In share terms the Fiat brand trailed most of the down market volume brands in Germany including Citroën which grabbed 2.9 percent share, Hyundai (3.6 percent), Opel (6.5 percent), Peugeot (2.4 percent) Renault/Dacia (4.9 percent), Skoda (4.0 percent) and Toyota/Lexus (2.5 percent), although it did just squeeze out Nissan (2.2 percent).

Alfa Romeo, currently without a fully sustainable model range, sold 695 cars in January which gave it a 0.3 percent share of the market. That was a year-on-year drop of 16 percent, the fourth worst on this market in these terms behind Daihatsu (-51.6 percent), Mazda (-40.1 percent) and Renault/Dacia (-17.3 percent). Ironically for most of 2011 Alfa Romeo was amongst the market's best performers, its abrupt reversal demonstrating once again the chaotic recent management of this brand by Fiat.

Lancia was the best performer from FGA for January in Germany as well as being the best performer on the whole market in year-on-year terms, up 358.4 percent, albeit off a total volume of 353 units. that gave Lancia a 0.2 percent market share for the month. Lancia was in fact considerably the best year-on-year performer, next closest were Kia (+132.1 percent) and Land Rover (+81.4 percent).

Also amongst the stellar performers last month was Chrysler Group, although it too is coming off small volumes. KBA data still combines the three brands - Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep - although in reality most if not all the volume comes from the Jeep brand as the other two have been pulled from this market. The total for Chrysler Group last month came in at 561 units and, although year-on-year data is less meaningful, that was up 61.7 percent on January 2011 and made the Fiat-controlled U.S. carmaker the fourth most improved for the opening month of the year. Chrysler Group took a 0.3 percent market share for the month.