When the trendy Lapo Elkann took over Fiat's marketing, things looked good - but now the strategy may well have come badly unstuck.
Fiat's decision to entrust its entire marketing and branding operation to Lapo Elkann looked wise when the 28-year-old Italian was launching trendy Fiat clothing and attending charity auctions with Sharon Stone.
The strategy hit a pothole on October 10th, when the dynamic manager was found unconscious in a run-down Turin apartment after a cocaine binge, in the company of three transvestites. One of the three, Donato Brocco (53), known to his friends as "Patrizia", told reporters the grandson of late Fiat patriarch Gianni Agnelli was a "good boy", but many were left asking 'Would I buy a car from this man'?
And with police waiting to interview Lapo in hospital on Monday after he emerged from an induced coma, the young manager's career could start to resemble the plight of the historic Italian car-maker he promotes.
Caught between perennial losses, high costs and faltering sales, Fiat is right now betting everything on its new Grande Punto and Alfa Romeo 159. As its sales of large cars stall, it has reached out to fellow struggler Ford in October in a bid to co-produce small cars like the revived Fiat Cinquecento.
Amid the gloom, vice-president Lapo was injecting some verve into Fiat, setting himself up as the new young spirit of the firm, photographed at motorshows in chic double breasted suits or DJing at Turin's Fiat Caffè wearing his limited edition Fiat sportswear. Away from work he could be found joking with friend and footballer Alex Del Piero at the training ground of Juventus, the Agnelli family-owned club where Lapo is a director.
A firm favourite of Italian industrial legend Agnelli, Lapo is blessed with the same charm and looks as his grandfather, assets he put to good use courting blonde screen star Martino Stella.
He also started calling round at "Patrizia's" this summer to injest large quantities of narcotics, including heroin according to Italian newspapers. Informed of his overdose, Stella said she and Lapo were no longer together, due to their "different lifestyles".
Back in March, when the couple were gracing front pages, Elkann's Fiat stand at the Geneva motor show was considered the best of the event, epitomising "joie de vivre, dynamism, freshness and Italian lifestyle", according to judges. Seeking to turn his cars into lifestyle products, Lapo forged alliances with the likes of Bose and Alessi. In a publicity coup, the boxy Fiat Panda was chosen to be driven by James Bond in the forthcoming film Casino Royale.
As Fiat CEOs come and go, seemingly with every new car launch, Lapo represented continuity with the Agnellis, the Kennedy-like clan which put a Fiat in every Italian driveway in the 1960s. When Gianni died, aged 81 in 2003, 100,000 Italians turned out in Turin to pay their respects.
Gianni was himself no wallflower. He did not take over the reins of Fiat until he was 45, first prefering to enjoy life in the fast lane, crashing Ferraris and dating the likes of Rita Heyworth. As chairman of Juventus he later collected cultured footballers like Liam Brady and Zinedine Zidane.
In Lapo's recent fall, there are also however echoes of the misshaps and tragedies that have befallen the mighty Agnellis. Gianni's son Edoardo jumped to his death from a motorway flyover in 2000 after a history of drug taking, while Gianni's father and mother were killed in plane and car accidents. Lapo's elder cousin, Giovannino, who had been prepared to take over Fiat, died of cancer in 1997 at the age of 33.
This week, news footage of the Turin apartment where an ambulance crew found the unconscious Lapo alternated with classy advertisements on Italian television showing the new Alfa Romeo 159 driving through the piles of leaves advertising directors love so much.
With Fiat's image so closely tied to Lapo's, the car-maker may now see more sales to cross-dressers, but what is not certain is how well recent events will go down with the macho Italian businessmen who race their Alfas on Italian autostradas, honking at anyone daring to stick to the speed limit.
In Italy, however, the news is fading fast. TV journalist Giuliano Ferrara, usually a no-prisoners pit-bull, summed up the decorous approach of the media when he said Elkann was ill, and he wished him a speedy recovery.
Ex-girlfriend Martina Stella even came in for criticism for not standing by her man, while Juventus fans hung out pro-Lapo banners at Sunday's league game. Italian parents are notoriously forgiving when their sons misbehave, and as Italy's favourite son, Lapo is getting the mamma's boy treatment.
Even Italy's gossip magazines are behaving as if Lapo contracted a dose of bird flu, rather than snorting an overdose of cocaine. But millions of car buyers may have a hard time stifling giggles the next time Lapo says he wants to give Fiat a shot of energy with a new line.