Chipper little Matrix has spirit

0 Comments | USA TODAY, May, 2008 | by James R. Healey

Those wily Toyota guys. They made four cars out of one set of key components and gave the models distinct personalities and looks -- one of the four even is sold by a competitor.

It's the right way to do what the industry calls platform sharing -- not changing a few curves or just the nameplate to create a corporate sibling (as you see, for example, in Chevrolet Cobalt/Pontiac G5 or Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan).

In this case, we're talking about one set of building blocks for the 2009 Toyota Corolla mainstream sedan (Test Drive, March 21), Toyota Scion xB (Test Drive, last June 15) and today's 2009 Toyota Matrix.

A Toyota-General Motors joint venture -- the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) plant in Fremont, Calif. -- builds a Matrix version...