Have my prayers been heard? Saab 9-4X

The new small-size SUV from Saab, the 9-4X, has been observed in the northern parts of Sweden, and it looks pretty promising from what the pictures in this article reveal. The most interesting part, though, is the information that it will be equipped with a 3-liter V6 petrol engine (262 horsepower and 300 Nm) capable of running on E85 as well - in other words a perfect candidate for a 9-4X 3,0 BioPower.Oh, it'll be thirsty, but at least it'll be drinking cheaper, environmentally friendlier fuel.

So, in regards to my previous post, "All I want for Christmas...", could the Saab 9-4X actually be what I'm looking for? Let's see:

• 4WD - Yes, the very same Haldex 4WD that's available in the 9-3 XWD, hopefully even with the eLSD differential.
• Large and luxurious - Well, it's not a full-size SUV, but perhaps it's good enough. Luxury-wise I'm not so sure, judging from the interior pics. I guess only time will tell.
• A desirable design - Hard to tell through all the camouflage, but if it looks similar to the concept car, it should be pretty good looking (see below for a pic of the concept).
• Nice performance - 3-liter V6 engine with 262 horsepower should definitly be enough for most people, including me.
• Running on some kind of renewable energy - Check. Although, I would love it if Saab/GM would create an engine that is optimized for E85, so the fuel consumption would be a bit more reasonable. This baby will probably drink around 1,5 liters of E85 per kilometer. At least.

Nevertheless, this is definitly the car that comes closest to my late Christmas wish.

Saab 9-4X interior pic

By now we've all seen the spaceship-cockpit design of the 9-4X prototype, but as usual these fancy-schmancy interiors are usually quite a bit more boring when the production model finally hits the streets.

Auto Motor & Sport in Sweden have captured a picture of the 9-4X interior of a test car, and while it doesn't look quite as fancy as in the prototype, it's not really that far off. The only thing I'm waiting for now is an interesting engine to go with that. The 300 hp biopower (ethanol) engine of the prototype was nice.