positive year-on-year, its 1,003 registrations, driven by demand for the MiTo, gave it a 0.3 percent share of the market and put it up 9.7 percent year-on-year. Lancia though couldn’t reproduce the superb form it showed in its home market during September and it ended last month in Germany with 279 sales which left it down 29.7 percent.

For the year-to-date Fiat has 138,555 registrations in Germany which is almost double (+97.3 percent) its performance during the first nine months of last year. It gives Fiat Automobiles a 4.6 percent share of all sales in Germany so far this year. Fiat has also outperformed the overall market for the year-to-date almost four fold. German sales are now nudging the three million mark (2,990,766) after the first nine months of 2009 which equates to a 26.1 percent rise year-on-year. Fiat is the second best performing volume manufacturer for the year-to-date, behind Hyundai (+117.6 percent), and the third best overall if niche brand Lada (+139.8 percent) is counted in.

Alfa Romeo has 9,100 sales for the year-to-date and this puts it up 78.9 percent year-on-year and gives it a 0.3 percent share of all sales in Germany so far this year. It is also the fourth best performing brand year-on-year behind Lada, Hyundai and Fiat. Lancia’s total of 2,937 sales so far this year keep it in positive territory, it is up 12.6 percent on the same period last year although it has underperformed the market's average rise.

Fiat’s new North American partner Chrysler Group continued its march to oblivion across Europe last month and its three brands (Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep) managed a combined total of 510 sales in Germany during September to take a 0.2 percent share of the market. That put it down 60.6 percent on the same month last year. For the year-to-date Chrysler Group has notched up 6,283 sales in Germany which is down 47.3 percent year-on-year and gives it a 0.2 percent cut of all the market’s sales after the first three quarters of the year.