Auto News 5

Fiat's corporate headquarters, across the road from the historic Lingotto factory with its famous rooftop test loop, is a meticulously restored fortress with endless corridors, tall ceilings, and numerous security checkpoints. Sergio Marchionne's dimly lit office sits halfway up the massive building block on a corner facing the street. It appears to be smaller than the bright, adjoining room where three secretaries reign supreme over a huge desk laden with monitors, keyboards, and paperwork. As I approached the master's inner sanctum, another door opened and lanky John Elkann stepped out, followed by the stooped figure of Sergio Marchionne, smoldering cigarette in hand. Talk about extreme contrasts. Wiry, with wide-awake eyes and a broad smile, Elkann, the young Fiat heir, is dressed immaculately in a blue suit, a light blue shirt, and a brightly striped tie. Slightly pudgy, chortling with laughter in response to a joke told in Italian with only a faint Canadian twang, and displaying a grayish thirty-day beard, Marchionne is a committed supporter of the Italian knitwear industry and a dedicated ambassador for sweet-smelling Muratti Privat filter cigarettes.