That contrasted badly to the overall market which was up by more than four percent as Europe enjoyed its best February sales in volume terms for a decade. Nearly all major European markets posted growth, except for the United Kingdom (-2.8%) – where car sales declined for the eleventh consecutive month – and Italy (-1.4%). Spain (+13.0%) recorded the strongest gains, followed by Germany (+7.4%) and France (+4.3%).

The Fiat brand dragged the whole Group’s performance down as it fell 8.8% to 60,083 units a year-on-year decline of almost six thousand units and as a result its market share fell to 5.2%. Fiat was the worst performing volume brand in Europe last month and in fact one of the few brands to miss the positive direction of the overall market.

Alfa Romeo however went in the right direction and it was up more than one thousand units and 17.1% to 7,370 units to keep its share of the market steady on 0.6%. That put it amongst Europe’s best performers in year-on-year terms during February.

Lancia, with its sales restricted to Italy, is now seeing a rapid decline in demand for its single model, the Ypsilon, and it slumped 42.2% to 4,197 units.

The niche brands, Maserati and Ferrari endured a disappointing February, down 13.2% to a combined to of 639 units. Finally, FCA’s Jeep brand was up 50.2% to 12,056 units.

From January to February demand for new cars has increased by just under six percent across Europe. Momentum though is starting to slow down in certain markets, especially in the United Kingdom (-5.1%). However, passenger car registrations continued to grow in Spain (+16.4%), Germany (+9.5%) and France (+3.4%) during the first two months of 2018.

For the year to date FCA has 169,508 sales which is almost flat (-1.5%) on the first two months of last year but in the face of a climbing market its share is down half a point to 6.9%.

The Fiat brand is down 7.3% to 120,034 units and as a result its market share has fallen by half a point to 4.9%. It’s Europe’s worst performing volume brand for the year-to-date.

Alfa Romeo is up 20.7% to 14,836 units and is amongst the best performers in year-on-year terms while Lancia is down 35.5% to 8,457 units and is the biggest losing brand in Europe so far this year.

Ferrari and Maserati have a combined 1,435 sales after the first two months of the year and are down 18.1% on the same period last year. Finally, the Jeep brand is up 59.8% to 24,746 units.