The 500 supermini (top) helped the Fiat brand to achieving more than one million sales across Europe last year while Alfa Romeo, helped by the introduction of the powerful new 1750 TB version (bottom), ended 2009 as the best year-on-year performer from the Fiat Group Automobiles brand portfolio.

Fiat Group closed out last year with 1,254,829 registrations combined across its Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Maserati brands, which puts it an impressive 165,000 units and 6.3 percent up on the previous year, a strong end to a year that saw the fortunes of European carmakers fluctuating wildly with under the effects of the global economic recession. Fiat Group also ended the year with another strong month of sales: in December it added 85,759 registrations which left it up 20.2 percent year-on-year. The data comes from European auto manufacturer trade body ACEA.

During December Fiat Group's registrations were up more than 14,000 units on the same month the previous year which raised its overall market share from 7.7 to 8.0 percent year-on-year. However the Fiat Group's performance wasn't quite as strong as in previous months and while it comfortably beat the overall market's 16.0 percent rise, key rivals PSA Peugeot-Citroën (+25.4 percent), Ford (+23.8 percent) and Renault (+52.3 percent) were all ahead of it although Europe's biggest carmaker, VW Group, managed only a 2.2 percent rise, Toyota was up just 9.9 percent, and GM Europe (Opel, Vauxhall, Chevrolet and Saab) lost 7.1 percent.

Last month the Fiat brand added 69,785 registrations as it closed out the year and this meant it was up 23.1 percent for December year-on-year, raising its share of the market from 6.1 to 6.5 percent. The Fiat brand also raised its sales by more than 13,000 units year-on-year last month. Lancia was the best performer in the Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) portfolio, its 8,925 units during December put it up more than 1,700 units and 23.9 percent and kept its market share steady on 0.8 percent while Alfa Romeo rounded out a forgettable final few months of the year as the only laggard FGA during December, down 6.5 percent after selling 6,721 units across Europe. It was however down only 500 units but with the overall market's rise it saw its share of all sales shrink from 0.8 to 0.6 percent year-on-year. The Fiat Group's niche sports/luxury brands, Ferrari and Maserati, added 328 sales in December combined together and this was up 19.3 percent on the same month last year.

For the full year the Fiat Group notches up an impressive 1,254,829 sales to take an 8.7 slice of all registrations for the full year, up 0.7 percent year-on-year, the best performance of any of the big car making groups in Europe. By contrast the overall market was down 1.6 percent for the full year. The Fiat brand accounts for 1,016,340 sales for the full year, up 6.1 percent year-on-year, to raise its market share from 6.5 to 7.0 percent. Lancia's 121,549 units leaves it up 6.6 percent year-on--year with its market share remaining unchanged on 0.8 percent while Alfa Romeo's 110,545 units means it is the best year-on-year performer for FGA, up 8.1 percent year-on-year and with its overall market share up from 0.7 to 0.8 percent. Ferrari and Maserati has a combined 6,395 sales for the year which is down 0.3 percent on their performance in 2008.

Meanwhile the Chrysler Group's European sales continued their year-long downward spiral during December, with just 4,052 units combined across the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands for the final month, leaving it down 13.9 percent year-on-year and its market share for the month sliding from 0.5 to 0.4 percent. For the full year the picture is just as bad for Chrysler Group, its 54,344 units was down a staggering 41.6 percent year-on-year which made it far and away the worst performing carmaker in Europe, by contrast the next worst sales came from Jaguar Land Rover which saw its sales plummet a modest 21.7 percent in contrast. Chrysler Group's market share for the full year slipped from 0.6 to 0.4 percent year-on-year.