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Autoweek America Adventure: The search begins

I sit in a darkened hotel room near the Oregon coast waters. The noise I hear sounds like a loud industrial air-conditioning unit in a marginal, national hotel chain. It could not be further from that: The constant thrum is the crashing of Pacific Ocean waves on the beach, no more than 200 yards outside the hotel room.

Who's Where: BMW announces personnel changes in top design positions

BMW's latest internal reshuffle has seen Domagoj Dukec appointed as head of exterior design, Martina Starke as head of color and material design and Oliver Heilmer as head of interior design. Dukec, a Pforzheim graduate, has previously worked for Volkswagen and Citroën where he played a key role in developing a new Citroën aesthetic with the C4 coupé, C5 Airscape, C5 (Mark II), Hypnos and GQ Concept. Since moving to BMW's exterior design team in 2010 he has been credited with the design of the Concept Active Tourer.

Consumer Reports' Luddites strike again

I am a technological wizard. At least that's the conclusion to which I've come after reading the January issue of Consumer Reports, which calls Cadillac CUE, the automaker's new infotainment system, “maddening.” After all, I had figured out CUE in a matter of minutes while acclimating myself to our Best of the Best ATS sedan last month. CUE, short for Cadillac User Experience, uses a touch-sensitive screen, capacitive switches and tactile, vibrating feedback to help drivers perform various functions.