In terms of passenger car the overall market was down 9.6 percent in May to 210,216 units. Fiat sold 45,865 passenger car units last month and when compared to 53,151 units in May 2011 that was down 13.7 percent and slightly underperformed the overall market. It however kept Fiat on top of the passenger car segment a handful of units ahead of GM which sold 45,826 cars and was down 2.5 percent year-on-year and a couple of hundred units ahead of VW which shifted 45,664 units (including Audi) and was down 11.6 percent. Fourth placed Ford was well adrift with 19,474 sales.

In month-on-month terms Fiat's 10.7 percent rise mirrored the overall market which was up 11.4 percent when comparing May to April. VW meanwhile was up 6.6 percent month-on-month and GM up 37.6 percent.

For the year-to-date 1,001,743 new passenger cars have been sold in Brazil, down 4.7 percent on the same period last year. Fiat closely matches the overall market and its 224,163 units is down 4.8 percent year-on-year. It also keeps Fiat narrowly ahead of VW in the passenger car segment as the German carmaker has 223,323 sales so far this year, down 5.9 percent on the same period of 2011.

In the segment reserved for Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) sales, a further 64,062 were added last month, down 5.7 percent year-on-year. Fiat easily dominated this segment as usual with 13,617 sales, which was flat (-0.3 percent) on the same period last year but which outperformed the overall market. GM with 8,959 LCV sales pipped VW to second place and bucked the segment's downward trend to finish May up 4.7 percent, while VW's 8,873 units represented a 19.4 percent fall, underperforming the overall market more than three times.

In month-on-month terms the Brazilian LCV sector enjoyed a decent surge, up 15.8 percent and Fiat also enjoyed that rise, it was up 12.6 percent compared to April. VW meanwhile was up 5.7 percent month-on-month and GM up 11.0 percent.

After the first five months of the year 289,394 LCVs have been sold in Brazil, down ten thousand units and 3.5 percent year-on-year. Fiat again mirrors the market as its 62,367 units sold so far in 2012 is just over a thousand units and 2.1 percent less than the January to May period for last year. Fiat is well clear though of second placed VW which is on 43,270 units, 5.1 percent down on the same period last year. Third placed GM is on 36,474 units.