Struggling Bertone Facing Uncertain Future

One of Italy’s great coachbuilders and design houses faces a bleak future. It seems that the big car manufacturers are using their own internal design studios for niche products which were previously subbed out. Remember all of those convertibles like the Vauxhall Astra, which used to sport a natty little Bertone badge on it’s flank. Bertone are not alone as Karmann and Pininfarina, etc will all be suffering from this. These products must have been the bread and butter jobs which supported these creative studios and allowed them to produce the concept cars and more experimental designs. I think it is sad that these creative, independent studios could be lost due to manufacturers taking things in-house.

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Design is always best subbed out in my opinion. Internal departments cannot think freely enough and are too ingrained in the company culture to produce great work. Don’t get me wrong, there are some fabulous designs to come out of internal design studios, but I bet they could have been better if released from the shackles of multiple layers of management and bean counters.

Bertone designed most of the cool Lamborghini’s including the Muira (probably one of the best looking cars ever) and the crazy Countach (80’s teenagers wet dream car). Amazing, impractical, bizarre designs which define the supercar. Will we see the like from Audi? - I think not!

Am I just being nostalgic or is this potentially a huge loss to the design world?