Meanwhile Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) three token brands in the UK - Abarth, Jeep and Chrysler - all enjoyed strong bounces during October although in reality this trio are all far from profitability.

In total 151,252 new cars were sold in the UK last month according to industry body SMMT, and that was up more than sixteen thousand units and 12.09 percent year-on-year.

The Fiat brand added 3,960 sales last month and that was up more than one thousand units and 39 percent on October 2011 when it sold 2,849 units. That also raised Fiat's market share from 2.11 percent in October last year to 2.62 percent last month.

Alfa Romeo's difficult UK sales run continued unabated last month and it wasn't able to take any advantage from the market's positive run, its 527 units last month compared to 786 in October 2011 added up to a sharp fall of 32.95 percent.

That left Alfa Romeo as one of the market's weakest performers along with Renault, which lost nearly half its sales, and Subaru, which was down 41.48 percent after just reaching three figure sales. Alfa Romeo's October market share in the UK thus fell from 0.58 percent last year to 0.35 percent this year.

The niche brands all had a good month, Chrysler, up 287.80 percent, and Jeep, up 177.87 percent, were actually the UK's top performing brands in year-on-year terms last month, albeit off the back of sales of just 159 and 339 cars respectively. That gave Chrysler a 0.11 percent share of the market for October and Jeep 0.22 percent.

Abarth, meanwhile, was the fifth best performing brand in year-on-year terms in October, up 47 units to 118 units which added up to a rise of 66.20 percent. That gave the Scorpion brand a 0.08 percent share of the UK market for October. Finally in October, Maserati shifted 33 cars, down 3 units and 8.33 percent on the same month last year.

After the first 10 months of the year a total of 1,771,861 new cars have been sold in the UK, up 4.97 percent year-on-year. The Fiat brand meanwhile is on 43,740 units for the period, and, when compared to 37,041 during January to October 2011, that added up to a rise of 18.09 percent. Thanks to comfortably beating the market, Fiat's year-to-date share is also up, from 2.19 percent last year to 2.47 percent this year.

There is no such positive news for Alfa Romeo as its UK position continues to deteriorate quickly, its 6,642 sales so far this year when compared to 10,266 units during the same period last year equates to a fall of 35.30 percent. Alfa Romeo's market share for the year-to-date thus slides from 0.61 percent last year to 0.37 percent this year.

FGA's two America brands, Chrysler and Jeep, are both positive for the year-to-date, the former is up 268.41 percent to 3,091 units while the latter is up 12.28 percent to 2,011 units. That triples Chrysler's share of the UK market to 0.17 percent while Jeep remains flat on 0.11 percent.

Abarth has 1,057 sales for the year-to-date, down a hundred units and 8.56 percent on the same ten month period last year to give it a 0.06 percent share of the UK market. Finally, Maserati has sold 273 cars this year in the UK, down 21.33 percent.