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Payne: An MKX as elegant as Lincoln

Posted by hpayne on October 2, 2015

The all-new Lincoln MKX further strengthens Lincoln's

Imagine if Abe Lincoln had had the opportunity to drive in his namesake, the Lincoln MKX sport ute.

At 6-foot-4, our 16th president would have slipped easily into the passenger seat of the two-row SUV as a Secret Service agent drove him down Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day. With the “Panoramic Vista Roof” open, Abe’s stove-pipe hat would have stuck out like, well, a stove pipe. On occasion, he might have stood on the seat and emerged from the roof waving a long arm to the madding crowds.

Far from the awkward-looking Lincoln MKT large SUV or the last-generation, prison-bar-grille MKX, the ’16 mid-size MKX is the most elegant ute in its class. Dead last in U.S. luxury market sales, Lincoln is showing signs of life. Following in the tire-treads of its smaller MKC stablemate, the X’s design is noble. With the bars turned pleasingly horizontal, its signature, double-grille spreads like the wings of a bald eagle.

I lived for 13 years in the nation’s capital, and the stately Lincoln would have been at home on its grand boulevards, the picture of class. No doubt, if 19th-century Abe had encountered an MKX he would have reacted like he had seen a UFO.

Returning from a trip to Chicago on a Saturday night, I descended on an I-94 interchange service center outside Kalamazoo like an alien spaceship in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” An MKX SUV UFO, if you please. The X’s 12 LED headlights and distinctive, tubular LED running lights — front and rear — are so sci-fi a group of locals hanging out on the curb might have expected aliens to emerge from inside. They got Mrs. Payne and me instead.

“What did you do just then?” one local exclaimed pointing at the front of our spaceship.

He had seen the Lincoln star logo rise up and a small camera emerge as I inched forward into the parking space. I had actuated the front camera (which has its own washer, natch) with a console button so I could dock closely to the curb without hitting it. Gather ’round, my earthly pals, there’s more. They crowded around the driver’s door like kids who had just been invited into an airliner cockpit for the first time. The button-festooned MKX interior was a century-removed from the old Ford F150 pickups and compact cars in the parking lot. I demonstrated how the forward lens — combined with two under the mirrors and one aft — give the driver a bird’s eye view of the vehicle in order to place it exactly in a parking space.

If the Lincoln had gull-wing doors like inventor “Doc” Brown’s DeLorean in “Back to the Future” (or the Tesla Model X introduced this week) the scene would have been perfect.

But the MKX doesn’t have gull-wings. Nor does it have 5,000 horsepower like an SRT Jeep Grand Cherokee. Or 11-inch rear tires like the BMW X5 M. Or an F-Sport badge like the Lexus RX. Now that SUVs ride on car chassis, manufacturers are keen to load them with testosterone to grab headlines and quicken the pulses of auto show crowds.

The MKX doesn’t care about any of that stuff. “Quiet luxury” is its mantra. Indeed, the latest Matthew McConaughey ads are notable for the hunky Hollywood star never uttering a sound — much less the vehicle.

For all of the MKX’s gadgetry, though, its Kalamazoo fans — or President Abe — would have quickly been at ease behind the wheel. Its 22-way adjustable leather seats fit like thrones — including a massage if one so desires. Dial in a 20-minute back rub, turn on the optional Revel audio system and some soothing music and you might be carried away into a sauna-like coma.

Until the beeping begins.

MKX may be a rolling Barcalounger, but it’s also obsessively concerned about your safety. Stray toward your lane lines and the steering wheel vibrates. Approach a curb and the car beeps hysterically. Rush the car in front too quickly and lights flash like you’re in a disco. What a nag. But then I spoke with a nurse friend in Chicago whose No. 1 concern was vehicle safety. When I told her she’d be more secure inside an MKX than the Crown Jewels, she was sold. If I paid 50 grand for something this elegant, I’d want a Brinks security system too.

Smart shoppers will note that the Lincoln is built on the same bones as the all-new, 2015 Ford Edge that I reviewed in March, which can be had for 10 grand less and is itself no slouch in the gizmo department. Similar 3.5-liter V-6 and 2.7 twin-turbo V-6 (though the MKX gets more horses). Same moon roof, same driver assist systems, same liftgate-kick feature, same self-parking assist. Oh, was that handy around Chicago where cars are stuffed into parallel parking spaces like grocery-shelf soup cans.

But the Edge-in-a-tuxedo Lincoln is a bargain itself compared to the luxury competition.

Only the Volvo XC90 — 10-large more expensive than the MKX — can compete with the Lincoln’s thoughtful, graceful interior design. While Lincoln has long used buttons for its transmissions, the arrangement — coupled with a touchscreen infotainment system — seems suited to the 21st century digital age. The center console sweeps between the seats unbroken by shelves or gear knobs that clutter. Need to store an iPad or handbag? Ample storage lies underneath where hydraulic cables once ran.

Lincoln has been in the wilderness so long, I’d forgotten what it stood for. “Quiet luxury” is a good place to start alongside price-competitive, sales-leading Lexus RX, which has gone Ted Nugent-loud with its radical, Darth Vader grille. Acura’s MDX will remain the SUV of choice for those who need three rows. And Audi will gain the sporty crowd.

Let Tesla’s Model X and Audi’s Q7 fight for the $80,000 eclectic electric buyer. Lincoln needs a practical SUV in the meat of the market that can build a solid base. Lincoln the pol would get that. And in my week-long drive from Chicago to Kalamazoo to Detroit, the $40-60K MKX spaceship earned plenty of supporters.

2016 Lincoln MKX

Vehicle type: Front-engine, front- or all-wheel-drive, five-passenger sport ute

Price: $38,995 ($61,760 as tested)

Power plant: 3.7-liter, 24-valve V-6; 2.7-liter, twin-turbocharged V6

Power: 303 horsepower, 278 pound-feet of torque (3.7-liter); 335 horsepower, 380 pound-feet of torque (turbo)

Transmission: Six-speed automatic transmission

Performance: 0-60 mph, 6.0-6.7 seconds (Car & Driver estimate)

Weight: 4,447 pounds (AWD turbo as tested)

Fuel economy: EPA 16 mpg city/23 mpg highway/19 mpg combined (3.7-liter AWD); EPA 17 mpg city/24 mpg highway/19 mpg combined (turbo AWD)