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In "Multispace" the Fiorino van-based Qubo (1,490) was comfortably the best-seller with almost three times the sales of its closest rival, the Citroën Nemo, while the Doblò, which is now being replaced by an all-new model, slipped to third place with 475 sales. For the full-year the Qubo is the category's best-seller with 12,968 registrations while the Doblò holds second place with 5,467 units.

In the coupé class the Alfa MiTo (1,763) was easily the top-seller in Italy last month while the Brera turned in a rosy month with 125 units registered to take fourth place and the GT Coupé (80) rounded matters out for the Alfa Romeo brand with tenth slot.

Fiat Group has wrapped up a successful year of sales in its home market with a further 52,206 units sold last month to see it ending the year on 708,317 units, up 2.65 percent year-on-year, while the overall Italian market was just into negative territory for the year. The Italian market saw 165,428 registrations in total during December which was up 16.73 percent compared to 141,715 units during the same month a year ago according to data released by UNRAE.

It was an excellent end to the year for the Fiat Group, with its 52,206 registrations during the final month of the year, putting it up almost 9,000 units and 19.22 percent on December 2008, which meant that its share of sales for the last month of 2009 climbed from 30.90 to 31.56 percent year-on-year. In part the surge was due to a rush to take advantage of government incentives, and Fiat's environmentally-friendly range fared particularly well.

The Fiat brand accounted for 41,115 registrations last month which put it up 19.25 percent year-on-year and raised its market share from 24.33 to 24.85 percent. Lancia had another stunning month, driven by in particular by demand for methane-fuelled vehicles which accounted for close to half its registrations, and its 7,817 registrations was just under 2,000 units and 32.96 percent up on the final month of last year. As a result Lancia's market share rose from 4.15 to 4.73 percent year-on-year. Alfa Romeo wasn't able to join the party though, its sales declined very slightly and its 3,233 registrations last month saw it slipping 4.21 percent year-on-year and meant its market share dropped from 2.38 percent to under two percent (1.95 percent). Of the Fiat Group's niche performance/luxury brands, Ferrari accounted for 16 registrations in December (-11.11 percent) with 13 of those being for the new California model, while Maserati's 25 units (its best seller was the GranTurismo with 10 units) left it down 34.21 percent.

For the full year the Fiat Group signs off on its home market with 798,317 registrations, up just over 18,000 units on 2008, and this equates to a 2.65 percent year-on-year rise. In 2008 the Italian carmaker's share of all home market sales was 31.92 percent while last year this edged up to 32.82 percent. The Fiat brand accounted for 549,310 units of the total, up 1.27 percent year-on-year which raised its market share for the year from 25.09 percent (2008) to 25.45 percent (2009). Lancia weighed in with a final tally of 102,549 registrations last year, up an impressive 9.88 percent year-on-year and its market share climbed from 4.32 percent (2008) to 4.75 percent (2009). Alfa Romeo suffered a difficult final few months of 2009 but its 55,251 registrations last year was still up 4.58 percent on 2008's total of 52,833 cars and its market share climbed from 2.44 percent (2008) to 2.56 percent (2009). Maserati sold 587 cars in Italy last year, down 27.80 percent, its best-seller was the GranTurismo (376) followed by the Quattroporte (201), while Ferrari clocked up 620 sales, and was also down, albeit by just 3.88 percent. Maranello's biggest sellers for the year were the F430 (267) and the California (205).

The Fiat Punto (including Punto Classic, Grande Punto and Punto EVO combined) was Italy's best-seller during December with 15,078 units and this meant it cemented its position as the biggest selling car for the year with a final total of 182,622 units which put it more that 10,000 units clear of the Panda which was second placed again in December with 12,999 registrations to end the year with 171,435 examples of the Polish-built A-segment car sold in Italy. The Punto's year-end total was 25,000 units ahead of what it managed in 2008 and the Panda was also up more than 23,000 units year-on-year. Lancia's Ypsilon rounded out the year with a very solid December, its 3,999 units leaving it in seventh place and edging it ahead of the Fiat 500 (3,957). For the full year the 500 was the fourth best-selling car in Italy (80,078) while the Ypsilon (50,870) was in eighth place. The Punto (2,957) was also narrowly Italy's best-selling diesel car in December, just over 100 units ahead of the Ford Fiesta, while the Italian--built supermini was also the biggest diesel seller for the year with 49,163 units.

With major Italian government incentives, alternative fuelled cars are selling well now and in the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) class the Punto (5,191) was the best-seller in December with the Panda (2,424) third, the Ypsilon (2,012) sixth and the Musa (1,537) ninth. For the full year the Punto is comfortably Italy's top-selling LPG car with 41,244 units, putting it 10,000 units clear of its closest rival, GM's Chevrolet Matiz. The Panda (25,141) makes it two Fiat Automobiles' cars in the LPG top-three. Amongst methane-powered cars there was a real Fiat lock-out with the December top-four being claimed by the Panda (5,498) ahead of the Punto (3,167), Qubo (952) and Multipla (260), while for the whole of 2009 the Panda (65,505) asserts its dominance ahead of the Punto (43,030) in second place and the Multipla (5,134) in third.

Across the segments, in the smallest A-segment the Panda and 500 locked out the top-two positions as usual while the Seicento continues to make its presence felt: 1,408 units sold in Italy in December meant it was the eighth best seller in the small car class ahead of much more modern cars including the Renault Twingo and Peugeot 1007. In B-segment the Punto was the biggest seller, the Ypsilon was sixth, and the Lancia Musa ninth (2,460). In C-segment the Fiat Bravo (2,227) had a good month to narrowly edge out the Ford Focus for second place behind the VW Golf while the Lancia Delta (1,229) was eighth with the Fiat Multipla (1,136) ninth. For the full year the Bravo (38,997) is the segment's third best-seller while the Delta (28,207) holds down an impressive eighth place. In D-segment the Fiat Croma (807) was fifth for December while the Alfa Romeo 159 (641) continued its recent struggle; however the 159 is the segment's third best-seller for the year with 13,235 units, three places ahead of the Croma (11,182).

In the categories, amongst estate cars the Croma was the fourth highest seller during the whole of 2009 while the 159 Sportwagon (8,174) was seventh. In "Furiostrada", the Fiat Sedici (9,719) was the fourth best-seller for the year, while in the compact MPV class the Musa was on top for December, and also for the full year with 29,587 registrations. The Fiat Idea notched up 9,037 registrations for the full year to claim sixth place. One step up, the Multipla was the second best-selling 'Compact MPV' in December and it rounded out the year with fourth place in the category. In the coupé class the Alfa MiTo (1,763) was easily the top-seller in Italy last month while the Brera turned in a rosy month with 125 units registered to take fourth place and the GT Coupé (80) rounded matters out for the Alfa Romeo brand with tenth slot. In "Multispace" the Fiorino van-based Qubo (1,490) was comfortably the best-seller with almost three times the sales of its closest rival, the Citroën Nemo, while the Doblò, which is now being replaced by an all-new model, slipped to third place with 475 sales. For the full-year the Qubo is the category's best-seller with 12,968 registrations while the Doblò holds second place with 5,467 units.

December was another month to forget in Italy for Chrysler Group as all its divisions continued to hemorrhage sales, the U.S. carmaker, now 20 percent owned by Fiat, ending the month with 693 registrations combined across its three brands, down 28.34 percent on the final month of the previous year and its market share is down to an irrelevant 0.42 percent. Splitting up its brands, Chrysler fared worst, with just 112 registrations it was down by more than a half (-51.52 percent) on December 2008), while Dodge's 179 units (-24.79 percent) and Jeep's 402 units (-19.28 percent) meant that all three brands lost a lot of ground.