The French Injection: Ex-Peugeot-Citron Designer Tapped as Pininfarina Design Chief
Pininfarina SpA will be see Carlo Bonzanigo succeeding Fabio Filippini as the Italian styling firm’s reigning design director on January 9th.
Filippini’s decision to leave Pininfarina for “personal reasons” comes during a difficult time for the shop. While his responsibility for heading new projects is essentially over, he has promised to remain on board as a personal advisor to company CEO Silvio Angori, and will continue to provide oversight for old projects leading up to a concept car unveiling at March’s Geneva Auto Show.
Bonzanigo, 50, is rejoining the industrial and automotive design firm after having started his own career there in 1995. Pininfarina says the Italian/Swiss Bonzanigo, primarily known for his decade-long stint at PSA/Peugeot-Citroën, is the right person to guide “the rare and valuable skills” of the design team waiting for him in Turin.
The company, owned by India’s Mahindra Group, has fallen on hard financial times in recent years. Pininfarina has a long-term strategy aimed at maintaining its global reputation for design, but in order to do it, it must expand its offerings as a styling consultant even as demand for the service wanes.
Working with Citroën’s styling savior Jean-Pierre Ploué, Bonzanigo helped craft the spin-off DS Automobiles’ upscale design language. He was responsible for the look of a number of models during his time as Citroen’s head of design, including several high-profile concepts — the 2008 DS Hypnos, 2011 Citroen Tubik van, and 2012 DS Numero 9 (pictured above).
[Image: Citroën]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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Front end of that Citroën looks like the new Civic front end.
I've liked the looks (pictures only) of the newer Citroens. Don't know if it matters much to us in the USA.
Peugeot-Citroen were hit and miss for a while there. Peugeot's x07 generation, and the first 308, were increasingly looking like Blobfishes with weird bulges and headlights that climb the bonnet nearly to the windscreen. They've tidied things up with the current generation (they're remaining at x08 for European cars, so as not to confuse the 'new' 308 with the old 309). Peugeot used to look it's best when it tied up with Paninfarina - the tidy 205, the 504 coupe, the 406 coupe, the 306 etc. Citroen went all angles with the distinctive C6, the mk1 C4 hatchback at least looked distinctive, the replacement not so much. The mk2 C5 tried to look like an Audi A4 - something they seemed strangely proud of in their "Unmistakeably German" marketing campaign! I don't like their current trend of Nissan Juke-style multiple stacked headlights. Again, Citroen was it's best when it used Bertone, the BX was a poor man's 5 door Lamborghini, the Xantia was a handsome, if bland by previous Citroen standards, midsize sedan-hatch.
The Citroen pictured has a front end oddly similar to a new Land Cruiser.