Popular Italian Car Designer, Pininfarina, In Financial Trouble

[JoeT]

Pininfarina In Financial Trouble

Australian Car Advice
14 November 2007
www.caradvice.com.au

Italian design firm Pininfarina is in serious financial trouble. The company has lost 39.1 million euros in the first nine months of this year, an increase of 22.8 million euros over the same period in 2006.

Pininfarina has designed (and built) some of the best looking cars in the world today, such as the Ferrari Enzo, Maserati Quattroporte, Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, Volvo C70, Ferrari 599, Ford Focus CC and most recently, the Maserati GranTurismo.

Of course the company has had its hand in some of the not so good looking cars in the world, such as the Mitsubishi Colt Cabriolet.

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[j_granlund]

I wish them all the best. They have designed some truly beautiful cars.

[AndrewGS]

Let's hope they pull through. This is the company that bodied the beautiful Allante.

[member12]

And the aveo, right?

[AndrewGS]

Originally Posted by member12

And the aveo, right?

That was actually Giorgetto Giugiaro, another famous Italian designer.

[xPUMPx]

lol at Andrew GS

[AndrewGS]

Originally Posted by xPUMPx

lol at Andrew GS

LOL @ What?

[nadepalma]

Andrew GS is right -- it was Giugiaro who designed the original Kalos/Aveo before the GM redesign. He also did the Lacetti/Nubira and a few other Daewoo designs.

As for Pininfarina -- I'd be interested to see if they team up with someone soon. Bertone is also struggling in Italy. They used to build the Fiat Barchetta convertible for them, but since that product went bye-bye they have been struggling.

We'll have to see. But they have enough cachet in just the name that I'm sure they could team up to build a product for SOMEONE out there.

[AndrewGS]

Originally Posted by nadepalma

Andrew GS is right -- it was Giugiaro who designed the original Kalos/Aveo before the GM redesign. He also did the Lacetti/Nubira and a few other Daewoo designs.

He also did the DeLorean among others like Alfas, Bugattis, Maseratis, Fiats, Suzuki SX4 and Nikon cameras.

The most recent Pininfarina designs are the Maserati GranTourismo, Ford Focus Coupe-Cabrio, Ferrari 599 and Volvo C70.

[skylark68]

I'm surprised the Chinese haven't courted Pininfarina or one of the other italian design firms for one of their cars.

[prowlerjc]

^^Give them time....

[nadepalma]

Originally Posted by skylark68

I'm surprised the Chinese haven't courted Pininfarina or one of the other italian design firms for one of their cars.

Originally Posted by prowlerjc

^^Give them time....

Actually, they already did. Supposedly when Malcolm Bricklin was working with Chery on getting Visionary Vehicles off the ground, they turned to the Europeans for just about everything. They had one group to set the styling, another to design/engineer the engine, brought in consultants for the platforms, etc.

I'm not sure if they loooked to Pininfarina or Bertone or anyone else by name, but they did look to outside sources.

That's one reason why Bricklin's plan was so plausible --- they didn't have to try and make up for 15 years worth of know-how themselves; they would use suppliers/consultants/etc to close the gap much sooner.

After that, the issue becomes parts sourcing and manufacturing --- and China is very good at both. Consider that many parts come from low-wage countries like China, India, Mexico, etc and usually don't have many problems. Also consider that the Chinese DO in fact manufacture very good quality high-end products like laptops, iPods, etc. True, they ARE know for the cheaps stuff -- and God knows that many low-end products and foodstuffs have had issues of late. But many components and finished products do come from China and sell reasonably well.

So when you put all of it together, they could have been a real "threat" in the long-term.

Hell, even companies like the former Daewoo Motors brought Porsche Engineering in to help them design their I6 engines, etc. Now the Chinese are following suit.

This is also one reaons that I've put up multiple posts on SAIC, Nanging, their proposed merger, and what it could mean for western-automakers in the years ahead. The world has gotten so small, that they will be able to compete in a much smaller amount of time than many suspect. They didn't have to "learn" this stuff or "develop it" over time the way western-companies did. They can simply buy the technology and adapt it.

Just my two cents.

[skylark68]

^^ makes sense to me. I'm fearful about what is going to happen to the U.S. industry when China comes a knockin'. Maybe it'll hurt the Koreans more than the U.S. automakers...