The German new car market made a very positive start to the year during January and Alfa Romeo capitalised on that upward momentum as it saw its sales soar, the Fiat brand however went the other way as its sales slumped.
In total 269,429 new passenger cars were sold in Germany last month and that got the year off to an excellent start as the total market was up 11.6% when compared to the same month a year ago.
The picture was mixed for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) as the Fiat brand endured a dismal start to the year, it went the opposite way to the market, its sales shrinking by 11% year-on-year to 4,580 units. As a result Fiat's total market share for January was just 1.7%.
Fiat was in fact one of just five brands that were covered in red ink during January, the other four year-on-year fallers being Audi (-2.9%), Nissan (-3.2%), Lexus (-36.8%) and Tesla (-58.3%).
However while Fiat's sales went sharply south, Alfa Romeo's headed due north and it was the best performing brand in Germany in year-on-year terms, its sales up by 64.4% on January 2017. However that amounted to just 452 units as the brand continues to struggle to connect German consumers in decent volumes with its new Giulia sedan and Stelvio SUV.
An extra boost for FCA came as Jeep's 1,206 sales in January were up 41.9% year-on-year and made it the market's second best performing brand after Alfa Romeo in these terms.
