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Fiat continued to lose
ground and underperform the UK market last month,
however Alfa Romeo posted major gains, up three quarters
year-on-year. In total 366,101 new cars were sold in the
UK last month, down just over thirty thousand units and
7.87 percent on March 2010.
The Fiat brand notched up 8,509 registrations last
month, down over two thousand units on the same period
last year, a fall of one fifth (-20.54 percent) and its
market share for the third month of the year thus
contracted from 2.69 to 2.32 percent year-on-year. Other
volume losers in the UK last month included Mazda
(-32.77 percent), Renault (-29.65 percent), Hyundai
(-25.62 percent), Honda (-21.7 percent), Kia (-18.49
percent) and Ford (-14.89 percent).
Alfa Romeo had yet another improved month thanks to the
Giulietta, with 2,269 registrations, up 66.36 percent
year-on-year. That compares favorably to last March when
the sports brand managed only 1,364 sales. Its market
share for the month thus hikes from 0.34 to 0.62 percent
year-on-year. Alfa Romeo was the biggest winner in
year-on-year terms in the UK last month, curiously its
closest rival was Saab, the Swedish carmaker actually
having hit the headlines this week after being forced to
halt production due to unpaid supplier bills. The other
big winners in March were Lexus (+26.38 percent), Mini
(+17.68 percent), Nissan (+14.69 percent), SEAT (+13.55
percent) and Mitsubishi (+11.05 percent).
Abarth was flat during March, 288 units sold was one
more than during the same month last year; however it's
0.35 percent year-on-year rise comfortably outperformed
the overall market and thus the Scorpion's share of the
market for the month just gone climbed from 0.07 to 0.08
percent year-on-year.
After the first three months of 2011 the UK has seen
558,336 new cars registered, more than fifty thousand
units less that during the first quarter of last year, a
decline of 8.70 percent. The Fiat brand slips three
times the market's fall and has a total of 12,340 units
for the year-to-date compared to 16,433 for the same
period last year which adds up to a year-on-year slump
of a quarter (-24.91 percent).
Alfa Romeo's sales are up 60.45 percent year-on-year for
the first quarter, its total of 3,148 units is one
thousand two hundred units ahead of January to March
2010's total of 1,962 units. Like its March performance,
Abarth is flat for the first quarter which however
comfortably out performs the overall market: 401 units
for the year-to-date is up 12 units on the same period
last year, putting the Scorpion up 3.35 percent.
With Dodge gone the Chrysler Group had two brands
remaining on the UK market, Chrysler and Jeep. Chrysler
Group hopes to retain the Chrysler brand in this market
and is awaiting several recently improved models as well
as a rebadged version of the new Lancia Ypsilon. With
125 units sold last month the Chrysler brand continued
to fade away, its sales halving year-on-year (-51.74
percent) and its market share dropping from 0.07 to 0.03
percent. Jeep, which is also awaiting new models, also
shed sales, 335 units during March was down 39.69
percent year-on-year and its market share down from 0.14
to 0.09 percent.
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