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The 2011 Lincoln MKT seems like just about the last car we’d be reviewing on this site. After all, it’s a crossover with very little enthusiast appeal and virtually no online presence, right? Maybe so, but after 1500 miles in America’s least well-known Lincoln, we found ourselves wanting one, bad. Read on to find out why. As some of you may know, we recently competed in the 2010 Bullrun Rally from New York to Las Vegas. And if you know that, you’re well aware that we got a few shitload of tickets, many of which had similar court appearance dates. Incidentally, Tom had to appear in Phoenix, Arizona on a Monday, and I had to appear in Boulder City, Nevada the next day. Tom and I decided an epic ticket-fighting road trip was in order. The total distance covered would be about 1500 miles in 3 days, making a triangle from Redondo Beach, to Phoenix, Vegas, and back home. But we needed the right car.

Since a Ford product contributed significantly to this mess, the 2011 Shelby GT500, we figured we’d request another Ford product to get us out of this mess. The obvious solution would be my own 2010 SVT Raptor, but when covering 1500 miles, do you really want a vehicle that gets 11 mpg? Definitely not. We would need something comfortable for 8 hours of driving a day, big enough to hold all our stuff, fast enough to cruise at 100 in the middle of the desert, and efficient enough to keep the indent on our bank account minimal. And it had to have lots of toys, because when I’m not driving, I have the attention span of a crack-addicted marmot. But, most importantly, it had to be invisible to the cops. The last thing you want on a ticket-fighting expedition is to get another ticket, so this car had to be stealth.

When the Lincoln MKT arrived in our driveway, Tom was horrified. “We’re taking that?” And I don’t blame him, because at first glance, the MKT is, well, polarizing. Straight on, you’d think it was the official vehicle of Liberty Medical Supplies, here to deliver your diabetus medication. From the rear, it looks like an overturned canoe. And from the side, it doesn’t say much at all besides “station wagon.” The thing about first impressions though, is, they aren’t always right. Plus, I didn’t like the Porsche Cayenne’s looks either, until I drove one. Then I no longer cared how it looked. I suspected the MKT would have a similar effect, after Jack Baruth, my favorite writer’s review of it on The Truth About Cars.

Step inside the MKT, however, and prepare to be wowed. The seats are fantastic, and all four captains chairs are all fully adjustable and heated/cooled (my favorite option ever, especially for a desert road trip). There is a four-zone climate control system. The entire dashboard is wrapped in leather, and the small sections of the doors that aren’t leather wrapped have soft foam that does a great impression of leather. The woodgrain looks expensive. There’s a full-length center console with a refrigerator in the back, big enough for four 20-oz bottles. There’s a THX-certified multimedia system mated to the sharpest LCD screen I’ve seen in a car, and, of course, Ford’s excellent interface, which we love. The dual-sunroofs are enormous. The third row seating is fully powered, with multiple configuration options, including “Normal, Stow, 5o/50,” and  “Tailgate,” which flips the seats around completely so they face outward from the rear hatch. Very cool. There’s tons of techie gadgets too: adaptive cruise control, blind-spot detection, cross-traffic detection, collision warnings, backup camera, and more. I turned them all off except the adaptive cruise, which really helps on a road trip. And I know how to drive properly, so I didn’t need that stuff anyway. The center-stack buttons are logically laid out, and don’t require a Harvard degree to operate. Many of them have redundant counterparts on the steering wheel and within the touchscreen, not to mention the SYNC voice activation of nearly every system on the car. And it was black.

Oh yeah, this is the kind of ride I want to live in for 3 days. But how does it drive?

With a rigid chassis, all-wheel drive, and an Ecoboost V6 mated to a 6-speed automatic, it drives very well. This isn’t exactly a light vehicle, at 5,000 lbs, but the 355 hp turbocharged engine provides a surprisingly good amount of thrust, especially in the 60-100 mph zone. We’d even go so far as calling the MKT “fast.” The steering, though light, is extremely responsive, and while using the paddle shifters, can easily be hustled through corners at much higher speeds than you’d expect just by looking at it. More importantly, the MKT rides great, with just the right amount of suspension travel and damping given what kind of driving buyers will likely be doing. And it’s very, very quiet on the road. Tire noise is absolutely minimal, wind noise is virtually non-existent, and engine noise is approaching Lexus levels of quiet. Visibility is good everywhere, with large side mirrors, a backup camera, and a big greenhouse, perfect for taking in the scenery on a road trip. The MKT’s weakest point showed itself quickly: the brakes. A vehicle this heavy, that’s this easy to drive fast, should have a really good set of brakes. It doesn’t. They fade quickly after a few hard stops, and they lack last-minute bite. Mr. Baruth actually tracked his press loaner MKT and claimed that if he did a few more laps he could have literally set the brakes on fire, which, after driving it, I completely believe. Conversely, driving at the EPA’s pace, the MKT can achieve 21 mpg on the highway. We averaged 19.8 over our fast-paced road trip.

Driving the MKT is nice, but the real place to be is in the back. The MKT offers more rear space and luxury features than any of its closest competitors, in fact, you’d have to go up to an S-Class or extended wheelbase BMW 7-series to approach this level of back-seat luxury. We especially like the built-in 110-volt outlet, because on the road we are constantly charging camera batteries and computers, and it’s just one less thing to think about. Rear seat storage is also plentiful, although front-seats lack a really good spot for a cell phone besides in the cup holders. Another gripe? The gigantic sunroof doesn’t have a one-touch open or close function. You have to hold the button the entire time, which takes about 15 seconds. And the refrigerator’s opening goes the wrong way, so your front-seat passenger can’t actually get anything out; you have to be sitting in back to access it. Fortunately, Tom spent most of my driving stints in back anyway, so he got to be the bartender as well.

As we returned from our road trip, having successfully argued both our tickets down to zero-points and sub-$200 fines, I began to contemplate what place this car has in today’s market. It’s not exactly cheap, as our fully-loaded test vehicle came just $200 shy of $58,000. And it’s not exactly pretty either, though the more I looked at it, the more I saw styling cues from the Maybach Excelero concept, and the more it grew on me. Some people absolutely loved it, Tom still hated it. And the MKT has tough competition. Not on paper, mind you, because the MKT is the best value in luxury on the market today, but in brand heritage and public perception. The Audi Q7, Mercedes G-Class, even the platform-shared Ford Flex pretty much have the market cornered right now.

Lincoln, like Buick, is in a tough spot. They have a brand that is widely known for catering to old people. Their logo and grill designs, to me, say “old man driving,” which is part of the reason I wanted the MKT for this particular trip. And the MKT hasn’t been marketed particularly well, as even car guys asked me when the MKT would be out, surprised to learn that it’s been on the market for over a year.

The bottom line: The MKT is a wonderful car, and probably the best American made luxury car of the last 25 years. It has everything you could ever reasonably want a luxury car to do. If you have a family, or, better yet, a chauffeur, and want to whisk or be whisked around invisibly  in quiet, comfortable luxury with all the gadgets in the world, this is the perfect car for you.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 8th, 2010 at 1:25 pm and is filed under News, Photos, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.