Moog K8695t Lower Ball Joint on 2040-parts.com

Who's Where: John Puskar and Liz Wetzel appointed to new roles at GM Design

As part of an ongoing strategy at General Motors, this past month has seen a series of moves taking place within the company's design organization in Europe and the US. Two of the key changes have been the appointment of John Puskar to the role of Director of Cross-Brand Strategy, C&T and Components in North America, and that of Liz Wetzel, who has been named Director of GME Design Interior – effectively filling Puskar's role. Puskar, who until recently headed the Opel/Vauxhall Interior Design at the European Design Center in Russelsheim, Germany, majored in Industrial Design at the Cleveland Institute of Art and worked at Ford in both the USA and Germany before joining General Motors as a creative designer at the GMC Brand Center in 1999.

Lincoln aims at luxury crossovers with MKT

In an effort to grow the brand to customers who normally buy imports, Lincoln will offer up a full-size crossover, the MKT, that is due in dealerships in late summer. We saw the Lincoln MKT at the Detroit Auto Show. As sales of full-size sport/utility vehicles decline--Lincoln says industry-wide sales are down 5.2 percent for 2008--sales of crossovers are growing.

Avoiding the California Highway Patrol on the Autoweek America Adventure

"Damn revenuers," said Tommy Kendall. "They are draped all along the side of the road." He spoke, of course, about the California Highway Patrol, whose strategically positioned cars--and subsequent laser-detection devices and KA-band radar--were lighting up this two-lane south of Klamath Falls, Ore., less than two miles inside the state line. It's a fact of economics, especially in California, a state that's running out of money faster than Greece.