The Fiat brand mirrored the Turkish new cars market’s downwards slide last month as it added a further twelve thousand units, down 9% year-on-year, although comfortably outperforming the overall market’s slide, to bring its total sales for the year to ninety thousand units. Niche brand Alfa Romeo, meanwhile, saw its sales halve during November.
In total Turkey saw seventy-five thousand new cars registered during November and if twenty-five thousand more Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) sales are added in, the combined new market stood at one just on hundred thousand units for the month.
That represented a year-on-year slump of more than 17%. For the year-to-date total sales in Turkey stand at 719,095 units, with 547,109 of those being passenger cars the remainder, 171,986, being LCVs.
Fiat, was the fourth biggest selling brand on the new car market last month but was down 9% year-on-year and its share of the total market share came in at 12%. That 9% fall though was half the overall market’s decline.
Fiat’s front runner status on the Turkish market comes thanks to Tofas, its longstanding local joint venture with Turkish conglomerate Koç Holding, which has its assembly plant located in Bursa. The Italian brand sold 5,358 cars during November with the bulk of these, 5,160 units, being assembled locally, while the balance, 198 units, were imported. Fiat also sold 6,708 LCVs, with 6,076 of these being assembled locally, for a total of 12,066 units for the month.
That was bettered by Renault (13,984 units) which bucked the overall falling market to post a ten percent gain while VW (12,937 units) in second and Ford (12,733 units) in third were also year-on-year fallers.
Fiat’s big winner was the Egea with 4,322 units registered to take a 4.3% share of November sales, however that was down 7% year-on-year. The Egea has reached forty thousand sales for the year and is the best-selling model in Turkey for the first eleven months of the year. The Doblo and Fiorino, account for the bulk of Fiat’s LCV sales, and both comfortably made it into the top ten model names sold on the market with just over three thousand units apiece. The ageing Linea sedan contributed just over five hundred units while the Ducato van range was a little shy of that marker. The Fullback, a rebadged Mitsubishi Triton pickup, is now selling decently on this market and added 162 units last month, while the 500, 500X, 500L, Punto and Panda all saw sales in double figures.
Fiat has sold a total of 89,791 units in Turkey for the year-to-date. That breaks down as 47,658 cars (46,100 being assembled locally and 1,558 imported) and 42,133 LCV sales (37,206 assembled locally and 4,927 imported). For the year so far Fiat is the second biggest selling brand, trailing Renault by seven and a half thousand units while sitting more than a thousand units ahead of third placed VW.
Alfa Romeo sold 26 cars in Turkey during November, a loss of half its sales year-on-year, to bring its tally to 267 units for the year-to-date. Almost all of those November sales came from the C-segment Giulietta hatchback with the Giulia, Stelvio and 4C picking up a single registration each.
FCA's Jeep brand added a further 246 units during November and is now on 1,781 units for the year so far.
Of the niche Italian sportscar brands exposed on the Turkish market, Maserati weighed in with 17 sales during November, 15 of those going to the Levante, while Ferrari and Lamborghini sold two cars apiece.
IVECO meanwhile saw 269 LCV sales in November, with the majority of those coming from the Daily van range.
