As has been the case ever since the spring, Fiat Group has been one of the Italian market's biggest losers, its 38,441 units last month was a massive 25,000 units down on the same period last year (63,991 units in October 2009) and that added up to a pretty dramatic year-on-year fall of 39.93 percent. It's market share meanwhile shrank from 32.59 to 27.51 percent for the month year-on-year. Like all the carmakers on the market, Fiat Group has suffered from the ending of long-running state "eco" incentives in March this year but the Italian carmaker is also suffering from a lack of preparedness for the onset of Euro 5 legislation which has forced it to slim down many of its models ranges.

Splitting up the Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) brands, Fiat Automobiles was the big volume loser in October as customers shunned its products in the Italian showrooms: 28,509 units last month was over 20,000 units down year-on-year (49,340 units in October 2009) and equated to a 42.22 percent year-on-year fall which reduced its market share for the month from 25.13 to 20.40 percent year-on-year. Lancia also saw its sales crashing: 5,539 units last month versus 9,768 units during the same period last year saw it the biggest FGA loser in year-on-year terms, down 43.29 percent, and that meant its market share for the month slipped by more than a percentage point from 4.98 to 3.96 percent year-on-year. Alfa Romeo however was buoyed by demand for the new Giulietta, which accounted for well over half its volumes, to counter a continued drop in demand for all its other models (4,335 units in total last month versus 4,817 in October 2009) and thus its landing was the softest, it fell 10.01 percent year-on-year which comfortably outperformed the overall market meaning that its market share for the month climbed from 2.45 to 3.10 percent year-on-year. Of the Fiat Group's performance/luxury brands, Ferrari's 21 sports car sales last month (of which 18 units were the California) was down 27.59 percent year-on-year while Maserati's 37 units (the Trident's sales were made up primarily of the GranTurismo, 19 units, and the Quattroporte, 14 units,) was exactly the same as it sold in October 2009 leaving it flat year-on-year.

For the year-to-date, 1,683,119 new cars have been sold in Italy, and that puts the overall market down 6.95 percent year-on-year. The Fiat Group has 509,853 registrations for the year-to-date (90,000 units down on the same ten months last year), down 15.06 percent year-on-year for the period while its market share for the first ten months of the year slips from 33.18 to 30.29 percent year-on-year. The Fiat brand has 389,643 registrations for the year-to-date and is down 16.21 percent on the same period last year, meaning that its market share for the ten month period slips from 25.71 to 23.15 percent year-on-year. Lancia is on 75,418 units for the year-to-date, down 12.10 percent year-on-year and that means its market share for the year-to-date is down slightly from 4.74 to 4.48 percent year-on-year. Alfa Romeo has managed to sell just 43,715 units so far this year on its domestic market putting it down almost ten percent (-9.49 percent) on the same period last year and its market share for the first ten month is almost unchanged, declining only slightly from 2.67 to 2.60 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile Maserati has 449 units for the year-to-date and is down 16.85 percent while Ferrari's 628 units (led out by 347 for the California and 208 for the 458 Italia) during the same period put it up almost ten percent (+9.98 percent) year-on-year.

Despite its collapse in sales FGA provided the top two selling cars for October with the Fiat Punto (including the Punto Classic, Grande Punto and Punto EVO combined) topping the list with 10,189 units while the Fiat Panda (9,294) was second. These two models both registered almost double the sales of the third best-seller for the month just gone, Ford's Fiesta (5,061). The Fiat 500 (3,816) and the Lancia Ypsilon (3,451) in fifth and eighth position made it four FGA models in the top-ten. For the year-to-date the Punto (133,718) is clear at the top with the Panda (117,131) second, the 500 (59,569) fourth and the Ypsilon (39,094) in ninth.

The Punto (4,141) was also the best selling diesel-powered car in Italy during October and it holds the top spot amongst the oil-burners for the year-to-date with 44,965 sales. Alfa Romeo's new Giulietta was the sixth best selling diesel in Italy for October with 1,771 units. Amongst LPG cars the Punto (844) was second best seller for the month just gone to the VW Polo and for the year-to-date it is also second with 26,675 sales, this time losing out to the Fiesta. The Panda (581) was the fourth best-selling LPG car in Italy during October and it is fifth for the year-to-date with 12,282 sales. In the category reserved for methane-powered cars the Panda (3,028) led out a customary top-four lock-out for FGA once more during October, the A-segment car followed home by the Punto (525), Multipla (260) and Qubo (116) with the Doblò (62) in seventh place. For the year-to-date it is the same story as the top-four best selling methane cars are the Panda (22,903), Punto (15,569), Qubo (7,926) and Multipla (4,464).

Amongst the segments, in A-segment the Panda and 500 easily held onto the top-two spots last month while in B-segment the Punto was on top although there was no room in the Italian top-ten for Alfa Romeo's quickly-fading MiTo, in fact with just 1,204 sales for the month it wasn't even remotely near cracking the top-ten. The Punto-based sports hatchback now has 22,824 sales for the year-to-date. In C-segment the Giulietta (2,636) was the third best-seller behind the VW Golf (3,470) and Nissan Qashqai (3,022). The Fiat Bravo is another FGA model that is seeing its fortunes wane this year and it only managed eighth place in the C-segment top-ten with 1,572 sales while with less than a thousand sales the Lancia Delta couldn't crack the top-ten. For the year-to-date the Bravo (22,462) is the fifth best-seller in the category while the Delta (14,818) is ninth. In D-segment the Fiat Croma (690) nudged back into the top-ten in ninth place but there was no room once again for the Alfa 159 and neither FGA model is in the category's top-ten for the year-to-date. The Croma was the fifth best-selling station wagon in Italy last month but the 159 Sportwagon couldn't crack the top-ten.

In the classes the Multipla (379) was the fifth best-seller amongst the compact MPVs and has 7,559 sales for the year-to-date, however the Lancia Musa's long success story has well and truly come to an end, Opel's new Mervia has knocked it firmly off the top spot in the category reserved for small MPVs and in fact the Mervia sold double the volume last month: 2,024 units compared to 1,091 for the ageing little Lancia. Fiat's Idea continues to chip away at sales in Italy and with 664 units it was the fourth best seller in the small MPV class for the month. The Meriva's recent arrival on the market means that the Musa is still the runaway class leader for the year-to-date with 20,463 units compared to its rival's 13,291 units while the Idea has 5,062 sales so far this year. In the class for large MPVs Lancia's Phedra (91) continues to grind out sales and it has totted up 1,051 units for the year-to-date. Amongst coupé cars the MiTo was the top-seller while Alfa Romeo's pretty Bertone-styled GT Coupé just cracked the top-ten with 66 units as it benefits from the competitiveness of a highly-specified final edition. Fiat's Qubo (626) and Doblò (327) continued their long run at the top of "Multispace" but the latter was run very close by the Peugeot Bipper (322). For the year-to-date the story at the top of Multispace is the same with the Qubo (14,466) leading out the Doblò (5,477).

The Chrysler Group, 20 percent owned by Fiat Group, actually found some room to fall further in Italy last month and in fact its sales dropped by almost a half year-on-year (-46.92 percent) to just 448 units combined across its three brands. Split up that was 123 units for Chrysler, a year-on-year rise of 57.69 percent, while Dodge went the other way, 88 units adding up to a fall of 62.71 percent, and finally Jeep saw its sales more than halve, 237 units was down 55.28 percent. For the year-to-date the Chrysler Group stands on 6,738 units sold in Italy, down 15.88 percent on the same period last year and split up that is 1,258 units (+13.23 percent) for the Chrysler brand, 2,495 units (-28.98 percent) for Dodge and 2,985 units (-11.84 percent) for Jeep.