With 736,973 vehicles registered in Brazil last year, Fiat Automóveis has set another new sales record after 33 years building and selling vehicles in the Latin American country, as well as retaining its position as the undisputed biggest selling carmaker in Brazil for the eighth consecutive year.

The number corresponds to a 24.5 percent share of the total registrations of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, according to data supplied by Renavam, the Registro Nacional de Veículos Automotores (National Registry of Motor Vehicles). Fiat Automóveis, the Brazilian division of the Fiat Group,  ended the year with a clear margin of more than 52,500 units over the second-placed group, Volkswagen, in the rankings, and with more that 141,000 units in hand over the third placed carmaker, GM.

In total, during the full year of 2009, 3,010,182 vehicles were registered on the Brazilian market. Fiat Automóveis' market share was virtually unchanged on 2008 when it took a 24.6 percent share of all Brazilian sales (also a record-setting year), although VW has closed down Fiat's advantage at the top slightly, from 72,000 units in 2008 to 52,000 last year; meanwhile the gap to GM increased by almost one-third, from 109,000 (2008) to 141,000 (2009).

"This is the eighth year that Fiat holds the leading position in the market, which proves the high degree of customer satisfaction with product quality and service distribution network," commented Lelio Ramos, Commercial Director of Fiat Automóveis. He continued to say that last year began under the threat of global financial crisis, but Brazil has been able to take the right steps to ensure the strengthening of the internal market, such as reduction of the IPI and the increase in credit supply. "The car market was extremely competitive and the car industry had the best performance in its history, consolidating its status of one of the largest market in the world," he said. In this scenario Ramos continued, "Fiat knew how to offer the best and cost-effective range of products for consumers, designed, admired and differentiated content, reaching a performance 12 percent above the result of vehicles registered in 2008 [657,771 units], which represents a new record for the brand, "he concluded.