Andrea Pininfarina, who has died aged 51 in a traffic accident in Turin, presided over the most famous and prestigious name in Italian automobile body design. In recent years, the family firm has been affected by the challenges faced by the industry, and at the time of his death, Andrea was seeking a formula to carry its distinguished legacy forward.
His grandfather, Battista "Pinin" Farina, founded the coachbuilding house of Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in Turin in 1930 (it became Pininfarina when the family name was changed in 1961 by Italian presidential decree) and by the end of the 1950s, he had been largely responsible for establishing the architecture of the modern European car and putting the art and science of Italian automotive design in the world spotlight. His Cisitalia 202 coupé remains the only permanent car exhibit in New York's Museum of Modern Art.
As the Italian economic miracle gained momentum, and Battista began to think of retirement, his son, Sergio, was tasked with bringing the industry into the modern era of mass series production. In its new automated factory at Grugliasco, Pininfarina could not only scheme on paper and in clay, but also engineer and build it by the thousand.
A businessman rather than the artist his father had been, Sergio skilfully steered the firm through the political and legislative machinations of the 1960s, 70s and 80s, forging links with all the great marques of Europe and making the name of Pininfarina increasingly synonymous with Ferrari. Almost every Ferrari road car since the late 1950s has been the work of Pininfarina.
Andrea, born in Turin, was the eldest son of Sergio and Giorgia Pininfarina. He graduated from Turin Polytechnic in 1981 as a mechanical engineer and, like his father, gained his first business experience in the US by joining the Fruehauf Corporation, in Indianapolis, in 1982.
Andrea took his first position at Pininfarina in 1983 as the programme manager of the Cadillac Allanté project. This two-seater luxury convertible was an attempt to challenge Mercedes. General Motors decreed that the bodies should be built, as well as styled, by Pininfarina. The logistics of this $600m deal were extraordinary: Pininfarina built the bodies and then flew them, 56 at a time, on specially equipped Boeing 747s to Michigan, where they were mated with their power trains. To accommodate this "air bridge", Turin airport had to be enlarged.
It was an inauspicious beginning to Andrea's career, as the Allanté body had widely acknowledged quality problems and is mainly remembered for its persistently leaky hood. In 1987 Andrea became the co-general manager of Pininfarina, then, in 1988, general manager. He took the position of managing director in 1994 as his father reverted to a background role. Andrea became chief executive in 2001.
Throughout the 1990s, Andrea oversaw important work for the company's traditional customers, such as Ferrari, Fiat and Alfa Romeo, and maintained long-term links with Peugeot, in France. Listed on the Italian stock exchange since 1986, Pininfarina had become a large group with a variety of foreign outposts. It had also expanded beyond cars into industrial design (trams and trains) and corporate work such as its Lavazza coffee machines. Pininfarina even designed the torch for the 2006 winter Olympics in Turin.
But automotive work remained the focus, despite the services the boutique Italian styling houses offered becoming much less important to large car manufacturers, which were increasingly developing internal design talent and expertise, even for low-volume models. However, Pininfarina's relationship with Ferrari, and its authorship of a succession of ever more successful models such as the 360, 599GTB and the latest, the California, has maintained the glamour of the name, while many rivals have fallen by the wayside.
Lately, Pininfarina has been widely praised for its styling of the Maserati Quattroporte and Granturismo models and has sustained motor-show visitors with a diet of one-off prototypes and dream cars that have always been part of the firm's tradition. His grandfather had built one-off specials for the likes of Brigitte Bardot and Roberto Rossellini in the 1950s and Andrea sanctioned specially commissioned vehicles for customers including the Sultan of Brunei.
However, as Andrea knew, these glamour projects would never balance the books. Convertible models for Alfa Romeo, Ford, Mitsubishi and Volvo have kept the 3,500 employees occupied while consultancy work in the motor industries of Korea, China and India have been vigorously pursued, but Pininfarina sustained a £91m loss last year alone.
At the time of death, Andrea was in the midst of a financial restructuring of the firm, keeping the creditors at bay as he engineered an £80m recapitalisation that would reduce the family's interest from 55% to around 30%. New investors included the Indian tycoon Ratan Tata and the French financier Vincent Bolloré, for whom Pininfarina was designing a new electric car.
Andrea died as he rode from his house in Montcalieri to his factory at Cambiano on a Vespa scooter. An elderly motorist in a Ford Fiesta failed to give way, killing Andrea instantly when his scooter hit the side of the car.
He was married to Cristina Maddalena Pellion di Persano, with whom he had three children, Benedetta, Sergio and Luca. He is survived by his father - still honorary president of Pininfarina - his elder sister Lorenza and younger brother Paolo, who both sit on the board.
· Andrea Pininfarina, engineer and industrialist, born June 26 1957; died August 7 2008