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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.

Ford’s 1.0 litre EcoBoost engine now going in to 1 in 5 new Fords

Half the Ford B-Max (pictured) sold get the 1.0 litre EcoBoost engine Who’d have thought, just a few years ago, that a 1.0 litre, 3-cylinder engine would become one of the most popular engines in a new car in Europe? But that’s exactly what’s happened with the increasingly impressive 1.0 litre EcoBoost from Ford which, as its power output has increased, has become a more and more popular engine of choice. The little Ford EcoBoost even seems to have persuaded buyers that they should forsake dirty diesel engines for it, and Ford has fitted 120,000 in the first six months of 2014 with almost half B-Max models, a third of Focus and 30 per cent of Fiestas getting the little wonder.

Ford-designed Santa’s sleigh

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 17 December 2008 14:30 Blue Oval designers at Dunton in Essex, UK, penned this trio of Ford-inspired sleighs to help fashion Santa’s just-in-time delivery system. It’s a job they’re familiar with, working on successive series of Transit vans in the past – and they’ve put their practical skills to good use on their Ford sleighs. These sledges are seen through the prism of Ford’s latest ‘kinetic design’ mantra.