“They don’t write songs about Volvos,” proclaimed an infamous Chevy billboard once seen in the Detroit area. Of course it wasn’t strictly true, but then Chevy’s two most recent forays into musical marketing, Volt Jingles versions 1 and 2, weren’t exactly “Little Red Corvette” either. And the trend seems to be holding: quality car-inspired music is slipping away. Even this song, the first Saab-inspired tune I’m aware of, is a wholly forgettable drone about fighting Saab’s inevitable closure. It’s not as bombastically awful as, say, the infamous Mercedes “One Goal” tune, but you know automotive culture is in trouble when the only music it inspires is about the closure of a niche Swedish nameplate. Unless the lyrics “we’re gonna make it, not gonna break it” has some kind of mysterious resonance for the daily Saab driver that I’m not getting. Either way, the world of car-inspired music needs some work.

Courtesy of GM-Volt.com, here’s GM’s first post-bankruptcy Volt jingle! And arguably a slight improvement over last May’s jingle. But if you think Big Ed Whitacre will stop all the song-and-dance frivolity, think again. “He will not try to run the programs,” Bob Lutz sneers at GM-Volt. “He knows almost nothing about the business. Nobody will diminish our focus on electrification.” As long as Whitacre kills the Volt-related musical development program, we’ll be happy.