The Fiat 500 (top) was the sixth best selling car in Italy last month, and second best in A-segment, while with three-and-a-half-thousand sales during February the MiTo (bottom) accounts for the majority of sales in Italy for Alfa Romeo.

The Fiat Group's total of 62,257 cars sold last month was 9,000 units up on the 53,361 it shifted in February 2009. The Fiat brand was the best performer from the Group in volume terms, 48,172 units last month compared to 41,601 a year ago put it up 15.80 percent year-on-year although its market share slid slightly from 25.01 to 24.02 percent year--on-year. Lancia continued its stunning sales rises, driven by demand for heavily incentivised models, its 9,309 units was up 30.49 percent on the 7,134 units it sold a year ago, its market share jumping as a result from 4.29 to 4.64 percent year-on-year. Alfa Romeo continued to lag, 4,685 units last month, with more than 3,500 of these being for the MiTo, was however up 280 units year-on-year but meant its market share contracted from 2.69 to 2.34 percent.

Of the Fiat Group's niche luxury/performance brands, Ferrari sold 49 cars last month with 43 of these being the California, leaving Maranello down 44.32 percent compared to the 88 cars it delivered last February, while Maserati weighed in with 42 units as opposed to 58 last February which left it down 27.59 percent. The Trident's mix was made up of the GranTurismo (21), Quattroporte (12) and the new GranCabrio (9).

After the first two months of the year Fiat Group has sold 128,650 cars in Italy, nearly 25,000 units up on the opening period of last year (104,201 units during Jan/Feb 2009) and that puts it up 23.46 percent year-on-year but with the overall market up by 25.49 percent the domestic carmaker's market share shrinks slightly from 32.08 to 31.56 percent. The Fiat brand has just tipped through six-figure sales, 100,330 cars during January and February, and that leaves it up 22.56 percent year-on-year with its share of the market down slightly from 25.21 to 24.62 percent. Lancia's 18,312 sales for the year to date is up 36.25 percent year-on-year and raises its share of the overall market from 4.14 to 4.49 percent while Alfa Romeo with 9,794 units for the year-to-date is up 13.96 percent year--on-year but its market share slips from 2.65 to 2.40 percent. Ferrari is now on 134 cars year-to-date, down 17.28 percent, while Maserati's 80 units leaves it trailing year-on-year by 43.26 percent.

Driven by showroom success for the new Punto Evo, launched in Italy last autumn, the Punto (counting the Punto Classic, Grande Punto and Punto Evo combined) was the best-seller in Italy once again last month with 18,970 units sold. That left it more than three thousand units clear of the Panda which occupied its customary second spot with 15,602 sales. The Fiat 500 (5,249) was sixth while tenth place for Lancia's Ypsilon (4,405) made it four Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) models in the Italian best-selling top-ten. For the year-to-date, the Punto (39,544) is Italy's best-seller with a quarter more sales than achieved by its closest-rival, the Panda (30,644). The 500 (12,611) is fifth and the Ypsilon (8,254) is tenth.

The Punto was Italy's best-selling diesel car last month with 9,923 units finding buyers and for the year-to-date 9,144 Punto oil burners have been sold in Italy. No other FGA model makes it into the diesel top-ten for February or the year-to-date. FGA's sales have been bolstered by the 'eco' incentives that are being phased out now and February proved no different, the Punto (7,252) was the best-selling LPG car, with the Panda (2,985) third and the Ypsilon (2,333) in sixth. After two months of the year the Punto has seen 13,498 units sold in LPG format, with the Panda (5,892) third, the Ypsilon (4,455) seventh, and its sister, the Musa (3,860) ninth. Amongst Methane-powered cars the Fiat brand enjoyed a clean sweep of the top-four positions last month, with the Panda (5,497) leading out the Punto (4,598), Qubo (1,885) and Multipla (572). It is the same story for the year-to-date with the Panda (10,682), Punto (8,512), Qubo (3,542) and Multipla (888) occupying the top-four positions.

In A-segment the Panda and 500 locked out the top-two slots in February while the elderly Seicento (1,020) crept back into the top-ten in tenth place. In B-segment the Punto was the clear winner with the Ypsilon seventh and Alfa Romeo's MiTo (3,507) in ninth place. The MiTo was also Italy's best-selling coupé car in February, a category where it is technically counted. The Bravo's recent sales slide continues in C-segment where it only managed 2,292 sales last month which left it as the sixth best seller, one slot ahead of the Lancia Delta (1,967). For the year-to-date the Bravo (4,773) is fifth and the Delta (3,803) seventh. Worryingly for FGA both the Fiat Croma and Alfa Romeo 159 vanished from the D-segment top-ten last month leaving the domestic carmaker without a representative in this important market segment.

By category, the Fiat Sedici (678) was fourth in "Fuoristrada" while in "Multispace" the Qubo (2,206) was first and the Doblo (286) was fourth. The Fiat 500C (271) was Italy's best-selling convertible last month. The Musa (2,858) was the best-selling small MPV in Italy in February, and for the year-to-date it tops the charts with 6,026 units, more than two-and-a-half-thousand units up on the same period last year. In the "compact MPV" category the Multipla (686) was seventh while amongst large MPVs the Lancia Phedra (77) was the second best-seller with the Fiat Ulysse (49) sixth; both models are being phased out.

Fiat Group's stateside partner Chrysler Group continued its position as one of the biggest sales failures on the Italian market through to February, its total of 695 units was down 24.78 percent-year-on-year. That meager number was split between the Chrysler brand with 101 units and down 34.84 percent, Dodge (231) which was the biggest loser, down 42.25 percent, while Jeep (363) remained quite steady, down just 1.63 percent, although all this was against a backdrop of a surging market.