In the class reserved for "Multispace" vehicles in Italy last month the Fiat Fiorino based Qubo (above) was the biggest seller, with 944 units registered, putting it ahead of its brand sister, the Doblò.

New car registrations surged in Italy last month and Fiat Group saw its sales climb 27.64 percent on the back of 55,661 units although this slightly underperformed the overall market which was up by 31.25 percent. The Lancia brand drove the sharp rise by Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) last month, it was up by more than a half on November 2008, but the carmaker's results were dragged back by Alfa Romeo which ended the period flat.

A total of 182,976 new cars were sold in Italy during November and this was more than 40,000 units up on the same month last year, according to data released by automotive trade body UNRAE. Fiat Group was up by 12,000 units last month compared to November 2008’s total of 43,609 units, and as a result of not quite following the market's climb its share of domestic sales for the month slipped to 30.42 from 32.28 percent year-on-year.

The Fiat brand was the biggest volume winner for FGA last month in Italy, it saw 42,988 registrations compared to 34,116 units in the same period last year, which put it up 26,01 percent year-on-year, but underperformed the overall market rise, and this meant it lost almost a full percentage point, collecting 23,49 percent of all sales in November as opposed to 24.47 percent a year ago.

In terms of year-on-year gains the Lancia brand was the big winner for FGA in Italy, its 8,914 units last month was impressively up 54.35 percent and more than 3,000 units year-on-year (5,775 units in November 2008) and it meant that Lancia’s market share edges ever closer to 5 percent; 4.87 percent in November compared to 4.14 percent a year ago. Alfa Romeo was the laggard, it sold less than half the volume sister FGA brand Lancia managed, and with 3,708 units last month it was up just 1.81 percent year-on-year and that meant its market share for the month slid from 2.61 percent to 2.03 percent.

The Fiat Group’s luxury/performance niche brands had a forgettable month, Ferrari sold 29 cars while Maserati managed 22 units, meaning they were down 23.68 percent and 42.11 percent respectively. The Chrysler Group continued to see slide sharply, its 659 units in November leaving it down 28.29 percent year on year. The Chrysler brand has to all intent and purpose vanished from the Italian market, its 61 units last month was down a massive 76.17 percent year-on-year, Jeep shed a fifth of its sales year-on-year, its 352 units equating to a 20.36 percent fall, while Dodge, with just  46 units was actually 11.31 percent better than it managed last year. The Chrysler and Dodge brands will be removed from European markets by 2011.

For the year-to-date the Fiat Group has 655,850 registrations in Italy, just under 10,000 units up on the same eleven months of last year (646,241 in Jan-Nov 2008) which puts it up 1.49 percent year-on-year and raises its share of all sales so far this year to 32.93 percent compared to 31.99 percent in January to November 2008. By contrast the overall market, which is now just a few thousand units shy of the 2 million barrier, is down 1.41 percent year-on-year. The Fiat brand has 507,904 registrations for the year-to-date, flat on last year (+0.01 percent), Lancia is on 94,712 units (+8.30 percent) while Alfa Romeo’s 52,004 units also keeps it in positive territory (+5.14 percent). The Chrysler Group has a combined 8,667 units for the year-to-date which is half the volume it managed during the first eleven months of last year (-49.59 percent).

The Fiat Punto (including Punto Classic, Grande Punto and Punto Evo) was the clear best selling car in Italy last month with 16,237 units and it was driven by demand for the new facelifted Punto Evo, while the Fiat Panda, with 13,979 registrations, also had an impressive month to maintain its usual second place. The Fiat 500 (5,212) slipped to fifth place behind the new Citroën C3 which locked out its customary fourth place, while Lancia's Ypsilon (4,708) in eighth place was the final FGA representative in the November top-ten best-sellers. For the year-to-date Italy's best-selling car is the Punto (167,479), just under 10,00 units ahead of the Panda (158,327), the 500 (76,080) is fourth and the Ypsilon (46,869) is seventh.

In A-segment the Panda and 500 comfortably held onto the top-two positions for November while the Punto was an easy winner in B-segment with the Ypsilon sixth and its sister, the Musa (2,954), in ninth. The Musa was also Italy's best-selling small MPV last month. In C-segment the Fiat Bravo (2,448) had a troubled month to slip to fourth place while in D-segment the Alfa 159 (703) had a terrible month and it slid down to tenth place. The Alfa MiTo (2,295) was the best selling coupé last month while in the class for Multispace vehicles the Fiat Qubo (944) and Doblò (547) were first and second.