Fiat and Alfa Romeo enjoyed mixed sales performances in the U.S. during December with the former falling down a third to finish the year losing a fifth of sales while the latter, thanks to two key new models, stormed away to successfully cap off a very robust year.
Fiat brand – with a four model portfolio – gave up exactly on third of its sales year-on-year last month, 1,738 units, comparing unfavourably to 2,606 units during December 2016.
Its two main volume sellers were down, the 500 saw its sales collapse by just over a half to 667 units (vs 1,411 in December 2016) while the 500X fell by a fifth to 673 units (vs 843 in December 2016).
The two niche models in the Fiat brand portfolio both gained ground however with the Spider up 15% to 287 units (vs 250 in December 2016) and the 500L up 9% to 111 units (vs 102 units in December 2016).
However, that contrasted sharply with Alfa Romeo which saw all three of its models gaining ground. The D-segment Giulia sedan was the volume driver, with 1,011 units sold during December, the final month of 2017 marking exactly a year after it first went on sale in the U.S. so year-on-year data isn’t comparable.
It’s the same story in terms of year-on-year data for the Stelvio which was introduced a few months ago, it added another 997 units in December as it starts to gain traction. Month-on-month the mid size SUV was up almost a third (vs 657 units in November 2017).
The 4C sportscar enjoyed a solid month, it was up by 3 units year-on-year after finding 26 buyers during December.
For the full year just gone the Fiat brand shifted 26,492 cars which was down 19% on 2016 when it sold 32,742 cars. Across the 500 family there is plenty of year-on-year red ink, the 500 with 12,685 sales last year is down 18% on the same twelve months of 2016 while the 500L with 1,664 sales, and the 500X, with 7,665 sales, are down 47% and 35% respectively.
The Spider though finished the year on 4,478 units although its full year-on-year data isn’t reflective yet as it went on sale in the U.S. during 2016.
For the bigger picture Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) saw its sales fall yet again during December, it was down 11% to 171,946 units. The U.S. focused passenger vehicle brands struggled to gain ground during December, Jeep was down 12% to 73,205 units, Dodge was down 23% to 27,885 units while Chrysler was just in positive territory, up 3% to 17,208 units thanks mainly to a robust month for the Pacifica minivan. Meanwhile, the Ram brand was down 7% to 49,876 units.
FCA ends the year with 2,059,376 sales, a fall of 8%For the full year Jeep was down 11% to 828,522 units, Chrysler down 19% to 188,545 units and Dodge down 12% to 446,996 units while the only bright spot came from RAM which gained 2% to 556,790 units.
