Italy April 2014: Fiat 500L confirms #2 spot, passes Punto ytd

The Fiat 500L is up to #2 in 2014 at home in Italy.

* NOW UPDATED with actuals for the Top 50 best-selling models & Top 45 All-brands! *

The Italian new car market is up a very shy 2% year-on-year in April to 119,803 registrations, bringing the year-to-date total to 499,720 units, up 5% on 2013. Below the Fiat Panda faithful to its pole position, the Fiat 500L confirms the 2nd spot it grabbed for the first time ever last month, thanks to 5,885 sales and 4.9% share. It even passes the Fiat Punto year-to-date to also rank #2 so far in 2014 at 21,442 units vs. 21,372.

The Fiat Punto is slowly but surely slipping down the Italian sales charts.

More bad news for the Punto, soon to be killed as a nameplate and replaced by a 5-door version of the 500: overtaken by the Fiat 500 itself in April, it drops to #4 for the first time in the nameplate’s 20 year history, meanwhile hitting (like last month) its worst share yet at 3.6%. Not that there is anything surprising about it, but these are historical times in the Italian sales charts: the death of a best-selling nameplate, like the Uno back in 1994. Perhaps the Punto will be reborn as ‘retro-chic’ in 2043 to celebrate its 50th anniversary? Just saying…

Hyundai i10

Further down the ranking, the Nissan Qashqai is up one further spot on March to #9, the VW Up seems to slowly gel with Italian carbuyers: spending a 2nd consecutive month inside the Top 20 and reaching its best-ever ranking to-date at #17 (also reached in June 2013), while the Hyundai i10 is up a beautiful 13 spots to #19, the BMW 1 Series up 17 to #34, Peugeot 308 up 15 to #41, Renault Scénic up 17 to #42, VW Passat up 18 to #43 and Peugeot 3008 up 22 to #49. Finally the Porsche Macan blasts onto the Italian sales charts with 257 sales or 58% of the brand’s total, pushing it up 122% year-on-year.

Previous post: Italy March 2014: Now with the Top 160 best-selling models

Previous month: Italy March 2014: Fiat 500L up to #2, above Punto for the first time

One year ago: Italy April 2013: Citroen C3 Picasso and VW Up! at highest ever

Full April 2014 Top 50 models and Top 45 All-brands Ranking Table below.