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Designer Tom Matano part of start-up car company in Louisiana

A new auto company backed by Texas billionaire investor T. Boone Pickens and staffed by former Mazda design chief Tom Matano plans to build "environmentally friendly" vehicles in Louisiana. V-Vehicle Co., of San Diego, will bring about 1,400 workers to a Monroe plant that once belonged to General Motors, according to a statement Wednesday from the Louisiana Economic Development Web site.

A look at Toyota future products

Toyota has slipped behind competitors in drivetrain technology and now must play catch-up against the likes of Ford, Hyundai and Mazda. Much of Toyota's lag stems from engineering resources being diverted by the unintended acceleration crisis and other quality miscues in the past two years. Now expect Toyota to focus more on turbocharging and direct injection, and it may even bring a couple of diesels to the United States as part of midcycle changes.

Trail of clues leading to Chevrolet SS nameplate

Connecting the dots that lead to Chevrolet's as-yet-unnamed new model seems to lead back to one storied name: SS. The latest clue that a rear-wheel-drive performance sedan named simply SS could soon join nameplates such as Malibu and Suburban in Chevy's lineup came from an unlikely source: GM itself. A page on the OnStar Web site had listed the GM models that are compatible with a mobile app that gives owners remote vehicle access through their smartphones.