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The New Uno was the best selling car in Brazil during February with 21,396 units registered, its sales up 27.8 percent on the previous month. The New Uno's ascent to the top of the pile comes just as the new two door derivative (above) is arriving in the showrooms.

Fiat Automóveis led the Brazilian new car market last month with 60,738 units sold and up 24.7 percent year-on-year its performance mirrored the overall market which bounced back after a more difficult January. However Fiat remains in an unaccustomed second place in the market to long-time rival VW after the first two months of the year although the gap is just one and a half thousand units as February saw almost all the lost ground being made up.

The Brazilian new car market saw 274,174 registrations during February, up 24 percent year-on-year and up 12 percent on the previous month. It represented a bounce back for the market after a lackluster January as widespread incentives tempted consumers back into the showrooms. Fiat had a comfortable 6,000 unit advantage over its nearest rival, VW, which ended February with 54,608 sales, while GM (46,329) and Ford (23,646) were third and fourth respectively.

The data from Registro Nacional de Veículos Automotores (Renavam) was released by Associação Nacional dos Fabricantes de Veículos Automotores (Anfavea) which also keeps its estimate for the Brazilian market this year unchanged at 4.2 percent and expects the final ten months to follow the pattern of January and February and be up and down. There were two extra working days last month compared to the previous year.

Fiat's performance for the month just gone gave it a 23.5 percent share of the market and as well as being up 24.7 percent year-on-year, the carmaker was up 30 percent month-on-month against the overall market which rose 12 percent for the same period.

The New Uno was the best selling car in Brazil during February with 21,396 units registered, its sales up 27.8 percent on the previous month. The New Uno's ascent to the top of the pile comes just as the new two door derivative is arriving in the showrooms. Meanwhile, cementing a robust February's performance for Fiat, the Strada light pick-up retained its leadership amongst the category reserved for light commercial vehicles and with 10,045 units sold it was also up 35.2 percent on January.

For the year-to-date VW is the best performing car manufacturer in Brazil having wrested away Fiat Automóveis' long held crown and it has 108,908 sales combining cars and light commercial vehicles together. However Fiat is only narrowly behind having clawed back almost all of January's deficit last month and now stands on 107,464 units for the year-to-date. That means that for the first two months of the year VW has taken a 22.7 percent share of all sales with Fiat very close behind on 21.98 percent. The New Uno is also the top selling car in Brazil in 2011 with 38,281 units finding new owners for the year-to-date while the Strada is the biggest-selling LCV with 17,472 sales after the opening two months of 2011.

Meanwhile, overall Brazilian vehicle production of 310,700 units last month was up 24 percent year-on-year and 18.7 percent over January as well as being a February record. Brazilian total exports were also up 16.6 percent month-on-month.