Piero Luigi Carcenaro set up his own company, Carcenaro Design, in Turin in 1996 after sixteen years with Lancia, to push forward the boundaries of design using advanced mathematical and computer aided thinking. His 80-strong company has carried out work for Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Fiat, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Opel, Saab and Suzuki in its six year history.

The car, based on the Thesis floorpan, has drawn praise for its styling and details. The clean, flowing lines give it an attractive "Grand Turismo" look and the attention-to-detail, especially in the neat front and rear lights have created an integrated design. The large Lancia grille gives it the "family" look, and it sits easily idenifiable with its Thesis heritage. Assisting Pier Luigi Carcenaro in the design has been Lancia designer Andrea Bassi who was involved with both the Dialogos and Nea concept cars. His influence can be seen especially in the rear end which is almost all Nea styling.

The Granturismo follows an emergining trend of having much smaller rear hinged "suicide" doors which assist the Granturismo to draw on the Dialogos' "living room" theme. The front lights follow the fashion of multiple internal bulbs, six separate bulbs illuminate the cars path. In fact Piero Luigi Carcenaro, one of the foremost proponents of the use of computers in car design is believed to have styled the lights for the new Ferrari Enzo.

The Granturismo is 4620mm long, 1920mm wide and 1210mm high.