Lincoln MKX (2016)

Test Drive Notes Library

Pros
Looks good.  For many years, Lincoln has approached design by simply dressing up Fords with every piece of costume jewelry in the drawer.   Or, as we once put it, making its cars look like the JC Whitney catalog just threw up on them.  The MKX is different.  It’s truly classy looking and, dare we say, desirable. It’s got a muscular elegance that works.
Feels like a luxury car.  The materials inside the cabin are rich looking and feeling.  The MKX is quiet, solid and calming.  The interior feels airy and spacious.
The 2.7 liter Eco-boost V6 is very smooth and powerful.  We don’t know what it’s long term reliability will be yet, but its performance is impressive with plenty of power available anytime.  Transmission operates unnoticeably.
It rides and handles well, with two qualifications, noted below.  The ride is actually on the firm side for a Lincoln.
Controls are intuitive and easy to use.  It seems to have the right balance of actual knobs and buttons to stuff that’s addressable via the touch screen.
Comfortable seats up front.  Good room in the rear seating and cargo area, which extends when the back seats fold.  Lots of good, usable space overall.  
Excellent rear view camera which comes on instantaneously, and features a bird’s eye view of the car, making backing up and parking pretty easy (available on high trim models).
It has a rocking Rebel sound system on the highest end model.

Cons
Price.  Our tester listed at $58,740.  Worth $10,000 more than an excellent, fully loaded Ford Edge on which it’s based?
Eco-boost is far more boost than eco.  We got a combined 16.8 mpg, which is several mpg less than the competitors Lincoln hopes to target.  Six speed automatic transmission may be part of the problem, as most competitors have seven or eight speeds now for better highway mileage.  But we’ve found that, in general, Ford's engines provide more boost than eco.
The ride is quite good, but the MKX does feel heavy.  We really felt the car’s 4,500 pounds on corners.  A fully loaded Ford Edge lists as 500 pounds lighter, and seemed to handle better.  Plus, the 20 inch wheels that came with our test MKX made the ride a little less smooth than it could have been.  
Our test vehicle came with the old, reviled My Lincoln Touch infotainment system.  Lincoln is in the process converting MKX's to the upgraded Sync 3.  Be sure the one you buy has the upgraded Sync 3 (wait if you have to), or your car will tick you off every single day.
You have to pay big bucks, and choose a higher end model to get the most important safety features, like forward collision warning and automatic pre-collision braking.
In a nod to “different” styling, the selections for the automatic transmission are in a long, vertical row, to the left of the touch screen.   As you might imagine, it’s not that hard to hit a transmission button with your thumb, while trying to use the touch screen.