Fiat Group was one of the biggest losers on its domestic market, its 49,283 units registered last month was down 26.22 percent on the same month last year (66,800 units in April 2009), causing its market share to dramatically tumble from 35.22 to 30.81 percent year-on-year as the government's long-running "eco" incentives that tended to favour Fiat's smaller, efficient products finally dried up.

The Fiat Automobiles brand saw 37,560 sales last month in Italy compared to 51,921 during April 2009 and this equated to a year-on-year fall of 27.66 percent, resulting in its market share dropping from 27.38 to 23.48 percent. Lancia was the best year-on-year performer from the Group for April: 7,922 registrations versus 9,133 during the equivalent month a year ago left it down 13.26 percent year-on-year, and as the only Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) brand to end the month having outperformed the overall market. As a result its market share climbed from 4.82 to 4.95 percent year-on-year. Alfa Romeo, which desperately awaits the positive impact of the new Alfa 147-replacing Giulietta model on its sales, was the biggest year-on-year loser from the FGA stable, its sales dropped from 5,597 units during April last year to 3,674 units last month, a fall more than a third (-34.36 percent) and led to a contraction in its overall Italian market share from 2.95 to 2.30 percent year-on-year.

Of the Fiat Group’s niche luxury/performance brands, Ferrari sold 74 of its sports cars in Italy last month, down 8.64 percent year-on-year, while Maserati’s 53 sales meant the Modena-based brand was down 22.06 percent on the same month last year. Ferrari’s sales comprised almost entirely of the brand-new 458 Italia (41) and the folding hardtop California (27) while the Trident’s top seller for the month was the GranTurismo with 26 finding Italian buyers. Chrysler Group sales continued to slide, down 9.49 percent with just 687 vehicles registered combined across its three brands, although it did comfortably outperform the overall market's drop.

For the year-to-date Fiat Group is still well up on last year, 259,181 registrations for the January to April period is almost 18,000 units better than the same four months of last year and means the domestic giant is up 7.40 percent, although this is only just over half the overall market's rise for the same period (+13.35 percent). The Fiat brand has 202,558 registrations for the year-to-date and is up 7.43 percent, Lancia has 37,940 registrations, the best year-on-year performer from FGA, climbing by 18.72 percent compared to the opening four months of last year, while Alfa Romeo's total of 18,204 cars is two thousand units and 9.96 percent down on the same period of 2009.

For the year-to-date Ferrari has sold 287 of its sports cars in Italy, down 12.23 percent on last year while Maserati is on 192 units meaning that its sales are down by almost at third (-31.43 percent). Ferrari’s best selling model for the year-to-date is the California, with 179 sales, while the 458 Italia, which has more recently come on-stream, is now on 77 units. Maserati’s top-seller after the first four months of the year is the GranTurismo (105) ahead of the Quattroporte (50) with the balance of its sales coming from the new GranCabrio.

Last month the Fiat Panda wrested back the position as Italy’s best-selling car it claimed several times last year; it was just under 400 units ahead of the Punto (including Punto Classic, Grande Punto and Punto Evo) in April. After the two models tussled last year for advantage, the Punto cruised ahead from the  autumn thanks to the arrival of the comprehensively facelifted Punto Evo. With the Panda (11,510) and the Punto (11,186) occupying the top-two slots it was also a return to the 1-2 position for the Fiat brand after Ford’s Fiesta squeezed into second slot last month. These two key Fiat models took a massive advantage last month with the Fiesta third on 6,586 units, marginally ahead of the Fiat 500 (6,096). Lancia’s Ypsilon made it four FGA models amongst the top-ten best-sellers last month with 3,616 units sold. After being knocked of its long-time perch as the country’s best selling diesel in March the Punto was back in command last month with 4,726 units being oil burners, more than one-and-a-half thousand units ahead of the next best selling diesel, the VW Golf.

For the year-to-date the Punto (72,290) is comfortably the most popular choice with Italian consumers, with a cushion of more than twenty thousand units over the Panda (59,418) while the Fiesta (52,402) and the 500 (28,259) complete the top four. The Ypsilon (17,799) rounds out the top-ten best-sellers for the year-to-date.

In A-segment the Panda and 500 were clear at the top of the category as usual for April while the ageing Seicento enjoyed a rosy month in its twigh light years: it was the sixth best seller with 1,299 units finding buyers in April to bring its sales total up to 4,592 units for the year-to-date. In B-segment the Punto was uncatchable while the Ypsilon was fifth. Making it four FGA models in the B-segment top-ten for April Lancia’s perennially-popular Musa (2,676) was just over a hundred units clear of Alfa Romeo’s much newer MiTo (2,538) which has always struggled to seduce buyers. The MiTo was the best selling coupé car in Italy last month, a class where it is counted and it now has 12,837 sales for the year-to-date.

In C-segment the Fiat Bravo continues to lose ground to its rival, with 2,372 units registered last month it was the fifth best-seller, but less than a hundred units behind Opel’s new Astra. The class top three was made up of the VW Golf – with just over double the sales of the Bravo – Nissan Qashqai and Ford Focus. Lancia’s pretty Delta meanwhile was the ninth best-seller in C-segment with 1,540 finding buyers last month. For the year-to-date the Bravo is the fourth highest selling car in the category, with 11,336 registrations, while the Delta is three places further back, with 7,686 registrations after the first four months of the year. In D-segment the Alfa 159's dramatic fade continues, it failed to make the top-ten again last month and for the year-to-date it has also dropped out of the top-ten highest segment sellers. Likewise the Fiat Croma, with 477 sales, has also tailed off, dropping out of the reckoning in D-segment, though it just squeezed in amongst the top-ten best-selling station wagon cars in Italy, in ninth place.