According to European vehicle manufacturer body, ACEA, a total of 998,899 new cars were sold in the region (EU27+ETFA) last month, a fall of just under fifty thousand units on October 2011.

With a year-on-year shortfall of four thousand units, Fiat Group trimmed its own loss in October to 5.8 percent. That meant, amongst its peer group, it outperformed Renault (-21.2 percent), GM (-14.2 percent) and Ford (-8.1 percent), while it was only narrowly behind PSA Peugeot-Citroën (-5.1 percent). The Fiat Group's market share remained reasonably steady in October, slipping 0.1 percent to 6.5 percent year-on-year.

The Fiat brand enjoyed a soft landing: 48,068 units last month representing a decline of 2.7 percent which outperformed the overall market and as a result its October share climbed by 0.1 percent to 4.8 percent year-on-year.

Lancia and Alfa Romeo didn't fare so well last month, the former was down 15 percent year-on-year to 6,952 units while the latter lost 17.6 percent to 7,076 units. (Lancia includes a token number of Chrysler brand sales in the UK in its overall data). Both brands saw their European market share slip by 0.1 percent year-on-year to 0.7 percent.

Meanwhile, the niche brands were mixed during October, Jeep was up 6 percent to 2,322 units while the two luxury/performance brands, Ferrari and Maserati, sold a combined 318 cars, down 15.2 percent on the same period last year.

For the year-to-date, 10,722,859 new cars have been sold in Europe according to ACEA, down three quarters of a million units and 6.9 percent on the same period last year.

The Fiat Group, meanwhile, has a total of 688,468 sales over the first ten months of the year, and when compared to 818,544 during the same period of 2011 that's a fall of 15.9 percent.

It all adds up to leave Fiat Group as the second worst performer amongst the main nine groups in Europe, behind Renault (-17.9 percent) and in fact the third poorest of all carmakers exposed to this market in these terms, behind Renault and Mitsubishi, the latter which is down 32.4 percent.

The Fiat Group's market share in Europe has thus contracted by 0.7 percent on the same ten month period last year to stand at 6.4 percent for the year-to-date.

In volume terms the Fiat brand is the Italian carmaker's biggest loser for the year-to-date, shedding more than ninety thousand units year-on-year to rest on 499,876 units after the first ten months of the year, a fall of 15.5 percent. That means the Fiat brand's overall sales share slips by 0.4 percent year-on-year to 4.7 percent for the year-to-date.

Lancia (which includes a token number of Chrysler brand sales in the UK in its data) has 81,428 registrations for the year-to-date, which means it falls just over five thousand units and 6.9 percent, and thus matches the overall market's direction. Alfa Romeo, meanwhile, has had a disastrous year, its 79,256 units represents a slump of thirty five thousand units on the same period last year. While Lancia remains unchanged with a 0.8 percent share of European sales so far this year, Alfa Romeo drops by 0.3 percent year-on-year to 0.7 percent.

Finally, Jeep has 23,560 sales for the year-to-date (+20.1 percent) while Ferrari and Maserati combined have 4,348 sales, down 29.7 percent on the same period last year.