Italy Full Year 2013: Fiat Panda leads, Fiat 500L lands in 5th place, Top 5 All-Italian for the first time in 30 years!

The Fiat 500L ranks 5th for its first full year in market at home.

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It’a dark year for new car sales in Italy, after losing 15% in 2011 and 19% in 2012, the market drops by a further 100,000 units or 7% in 2013 to 1,310,949 registrations, the weakest annual figure in 34 years (since 1979). However, there could be a light at the end of the tunnel, with new registrations up year-on-year for the first time in 42 months (!) in December, and UNRAE predicting a meagre 2% growth for 2014 at 1.335 million units. In this sombre context, the Fiat Panda easily keeps its crown in spite of sales down 14% to 101,672 units and 7.8% share, while the Fiat Punto is testing new lows: down 20% to 63,984 sales and 4.9%, its lowest ever annual volume and first time below 5% share at year-end. The Punto dropped to lowest ever 4.4% in March, 4.3% in September and 4.2% in November. Its replacement by a 5 door 500 cannot come soon enough.

The Fiat Panda enjoys a 2nd consecutive year atop the Italian sales charts.

Below the Lancia Ypsilon (+5%) and Fiat 500 (-6%) stable at #3 and #4, the Fiat 500L is the most spectacular performer of 2013, landing directly at #5 for its first full year in market with 38,229 sales and 2.9% share, and it could climb higher (podium?) in 2014 as it beat its little sister the 500 each and every month of the 2nd half of the year. This means the entire Top 5 is 100% composed of Italian models, and if this seems like a formality to you, you would be wrong: it has not happened in almost 30 years! Back to 1984 to be precise, when the Fiat Uno led the way with over 20% share, followed by the Panda, Regata, Ritmo and Autobianchi A112! A different world altogether: the Top 5 added up to just under 46% of the market back then, vs. 22% today.

The last time the Italian Top 5 was 100% Italian, the Fiat Regata was the third best-seller…

In 6th place, the VW Golf reclaims the title of best-selling foreigner thanks to 33,712 sales, ahead of the Renault Clio (+38%), Ford Fiesta (-21%), VW Polo (-2%) and Peugeot 208, up a shy 37% for its first full year of sales. It is the first time since 2004 (Ford Focus) that the Ford Fiesta is not the #1 foreigner and the first time since 1999 that the Golf is crowned.

The VW Golf is the best-selling foreigner in Italy for the first time since 1999.

Further down, the Mercedes A-Class is up 75% to a splendid 17th place with 15,539 sales, the Citroen C3 Picasso is more than doubling its 2012 sales to #19, the Dacia Sandero up 67% to #20 (reaching a best-ever #12 in August), VW Up! up 51% to #21, Mini Countryman up 62% to #22, BMW 3 Series up 9 spots to #23, Audi A3 up 98% and 40 ranks to #26 and the Kia Sportage up 32% and 20 spots to #28. The Renault Captur is the best-selling all-new model, landing at #33 with 10,379 sales and peaking at #14 in October and December, ahead of the Opel Mokka at #41 and the Peugeot 2008 at #58 but peaking at a fantastic #12 above the Peugeot 208 in November…

Previous post: Italy December 2013: Mini Countryman inside the Top 20 for the first time in first positive month since May 2010

One year ago: Italy 2012: Fiat Panda ends 18 years of Punto reign in worst market since 1979

Two years ago: Italy 2011: An Alfa Romeo in the Top 10 for the first time since 1990!

Full Year 2013 Top 50 models and Top 46 All-brands Ranking Tables below.