However the Fiat Group did outperform the two U.S. carmakers amongst its peers, GM and Ford, and for the year-to-date it has now moved above the latter in overall sales, into fifth place. The data has been released today by European automotive manufacturer body, ACEA, and covers the 27 members of the EU plus the EFTA signatories.

The Fiat Group's long term decline in Europe shows no sign of easing off and its February sales tally was in fact ten and a half thousand units down year-on-year. As a result its European market share last month weakened by 0.4 percent to 6.8 percent.

The positive news however was the stabilisation of the Fiat brand during February; it sold 43,698 new cars and that meant it outperformed the overall market after it dropped 6.7 percent year-on-year. That equated to a loss over just over three thousand sales but allowed it to strengthen its market share by 0.2 percent to 5.3 percent.

The other Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) brands all struggled last month and posted double digit losses. Alfa Romeo's sales collapsed by a further 41.8 percent in February to just 4,718 units and its market share thus dived by 0.3 percentage points year-on-year to 0.6 percent. Lancia (which includes a handful of Chrysler sales in its totals) meanwhile lost 38.5 percent of its sales, dropping to 5,477 units, and its market share also contracted by 0.3 percent year-on-year to 0.7 percent.

The niche brands also failed to ride out the downturn last month,; Jeep was down 16.3 percent year-on-year to 1,905 units while Ferrari and Maserati shifted a combined total of 187 cars, that added up to a 40.3 percent fall.

After the first two months of the year, the Fiat Group has 117,067 sales in Europe, down 14 percent year-on-year, while its market share for the period is down by 0.4 percent year-on-year to 6.7 percent.

The Fiat brand is down 5.3 percent and five thousand units to 90,649 units for the year-to-date; however that outperforms the overall market and thus its share of all sales is up by 0.2 percent on the opening two months of last year to rest on 5.2 percent.

Alfa Romeo is down 39.2 percent to just 10,359 units after the first two months of the year, with its overall market share down by 0.3 percent to 0.6 percent. Lancia (which includes a handful of Chrysler sales in its totals) is down by 35 percent to 11,675 sales, while its market share to the end of February is off 0.2 percent year-on-year to 0.7 percent.

Elsewhere Jeep has 3,905 sales in Europe for the year-to-date, down 15 percent to keep a 0.2 percent share of the market for the period, while Ferrari and Maserati have 479 sales after the first two months of 2013, down 39.5 percent year-on-year.