If you know even just a little bit about off-roading, or, for that matter, hauling loads over anything but pool table smooth roads, the news that GM will not be making unibody pickups will be greeted with a sigh of relief. This is a rumor that has been kicking around American car circles for quite some time, and at first I wondered just why they would do this. From an engineering standpoint, a unibody design makes a lot of sense on paper. And it also works out great in practice for cars and minivans and such.

On the road, or more precisely, off the road, going with a unibody set up can cause you all sorts of hassles and have consequences you wouldn’t expect.

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Here’s an interesting development from General Motors, they’ve decided to offer a “60-Day Satisfaction Guarantee” on new cars purchased. It’s more than a warranty, and the full details have not been released by The General yet, but it’s an interesting idea. Will other car manufacturers follow GM’s lead on this, or will it be seen as a sign of desperation to win over car buyers?

GM is calling it the ‘May the Best Car Win’ marketing effort, and they’re hoping it will show the car company’s confidence in the quality and durability of its cars and trucks. Head Automoblog guy Chris noticed an interesting wrinkle right off the bat. He noticed that the guarantee is for “between 31-60 days” and not “within 60 days,” and speculated that provision is there to give buyer’s remorse some time to wear off.

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There’s been an interesting trend concerning the use of bio-diesel in newer cars and trucks. It seems, mainly due to warranty concerns, that manufacturers that make diesels, don’t like you to use bio-D right out of the block. For example, in my hometown, one of the largest producers of bio-diesel will not fill up your brand new VW Jetta TDi. And VW itself has basically said that if there’s bio-d in your tank, your warranty is null & void.

So the news that GM, yes, that same GM that was ready for a coffin fitting a few weeks ago, is now saying that their upcoming diesel plants will be OK to run up to 20% of the bio-juice right off of the showroom floor.

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Dear God, is GM serious? 230 MPG for the upcoming Volt in city mileage? Yes, I know, figuring out the miles per “gallon” for a hybrid, especially in the hotly debated “city cycle” portion of its operating realm is tricky. And it’s even trickier for the Volt, due to the drivetrain layout, but … shoot, even if GM is half right about this, the equivalent of 115 around town will be impressive enough … but 230? Talk about throwing down the gauntlet.

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Buick, of all the brands that GM could have let go, they kept this one. Why? A lot of people seem to be asking that question, and with the upcoming LaCrosse, Buick says it has the answer. It runs deeper than that though, and the answer as to “Why keep Buick?” can be summed up in one word.

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Well this comes as a bit of a surprise. Scandy automaker Koenigsegg, most well known for making a two-seater supercar of prodigious performance, has just put the final ink on the contract to buy Saab. What’s most interesting to us, the gearhead, is that Koenigsegg makes fast cars, and Saab has been known to make a fast car or two in the past. So what will the future hold?

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