Lincoln’s new luxury sedan is a winner. It’s free from pain and well-made, excepting have existence careful of expensive extras

through David Kiley

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Make jokes about Lincoln if you will. Say that it’s the brand that takes you to the airport and the cemetery, but not to the country unite in a club or to your friend’s backyard picnic. But no matter what you may think of the cachet of Ford’s (F) upmarket brand, it’s hard to ignore that the newest facsimile, the 2009 Lincoln MKS, has come to play for certain against its longtime rival, General Motors’ (GM) Cadillac, and even luxuriousness import brands such as Toyota’s ™ Lexus, Nissan’s (NSANY) Infiniti, and Honda’s (HMC) Acura.

Until now, Lincoln has been getting along on some competent badge-engineered models: the MKZ (derived from the Ford Fusion) and MKX (derived from the Ford Edge). These models, in which case ho-hum to many, are nicely appointed in their interiors, and so quiet that I almost didn’t intellectual faculties somewhat average handling. The MKS, though, is the pristine unique model in the Lincoln lineup to come from the present revitalization team at Ford and a new design direction as substance Lincoln.

Ford has to rebuild Lincoln. For years, it neglected the once-iconic American brand as it poured billions into buying and trying to establish Jaguar, Land Rover, and Aston Martin. Within the last year, Ford has jettisoned all three of these British brands. It still retains Volvo, though the automaker has shopped it around as conveniently. If it does sell Volvo, at that time Lincoln will be Ford’s only remaining luxury bolt.

The exterior design lines of the MKS evoke an almost generic European sedan look. That may not give joy to serious sports sedan aficionados, but it’s a massy small space up from past Lincolns and scarcely polarizing like the origami-inspired design of the Cadillac CTS.

The MKS comes in both front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive, making it an almost must-look unusual for luxury buyers in the snow states. Standard features forward both include 18-inch wheels; heated power side mirrors with remembrance and auto-dimming; Xenon HID headlamps; a new capless fuel-filling system; and a cool touchpad passage system in which the keypad is buried beneath the surface of the car. Lincoln buyers are especially keen on the touchpad entry, which I have never understood. Inside, the four-door sedan comes standard by Ford’s voice-activated Sync system (hands-free phone calling and MP3 mime), leather, tilt/telescoping power steering move in a circle, dual-zone automatic meteorological character control, heated and ventilated (cooling) domination front seats, heated rear seats, rear center armrest with pass-through slot, and an eight-speaker, THX-certified AM/FM stereo order and Sirius Satellite Radio. It has all the little things I like, including rain-sensing wipers and a rearview camera system.

True confessions. When this car arrived for my week-long ordeal, I didn’t want to approve it. C’mon, it’s a Lincoln. The Town Car? Continental? Gas-guzzling Navigator for posers? It’s not even my Dad’s brand. It was my grandfather’s brand. And I get hung up on Lincoln being the airport car. But as I settled down into the air-cooled leather driver’s seat, punched up the sharp nav and Sync systems, and peeled deficient in of my driveway, I felt different about Lincoln. For person thing, I am thinking about the cachet of being the only person at the barbecue I’m going to under 60 driving a Lincoln. I’m actually looking forward to telling people what I think: that I really like it.