How the right car at the right time reset the industry

Patrick le Quement, the French car designer who was set to receive a lifetime achievement award at the EyesOn Design show in Detroit last weekend, is associated with several landmark European vehicles. But he changed the auto industry in a way that went far beyond car styling.

You could argue -- and probably win the argument -- that the reason Renault was able to shock the auto world in 1999 by acquiring Nissan was the emergence of the company's design language in the 1990s. And you'd have to credit le Quement, Renault's design leader in those days.

More specifically, the shape and package, and thus huge market success, of the Megane Scenic small minivan in 1996 and 1997 pulled Renault out of its deep doldrums and gave it the wherewithal -- at precisely the right time -- to win control of a struggling Nissan.

Le Quement, now 70, started his career at Simca in France in 1966 and spent 17 years at Ford in the U.K., Germany and the U.S. The glib, debonair trend starter was with Volkswagen-Audi in Germany in the 1980s -- he once referred to his time there as "two years of military service."

In 1987, he returned to France as head of design at Renault and remained there until his retirement in 2009.

He worked on a lot of memorable cars before setting off on a new career as a boat designer. Meanwhile, Renault-Nissan has been one of the most successful alliances in the history of the car business -- an outcome that must put some extra bounce in the step of this pensioner.