Fiat Group can however point to a domestic transporter drivers strike that bit into deliveries last month and it should get some bounce back for April as delayed deliveries are unblocked. However Fiat Group's underlying problem remains a lack of new models with which to entice consumers coupled to a continued reliance to its battered domestic market to generate volumes. In total, 1,499,380 new cars were sold in Europe (EU27+EFTA) last month according to industry body ACEA.

Fiat Group ended March with 81,469 sales which was a fall of close to thirty thousand units and 25.8 percent on the same month last year when sales totaled 109,831 units. As a result the Group's market share slid from 6.8 percent in March 2011 to 5.4 percent last month. That dropped Fiat Group down to seventh place for the month, nearly twelve thousand units adrift of BMW which moved up to sixth place. Eighth placed Daimler was seven and a half thousand units further back.

In volume terms the Fiat brand was the hardest hit, its 58,480 units last months compared to 80,174 in March 2011 was a decline of 27.1 percent and reduced its market share year-on-year from 5.0 to 3.9 percent. Reflecting its troubles, the Fiat brand was outsold by Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota and Nissan amongst others as it unusually fell out of the top ten best selling brands in Europe.

Alfa Romeo is seeing its gains of last year rapidly reversed in 2012 and 10,159 units sold last month in Europe was a steep drop of 6,000 units and 37.6 percent when compared to the 16,287 units it shifted in March 2011. That in fact left Alfa Romeo as the single worst performing brand in Europe last month ahead of the next poorest, Mitsubishi, which dropped 32.7 percent. Alfa Romeo will be hoping that it improves on that result this month when backlogs are cleared following the conclusion of the transporter drivers' strike. As a result of losing more than a third of its sales, Alfa Romeo's European market share for March dropped from 1.0 percent in 2011 to 0.7 percent in 2012.

Lancia lost 12.9 percent as it slipped to 9,268 units for the month just gone compared to 10,638 in March 2011. Lancia's sales include Chrysler brand sales in the UK and Republic of Ireland, which came it a little under seven hundred units. As a result of underperforming the market Lancia's sales dipped from 0.7 percent in March last year to 0.6 percent last month.

Jeep was the only FGA brand to escape the red ink last month and its sales were up by more than a half year-on-year from 1,838 units in March 2011 to 2,876 units last month. The hike in sales for the Jeep brand, which added up to a rise of 56.5 percent, was in fact the best performance of any brand broken down by ACEA for March, with the next best performer in year-on-year terms being Land Rover which was up 33.0 percent. Finally, the Fiat Group's two luxury/performance brands, Ferrari and Maserati, lost nearly a quarter of their sales combined during March, dropping 208 units and 23.3 percent to 686 units.

After the first quarter of 2012 a total of 3,427,677 cars have been sold in Europe, a fall of thirty thousand units and 7.3 percent on the same period last year. Fiat Group has 217,434 registrations for the first quarter, a decline of just under fifty five thousand units on the same period last year.

Amongst the major carmaking groups Fiat Group is the second poorest performer for the year-to-date, down 20.0 percent, while Renault is also sharply down, dropping 22.7 percent. The other double-digit losers amongst the 'big nine' were PSA Peugeot-Citroën (-17.0 percent) and GM (-11.9 percent).

Taking all the carmakers exposed to the European market together, as well as Renault, Mitsubishi (-29.0 percent) and Honda (-25.5 percent) have both fared worse than Fiat Group although these two come off the back of quite small volumes. Fiat Group's market share for the first quarter thus drops from 7.4 percent in 2011 to 6.3 percent in 2012.

The Fiat brand has 154,071 registrations for the year-to-date which is down just under forty five thousand units on the January to March period last year when sales came in at 197,036 units. That pushed the Fiat brand's Q1 market share down from 5.3 percent last year to 4.5 percent this year.

Lancia has 27,216 sales for the year-to-date which is virtually flat (-1.3 percent) on the same period last year when it shifted 27,582 cars and as a result its Q1 market share climbs from 0.7 percent last year to 0.8 percent this year. Alfa Romeo is almost level pegging with Lancia for the year-to-date, the 'sports' brand has 27,194 sales for the year-to-date but when compared to 40,010 units for Q1 last year that is a drop of almost one-third (-32.0 percent) to make it comfortably FGA's worst performer for the period. As a result Alfa Romeo's Q1 share of European sales dips from 1.1 percent last year to 0.8 percent this year.

As well as being FGA's year-on-year winner for March, Jeep is the best performer for the year-to-date and 7,469 sales for Q1 compared to 4,716 during the same period last year is a rise of more than a half (+58.4 percent). As a result Jeep's European market share for the year-to-date doubles year-on-year to 0.2 percent. Ferrari and Maserati have sold a combined 1,384 units for the Q1 which is a decline of 38.1 percent over the same period last year when they shifted 2,397 units.