The German new car market slid 4.3 percent last month, however Fiat Automobiles was able to ride out the decline to see its sales remain flat and be one of just six brands that ended the month up year-on-year, albeit by 0.1 percent.  Alfa Romeo and Lancia couldn’t match the market rise however and they lost 9 percent and 58.9 percent respectively year-on-year. After a long positive run the German new car market swung negative in January, with a total of 181,189 registrations it was down by 4.3 percent on the same month last year.

With 5,278 cars registered in Germany during January it meant Fiat Automobiles was up 0.1 percent year-on-year, joined in positive territory by only a handful of brands that were able to buck the market’s downward trend, those being Chevrolet (+43.7), Nissan/Infinity (+206.1 percent), Renault/Dacia (+39.0 percent), Skoda (+43.8 percent) and VW (+10.9 percent). It added up to give Fiat a 2.9 percent of all sales on the market.

Alfa Romeo though slid 9.0 percent year-on-year after selling 495 cars last month and that gave it a 0.3 percent share of the market. Lancia's recent bad sales run in Germany continued last month, and with 106 registrations it saw its sales down by more than a half on the same month a year ago (-58.9 percent). Other big losers in Germany last month included Honda (-43.2 percent), Mazda (-57.1 percent), Porsche (-31.7 percent), Smart (-41.3 percent), troubled Toyota/Lexus (-36.6 percent) and, it almost goes without saying, Chrysler Group, which was down 37.1 percent after managing to shift just 342 units combined across its Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge brands.