When I started in this business, the coachbuilders in Turin were superstars. This is sad news.
I'm very sad to learn that the esteemed Gruppo Bertone styling house, which created some incredibly important cars in its 102-year history, is in bankruptcy court and could soon be closing its doors. This would be a tragic loss, and so unfortunate that Bertone has not been able to secure a corporate angel like Volkswagen, which bought Italdesign. There was some hope recently when Lilli Bertone, widow of the founder's son, Nuccio, was able to revive the company and put American designer Mike Robinson in charge. His car, the Pandion, a wild exercise with crazy 90-degree doors that were 11.8 feet high when opened, was proudly displayed along the ocean side of the lawn as part of Alfa Romeo's 100th-year celebration at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 2010. It was always surrounded by a mass of people. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to put Bertone back in the game. The end of Bertone would leave Pininfarina, founded in 1930, as the last of the great Turin coachbuilders still in existence. Its own troubles accelerated when it lost CEO Andrea Pininfarina, a bright star, so personable and smart and worldly, in a Vespa accident in 2008. His father, Sergio, continued to run the company, but his own death in 2012 leaves that firm's future in serious doubt.
Related story: The Last Italian Design House, by Robert Cumberford in Automobile Magazine, February 2011