During July the overall new car market in Europe (combining the EU27 and EFTA signatories) was relatively flat (-1.9 percent) while the Fiat Group fell 9.9 percent to 75,365 units which meant its market share slipped from 7.8 to 7.2 percent for the month year-on-year. That placed Fiat Group amongst the big losers in Europe for the month, although only fractionally behind PSA Peugeot-Citroën (-9.8 percent) and well ahead of Renault (-11.7 percent) and Tsunami-effects-hit Toyota (-15.9 percent).

The Fiat brand was the rotten apple in the barrel as ever and its 52,781 sales in July was down 15.3 percent year-on-year; its market share thus dropped by 0.8 percent to 5.0 percent for the month. From July the Chrysler brand's sales are now counted combined with Lancia's, although with just a handful of registrations it doesn't really affect Lancia's total of 9,187 units sold in July, which was up 1.2 percent to outperform the overall market and raise its share of all European sales for the month to 0.9 percent. Alfa Romeo was also in positive territory, up 6.4 percent to 10,291 units which raised its European market share to 1.0 percent. Jeep, which now comes under the Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) banner in Europe, saw 2,413 sales in Europe last month, up 140.6 percent, to give it a 0.2 percent share of the July action. Finally, Ferrari and Maserati sold a total of 693 units in July, down 56.2 percent on the same month last year.

It got worse for Fiat Group into August as the European new car market bounced into positive territory (+7.8 percent) while the Italian carmaker went the opposite way (-7.6 percent). Only two carmakers amongst Fiat's peer group lost ground last month, PSA Peugeot-Citroën (-0.5 percent) and Toyota (-5.6 percent). In total Fiat Group sold 45,585 cars in Europe during a month when sales traditionally slow down in its domestic market, and its European market share dropped by a full percentage point to 5.8 percent for August.

The Fiat brand was the big loser again last month, it shed 11.9 percent of its sales year-on-year in August to 32,823 units, its share of the European market for the month dropping from 5.1 to 4.2 percent year-on-year. Lancia (including a smattering of Chrysler brand sales in the UK) was up 13.4 percent to 4,908 units, outperforming the overall market and keeping its market share very steady at 0.6 percent. Alfa Romeo is finally suffering from the sales effects of the new Giulietta wearing off and with no new models in the near future pipeline to look forward to - it's 5,919 units in August was down 1.8 percent year on year, keeping its market share reasonably steady on 0.8 percent. Making it two winners and two losers for FGA was Jeep, up by 134.4 percent to 1,613 units last month. Finally, there was no joy in August for the Fiat Group's niche luxury/performance brands: 322 units combined between Ferrari and Maserati was a sales collapse of more than two-thirds (-68.2 percent) on the same month last year.

After the first eight months of the year the European new car market is very slightly negative (-1.1 percent) while the Fiat Group with 667,096 sales is down 12.5 percent on the same period last year. That leaves the Italian carmaker at the bottom of the pile in year-on-year performance terms: the next worst performer amongst the big groups exposed in Europe is Renault, it's down 10.0 percent on the same period last year. The Fiat Group's market share for the year-to-date has shrunk from 8.2 to 7.3 percent year-on-year.

The Fiat brand is the main loser from FGA for the year-to-date, its 481,826 sales during first eight months of the year is down 18.2 percent and its market share for the period has shrunk by 1.1 percent to 5.2 percent for the period in year-on-year terms. Lancia is the other FGA loser for the year-to-date: 69,618 units is down 13.4 percent and its slice of the European market for the period slips to 0.8 percent. The other two FGA brands are both big winners for the year-to-date: Alfa Romeo's 94,625 units is up 37.7 percent on the same period last year and its overall market share is up by 0.3 percent to 1.0 percent, while Jeep is up by 46.0 percent to 14,729 units for the year-to-date, and its market share doubles to 0.2 percent. Ferrari and Maserati meanwhile have a total of 6,298 sales for the year-to-date, down by more than a half (-55.5 percent) on the same period last year.