The Fiat 500 is the coolest car since the revamped Mini, but the flamboyant family behind the Fiat group has endured a Kennedy-style series of tragedies, reports Mary Minihan.
It is the car of the moment, the striking update of the iconic Cinquecento. Already the new Fiat 500 has won hearts around Europe, being judged Car of the Year by a panel that included the motoring editor of The Irish Times, and if you want to spend an estimated €14,000 to buy one after they're launched here, at a charity auction on Tuesday, you might have to join a waiting list.
The car may also be the saving grace of the Agnelli family, the closest Italy comes to royalty, for behind the industrial might of Fiat, for years led by the stylish patriarch Gianni Agnelli, is a dysfunctional dynasty whose escapades enthral Italy. It's not so long, after all, since Agnelli's grandson Lapo Elkann, who with his brother, John, stands to inherit the company, overdosed on drugs in the apartment of a cross-dressing prostitute.
Many Italians, particularly in the industrial north, have become attached to the Agnellis over the years, sharing in their very public tragedies as well as their triumphs. Now they enjoy speculating about the very different qualities the privileged young brothers have inherited from their dynamic grandfather. John they see as reliable, discreet and possessed of a sharp business acumen; Lapo they see as unpredictable, indefatigable and impossible to dislike - a reckless Prince Harry, perhaps, to John's sensible Prince William.
It was 1966 when Agnelli inherited the company that his grandfather Giovanni had established back in 1899. The family business grew to hold a majority stake in Ferrari and to control Alpha Romeo and Lancia. The Agnelli empire also bought two other important businesses in its home city of Turin: Juventus Football Club and the newspaper La Stampa.
But the tiny Cinquecento remains Fiat's greatest achievement. The original model, from 1957, democratised Italian driving by putting a generation on the road in well-designed but inexpensive motors. It helped earn Agnelli such stature that, when he died, five years ago, his funeral was broadcast live on Italian television.
John, who is 31, and Lapo, who is a year younger, are the sons of Agnelli's daughter Margherita, by her marriage to Alain Elkann, a journalist and writer. Born in New York, the cosmopolitan brothers spent time in Brazil, France and the UK as youngsters.
John was appointed to the Fiat board when he was 22; he has been vice-chairman for four years. He has worked closely and quietly with Fiat's talented chief executive, Sergio Marchionne, to turn around the fortunes of a company that in 2004 was €10 billion debt and had losses of almost €2 billion.
John appears to have never put a foot wrong. He may look somewhat shy, but he comes across in public as quietly confident. He has only once made the more conservative element of Italian society arch an eyebrow. That was at the end of last year, when he announced the name of his second son: Oceano. "It's difficult to have a name more beautiful and better, no?" his brother, Lapo, told a magazine in a typically passionate defence.
Before the drugs overdose, in October 2005, Lapo's creative talents were rewarded with a post as Fiat's head of marketing. He worked hard, and his enthusiasm for the family brand was infectious. He slapped the company logo on youthful products such as underwear and trainers. He was credited with injecting much-needed energy into a brand that said drab and dowdy rather than dolce vita. Suddenly, and surprisingly, Fiat was fashionable.
With his mane of reddish hair, Lapo was always going to stand out in Italy. And he seemed more than happy to do so, having inherited his grandfather's charm and taste for a high-profile social life. He and Martina Stella, an actor who won a small part in Ocean's Twelve, were the couple of the moment.
Lapo also shared Agnelli's sartorial flamboyance, sometimes wearing his grandfather's old bespoke suits. He was photographed everywhere he went, and everywhere he went, he looked good: at motor shows, nightclubs and football matches. Vanity Fair ranked him one of the world's best-dressed men.
In interviews he came across as a ball of energy, breathlessly citing Richard Branson and Winston Churchill as heroes. He was good friends with the motorcycle racer Valentino Rossi. And Lapo's extracurricular activities made Eddie Irvine look like a wallflower.
Now, after a spell in New York, where he moved after his overdose, to straighten himself out, he has reinvented himself as head of his own company, ItaliaIndependent.The next stop is Milan, where he will show a range of what he calls personal belongings - sunglasses and clothing - at the city's fashion week this month.
Lapo's charm made it easy for Italian society to forgive him when he returned to the old country. And, perhaps, for the citizens of Turin, observing the activities of the Agnelli clan's younger members offers a pleasant sense of continuity with a prosperous past. It may be that it transports them back to a time when Turin rivalled Detroit for car production, and the immaculately dressed Agnelli made them proud as he showed figures such as Queen Elizabeth of England and Ted Kennedy around their city. He was also friendly with Prince Rainier of Monaco, Errol Flynn and Henry Kissinger.
In his youth Agnelli was something of a jet- setter, enjoying the company of the film stars Rita Hayworth and Anita Ekberg (she who cavorted in the Trevi Fountain in La Dolce Vita). But he was also a cultured man. His final big project was to install his personal collection of paintings, including works by Matisse, Modigliani and Renoir, in the Pinoteca, an architecturally adventurous glass dome built on top of the old Fiat factory in the Lingotto neighbourhood. John and Lapo's sister, Ginevra, is vice-president of the Pinoteca foundation.
Agnelli was forced to bear more than his share of pain, however, as the Agnelli name appeared to weigh heavily on the shoulders of some younger family members. With dismay, he finally recognised that his restless son, Edoardo, had no interest in following him into the family business.
Agnelli turned his attentions to his brother Umberto's son, Giovanni Alberto (known by the diminutive Giovannino), and began to groom him to take over the Fiat group. But Giovannino died from a rare form of cancer at the young age of 33, a year after Agnelli had stepped down as Fiat boss. (He stayed on as honorary chairman.)
Edoardo, who was Gianni's only son, apparently died by suicide in 2000, at the age of 46, when he fell from a motorway bridge in Turin, not far from the Fiat factory.
When Agnelli himself died, aged 81 in 2003, the Pope, the president and the prime minister paid tribute. His body lay in state in the old Fiat factory. Thousands of admirers, including many employees, turned out to pay their respects to the elegant industrialist who had created mass employment in their city. A government minister was not exaggerating by calling him "the most famous Italian in the world".
Liam Brady, whose football career included two seasons at Juventus, spoke warmly about Agnelli's relationship with the Turin-based team. He was a devoted chairman, calling the club's president each day to discuss players and tactics.
In his heyday the charismatic Agnelli had attracted workers from the poor south of Italy. Their children and grandchildren also became employees of Fiat and its subsidiaries, or found a job that depended on the firm in some way. But by the time of Agnelli's death Fiat's financial fortunes had slumped drastically. The harsh job cuts that lay ahead would be especially painful for local families.
Gianni's brother Umberto, a much more introverted character, took on the role of company caretaker. But he too died within a short time, and John and Lapo Elkann were soon pushed forward. There was no immediate improvement in the firm's fortunes. In fact, the bad times continued, with models such as the Stilo failing to make an impact.
Last month, however, Fiat announced that in 2007 its trading profit hit an all-time high of more than €3.2 billion; net profit was more than double that of 2006. The group had also been able to level its industrial debt.
After years in the financial doldrums, and countless false dawns, Fiat finally appears to be facing the future with confidence. The influence of Sergio Marchionne since he became Fiat's chief executive cannot be overestimated. Last year the firm reported profits of €2 billion and a bank balance of €8 billion. He has done it in part through smart moves such as hiring Frank Stephenson, the designer who helped to revamp the Mini, to do the same job for the 500.
It is hard to say quite how much of Fiat Agnelli's descendants own. At the time of his death their share was reported to be as low as 30 per cent. But John and Lapo remain the public face of the family - and the Italians like it that way.
That's probably because there is simply never a dull moment with the Agnelli family. Just a few weeks ago John and Lapo's mother, Margherita, began legal proceedings claiming that she has been frozen out of the firm. When she gave up her share in Fiat, in 2004, the company was worth only €600 million. Now, given the upturn in fortunes, she argues that she has not been adequately compensated. The rest of the family disagrees. She complained to the newspaper La Repubblica: "This is no longer a family. It has become a business, and whoever does not fit in is thrown out. It is an American-style business, and when someone comes to power he kicks the others."
FIAT'S BAMBINA
Silvio Berlusconi, the businessman and former Italian prime minister, once said: "Many of us first kissed a girl in a Fiat 500."
No self-respecting car manufacturer might want to hear its carefully-styled vehicle described as cute, but the original Cinquecento was definitely lovable. The 1957 model, although tiny by today's standards, is still held in enormous affection at home and abroad.
Fiat's current marketing has targeted older drivers with happy childhood memories of the car, as well as younger drivers who are attracted to its retro appearance.
"Nostalgia is a big part of it," says Joe Gantly, Fiat's Irish spokesman. "It's a car that brings a smile to your face, a happy-looking car." He also stresses the 500's "classlessness": "Gianni Agnelli himself used to drive one - and he wasn't short of a bob or two."
The 500 - known affectionately as the Bambina - was remodelled by Frank Stephenson, the brains behind the modern Mini. He has enlarged and modernised the car without straying too far from the original. He did this, he says, by imagining how the 1957 model would have developed had it continued in production until today.
At the Irish launch, at the IFSC on Tuesday, one of 500 pearlescent-paint versions of the car will be auctioned to raise money for Temple Street Children's University Hospital. You can bid online at www.ebay.ie.
CURSED LIKE THE KENNEDYS?
Edoardo Agnelli, the son of Fiat founder Giovanni Agnelli, is killed in an accident in Genoa harbour. He leaves a wife, Virginia, and six children, including Gianni.
Virginia Agnelli dies in a car accident near Pisa. Giovanni Agnelli dies the same year. Control of Fiat passes to his right-hand man, Vittorio Valletta, while young Gianni learns the trade.
The nephew whom Gianni had been grooming as Fiat's future head, Giovannino, dies of a rare form of cancer at the age of 33.
Gianni's only son, Edoardo, apparently dies by suicide when he falls from a motorway bridge in Turin.
Gianni dies after fighting prostate cancer for a year.
Gianni Agnelli's brother Umberto, who had briefly succeeded him as Fiat chairman, dies of cancer.
Gianni Agnelli's grandson Lapo Elkann overdoses on drugs.