Unlike the car itself--designed by Swedes for rough winter roads--my recent story on the Saab brand being saved by dint of an 11th hour deal between GM and Dutch manufacturer Spyker got precisely zero traction.

Maybe it was a bit late behind the news trends, and in comparison to any number of big things happening at home and abroad, the story itself simply got dwarfed by far more pressing matters. I have a personal attachment to the story to which I alluded in the contents. Without a doubt that investment of my own baggage is at the root of my disappointment that there was no indication that anyone read the damned thing. Always a bad idea as a writer to set myself up to take it personally.

Still, I'm waxing impertinent, and have decided to take this one out for another spin, and for three reasons:

1) I like the story itself of Saab being diverted from what had been an all-but-certain destiny for the car history scrap heap;

2) I was pleased with how my treatment of the matter unfolded; and

3) As I realized only after it went live to the Tonic.com site, this article marks number 400 that I've done. One one hand it hardly seems possible, but on the other, I have taken on kind of a bluish pallor owing to how much time my schnozz is pressed against the computer screen these past few months.

Unaltered Saab 96 photo courtesy of underwhelmer via flickr; edited versions of same by yours truly.