Renault Twingo - Patrick le Quément Full Interview 

Wonder interview - he is so well spoken and generous with details

Such a pleasant chap. I remember reading an interview with him in CAR magazine many years ago; he mentioned that lights would become like jewellery on future car designs. How right he was. A true visionary in his field. ETA: Thanks for posting this without big edits.

I've always been a fan of Le Quément's work. And this interview confirms why so: design must prevail over marketing and engineering, which explains why he (and I) detest the useless XXI century revivals - which are mostly styling exercises and not design in its pure form - as well as the current SUV/crossover trend. He seems to be a very down-to-earth guy. Pretty much that opposite of that designer (who curiously became famous for designing... an SUV and a revival-pastiche!) which narcissistically presents himself in his youtube channel as "world renowed designer".

Patrick has the same views on cars as I do - no wonder he is my #1 car design hero of all time... That book of his looks like the perfect x-mas gift to myself.

Monsieur Le Quément, I hope you are reading this. I want to say a big "Thank You" to you. I am a happy owner of a twingo for almost 20 years (I bought it 2nd hand). I couldn't be more satisfied. This car screams "design" in every detail. Not for its aesthetics, but for its convenience and practicality. Carrying big objects, going for vacations, every day commuting, easy parking in the city, everything. My deepest congratulations to you and your team.

I had the pleasure to drive a Mk1 Twingo in 1997 on holiday in Menorca, Spain. I absolutely loved it and wished Renault had built it in right-hand drive aswell so I could have owned one back home in England. and I agree with Patrick, car sizes are going completely the wrong way, their sizes seem to have more in common with misplaced machoism than common sense and environmental thinking

Car design need more Patrick Le Quéments! Now more than ever!

Very impressive explanation of the decision preparation and making across all the brands he had worked for. I like the twingo for its uniqueness and marketing campaign around it but got bored by the evolution over the years which get watered - even though I was driving BMW 7series and Mercedes Convertible E320 and later E420 in the first half of the 90s coming from the Opel Kadet GSI 16V which had the most power of it all, but was not that funny for long distance rides over the weekend, I mean 1200 km or so. But I jumped through all the cars that appeared back then when getting rentals or by job comparing cars of the age. So I even got the other extremly polarising cars like the Mazda 121 and that Fiat Multipla. But the Twingo was the most funny small car of the first half of the 90s. It was the design, cause the engine and gearbox were a nightmare, but they were great rental cars in Spain, better than the bigger Astra ones. And: there was only one smiling car Great, great interview and look behind the scenes.

What a smart design! But I think that you have to live with a Twingo for really apreciate what it means. It s just perfect , very small outside, big inside, reliable, economical and a joy to watch. A Vw up is like that but boring. It s just a car. He is not smiling. Cheers from Argentina!

I like iconic new designs that don't arch back to mimic old designs. The Twingo is one of those. Bold, bright colours are another one too. I'm sick of all these 500 shades of grey most modern cars come in nowadays

Thank you Patrick for the good design! Good Design for million. millions like me...and for decades, not for 2 years. And for the man who makes this great videos to documente this for ever! people in hundred years whre lucky about that. they know than Patrick as one of the best designers in car history!!! he will be much more famous than as now. like a good wine. sorry for the bad english...but i try!

This is so amazing, he's one of my favourite automotive designers. Well done on getting such an interview with LeQuement.

So awesome you got to have M. Le Quement on, well done to both of you for a fascinating interview! Hopefully this will lead to more insiders giving their perspectives on the back-stories!

What a lovely lovely guy, I feel more knowledgeable than I did 30 minutes ago. Thanks for putting this up!

Very interesting video footage, full of useful information, thank you for sharing L44

It took me a while to get here and I'm really glad I did. Well done on a great interview with a great designer with a story to tell. Maybe the cost prevented it but I alway thought it a shame that it only came in LHD.

Loved the interview and watching the full interview was much appreciated because Patrick is or was renault to me. I was surprised how down to earth and ultra honest he was and impressed how well he spoke English. There arnt many car designers I know about but Patrick I remember reading about when he came up with the aventine, a car I've always wanted as it very much summed up renault with the completely never seen r thought of designs. I believe there's a very fan club for the car and hold railys and special days eventhough it didn't sell many. I was hopping Patrick would mention about that car as it was the car that even that idiot Jeremy Clarkson liked. I think it took the car world by storm but obviously people where too scared to take the chance and would rather be like sheep like they are today with the suvs. One thing though, and I thought it was an obvious question to ask is why on earth didn't it comes to Britain??,? As we clearly like n buy French cars , why wouldn't renault invest a bit more to make it right hand drive,??? It is a very French looking car but surly renault doesn't think the English still hate the French like in the old days of trafalgar. I hate it when car manufacturers bring out cars but don't bother to include the UK, who then give you a off hand reply as it's too expensive to convert to rhd are it wouldn't fit the British market tastes . What the hell does that mean??? Mainly because they would have to fit safety things which would push up the price , but at he end of the day there are a great many of us very poor and low Income UK drivers that would love and need a new basic cheap car to run about in like myself. You can keep the German crap and shuv it n the drivers where the sun doesn't n never will shine with covid.

YOu can not produce tiny cars nowadays considering that even lightweight small cars have to pay emission fines. Let's assume the car is just 10 gr above the limit of 95 gr (for smaller it is even far lower), then the fine would be 1000€ How can you sell a car we could buy last year for 8500€ or 9000€ or even far less brandnew from sales channel, if you the manufacturer has to pay 950€ fines cause 10 gr x 95€/gr means 950€ at the end. Not profitable, and going electric let the costs explode even more, when in return the customer paying such huge amount are expecting better interior quality where the budgets had found its limits. ID.3 is a great car, but poorly designed inside and with poor mens interior - where the previous e-GOLF could beat the ID.3 instantly by its quality, vice versa the ID.3 the e-GOLF by its size.

indeed it is weird to drop the Twingo mark1 design in a time where it would make a great EV design. It's not because you killed an original design by replacing it through a would-be-fiat-500-design (apparently based upon a not so smart Smart design) that you can't go back. But there are hopes. After all they've also revived the A110 in a much better looking version, so there must be great minds working there, and thus a return of the original Twingo shouldn't be impossible.

Thanks for creating this bit of automotive history.

i am very happy for this interview and for the twingo video too. i think of them as a missed chapter of the "cars of the people" bbc documentary. well done. thank you very much.

That was really interesting program after the 1980s Renault five I was never a great fan of the company it’s a shame because they can be a really great company as you see this program thanks for this Michael

Very good information , young people should watch videos like this . Hard work and time .

Just saw a mk1 1997 twingo while listening to this. I forgot how small and quirky they are 😅

I agree with Le Quement. I also think cars have gotten too large nowadays

Great interview. If you can arrange any others that would be excellent.

This must be the kindest french on earth

I wanna get a drink with this guy cause I absolutely love the mk1 twingo

Thank you Patrick for this great car! And littlecar for this interview!

Like interview, definitely going buy his book as I was into graphic design in high school many years ago n always wanted meet Mike Simcoe who was designer for Holden who VP of globe design for GM.

Terrific interview. Can't say I'd heard of him before but he certainly seems like the sort of fella who I could happily sit and chat about cars for hours with.

Thanks for sharing!

A wonderful idea, this pair of videos! Thank you!

Please I would love to see an interview regarding the Velsatis and Avantime..!

You do great videos, thank you

merci twingo

Thx you very much ! 👍🙏

Marvelous!... Thanks! 🖖

Very interesting interview Thanks

Amazing interview!! What a privilege! Would be amazing to speak about the origins of the VelSatis and Avantime! Maybe a suggestion for a future video! Love the content!! Greetings from Portugal!

What a lovely man.

Cheers for this!!!

27:47 well, the philosophy of smaller car dissapearing is pretty logical. If you are a minimalist, single, or pair without children - then you can perfectly live without the car, travelling by bycicle, electric scooter or taking a carshearing on rare occasions. But if you really need a car, than you need a NORMAL size car where you could fit at a least a modern baby stroller in the trunk. Try that with those vintage econoboxes. And the difference is not that huge in overall dimensions, modern semi-big cars are not 6 m lendyachts of 1960s America, they are 4,3-4,5 meters, which is just over 0,5 meters longer than those tiny econoboxes where u can`t fit anything. And also maybe people got taller, i am 190 cm, and it is a real pain for me to fit in those tiny cars. Twingo is an exception, ofcourse - it is specious pretty spacious for the driver and front passenger, however absolutely zero space for rear passengers and no place in the trunk. I have been driving 1 gen Renault Scenic for 10 years - now that is a perfect car in terms of practicality.