Fiat is no longer Italy's favourite car brand

By October 2024, the manufacturer was only in third place, behind Toyota and Volkswagen.

Photo by: Fiat

By: Fabio Gemelli

Nov 12, 2024 at 5:04am ET

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It may seem strange, but this is the third month in a row that the Fiat brand has fallen out of favour with Italian motorists. And that's saying something, because as anyone who travels in Italy will know, there used to be a Fiat on every street corner. The brand held a position comparable to that of Renault in France, or Volkswagen in Germany.

This historic fall from the throne, which began in August, is confirmed by the figures for new registrations in Italy in October 2024, which place Fiat in third place behind Volkswagen and Toyota. Last month, 10,928 Volkswagens, 10,630 Toyotas and 9,194 Fiat cars were registered in Italy. This is huge, because in the same month of 2023, Fiat still registered almost twice as many cars as the two aforementioned brands.

In cumulative terms since the start of 2024, Fiat is still at the top of the registration rankings with 128,875 units, but it has been overtaken by Toyota with 102,480 cars and Volkswagen with 100,307 units in third place.

Toyota Yaris Cross

Volkswagen T-Roc

Fiat 600

For Fiat, this means a fall of 13.9% in the first nine months of 2024, while Toyota and Volkswagen recorded +25.84% and -2.56% respectively compared with last year. The absolute change at the top will probably not yet take place in 2024, but the gap between Fiat and Toyota is likely to narrow further by the end of the year.

There are a number of reasons for this historic reversal in the rankings, first and foremost the transitional phase in which the Fiat brand finds itself, as it bids farewell to important models and has not yet started marketing new models at full speed.

Fiat 500C

The Fiat 500 Hybrid, which ended production in Poland last summer and is running out of stock, is a case in point, as is the Fiat 600, which has only just been launched with mild hybrid engines. The new Fiat 500 Torino (the electric 500 with a petrol mild hybrid engine) will have to wait until at least the end of 2025.

Fiat Grande Panda

Photos by : Fiat

Added to this are the high expectations for the Fiat Grande Panda, which is not yet available in Italy, and the massive drop in registrations of the 500X and Tipo, models that are now almost ten years old.

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Toyota's excellent sales results in Italy are the result of a hybrid range that is very popular with local motorists, who focus mainly on the Yaris Cross, the Yaris, the Aygo X, the C-HR and the plug-in hybrid version of the RAV4.

Toyota C-HR

Volkswagen, for its part, is building on the success of its SUVs, notably the T-Roc, T-Cross and Tiguan, while the Polo and Golf, with the Taigo, continue to find many customers.