It’s time for a taste of the Emerald Isle! That’s right, St. Patrick’s Day is just a few hours away, so raise a glass with the RoundAbout crew and toast everything green in this “magically delicious” episode. From a one-of-a-kind Chip Foose-customized farm implement to a South Korean road that’s green in a different way, we’ve got all of our Irish bases covered. Among a plethora of other topics, we also chat about Ford’s brand-new Paddy wagon and expound on the dangers of grooming yourself while driving. But there’s a whole lot more than that, so you’d better listen up. Where else will you find out what Michelle Naranjo loves about Riverdance and where Zach Bowman’s hidden his pot-o-gold?
When we tested the Ford Flex last March, we knew the Lincoln MKT would be arriving on deal lots soon. At the time we wondered if the new Lincoln would be/could be the new “Black Sedan” or maybe have a bit of that private jet feel to it for second row passengers. Other than the motor in the Flex, the standard 3.5L V-6 which we found just a touch lacking, we loved the Flex, and knew that it would be hard for Lincoln to come up with something better.
Right off the bat the thing that smacks you in the face with the MKT is the styling. As with most of the rest of the Lincoln line you either like the styling, or you don’t. We dig Lincoln’s exterior look and have no problems with the execution of the design language here. Pay attention when we say exterior.
While the Flex looks like a giant MINI from the rear, you aren’t going to mistake the MKT for anything else. Not only does it have Lincoln’s strong front facia, it has the kicked up shoulder over the rear wheel that gives it a more muscular look as well. From there the rear part of the roof begins to slope down into the rear lift gate. While it doesn’t have the elegance as it could have had if the Ford designers had used more of a French Curve, the rear treatments are for the most part successful.
A straight-on rear shot does give you an idea of just how large this vehicle is though. An interesting thing to note with the MKT is what a difference color plays here. When you see an MKT in black, as our tester was, it appears much more substantial than when you see it in a lighter color. Normally the fashionistas will tell you that black is slimming, however, on the MKT that’s not the case.
If you have been inside a Lincoln recently, the interior will feel vary familiar, just a little larger in scale. The materials are very nice, though not quite to the Audi Q7 level. Then again the MKT checks in about twenty grand less, so there you are. There are soft touch materials where you would expect them, the center stack is well laid out, and of course you get Ford’s great SYNC system.
The second row of our MKT was equipped with captains chairs and the refrigerator in between. If you are a mom from Westchester County hauling the boys to hockey practice, and the girls to their equestrian lessons the cooler does a good job of keeping their sodas cold. If you are an executive using this as your “black sedan” then it does a passable job of keeping that Non Vintage bottle for Krug cold. Second row passengers not only have plenty of leg room and their own HVAC controls, but also heated and cooled seats as well.
Row three is where we see the largest difference between the Flex and the MKT. In the Flex, two full sized adults can fit back there, for a time, and not be uncomfortable. In the MKT, they can’t. It isn’t so much the leg room, it’s the lack of head room in the MKT. The sloping rear section of the roof of the MKT cuts in the cabin a great deal and the result is a serious lack of available headroom. While at not quite 5’11” I can sit upright and have plenty of room in the third row of the Flex, anyone much over five feet tall won’t be able to sit upright in the Lincoln’s third row.
The major nit that I have to pick with the MKT’s interior is one that I think would be solved by a change in color. By choosing the Olive Ash wood trim you aren’t forced into the rest of the interior being all black. With the Olive Ash trim you can get what Lincoln is calling “canyon” which is more like a nice darker tan/camel color. The other choice for the seating materials and some of the interior trim pieces is “light stone.” While I would not call the all black interior of our tester oppressive or claustrophobic, it did feel a bit cave-like. Even with the large double panoramic sunroofs teh cabin lacked the airiness of the Flex we tested almost a year ago, and I believe much of that has to do with the interior color choice.
Have a look at some of the interior pictures of the MKT that our friends over at Autoblog had about the same time we had our tester, and I think you will see the dramatic difference.
There are a few things we’d like to see in the interior of the MKT in future model years. First would be a heated steering wheel. Grabbing the the wheel on some of the cold single digit temps we experienced while the MKT was in our driveway was not the most pleasant thing without gloves on. Perhaps a switch of materials to Alcantera or some other micro suede would accomplish the same thing and give the Lincoln an even more upscale feel without a bump up in the price tag.
My second suggestion for Ford’s engineers has to do with the MKT’s remote start function. How about a system that remembers the last settings for the heating and cooling of the seat and cabin temps? Again jumping into the MKT during temperature extremes can be unpleasant. It’s a small thing, but one that would make a big difference in our eyes. As Ford and Lincoln expand their “My Touch” and open the software for the Sync system to developers, perhaps we can have an app for our iPhones/Crackberries/Android’s that accomplish all of that together. Under the hood of our Lincoln was the 355 Horsepower 3.5 liter V6 EcoBoost engine. The added power and torque of the EcoBoost over the standard, non-boosted 262 Horsepower V6, easily solved our largest issue with the Flex, and that was needed just a bit more grunt in passing and merging situations. Even with the added power of the EcoBoost and the extra drive line losses of MKT being an AWD model the difference in mileage between the two people haulers wasn’t much, maybe one or two MPG at most. That makes the EcoBoost well worth the trade off we think.
As for handling, well, at a curb weight just over 5000lbs, it’s no sports car, but the MKT is more than competent for anything you would ask of it. It handles predictably, there is no real tug from the front wheels in the AWD model when you apply power from low speeds around corners. And the ride on the highway, even on Michigan’s bomb cratered roads was good.
While we really do like the MKT, we are left with one issue, is it fifteen grand better than the Flex? Our immediate reaction is no, but then again maybe it depends on what you are looking for. And if it’s something quite peculiar, something shimmering and white, it leads you here, despite your destination, under the milky way tonight. Where the Flex comes across as the tall wagon with hints of the Woodys of the 40’s and 50’s, the MKT does have a more substantial, more serious presence about it. You can’t help but feel the interior of the MKT is a serious Hugo Boss suit person, while the Flex is more khakis and polo shirt kind of guy If what you crave is most of the interior usability of the Flex in a package that projects a more upscale adult feel that the Flex might, then the MKT is for you. While the interior is not quite up to the Audi Q7 level, it’s fairly close, and as we said earlier a twenty grand difference in price between the Lincoln and the Audi is fairly substantial. The MKT might not quite be the four wheel Gulfstream G550 we had hoped it could be, but having to fly business class on Emirates Airline isn’t exactly a hardship.
It’s the moment you wait for every four years: the RoundAbout Winter Games in which news stories compete for the coveted RoAb Gold Medal. A GM worker takes the medal in Road Warriorism as he racks up more daily miles than any of the competition. Meanwhile, a driver of a Silverado takes the award in Near Misses as he narrowly averts an unorthodox vasectomy. In the highly-competitive Stupidity category, a Bugatti owner (well, former owner) once again takes the prize. Plus Zach, Jeffrey and even Joey all have cars (and planes) In the Garage, and we have an Alaska edition of Meet Your Roadmates!
As the racing season gets ready to begin, the After Hours crew thought it would be appropriate to welcome the new director of Ford North America Motorsports on the show. Jamie Allison has worked for the Ford Motor Co. for 22 years in engineering, marketing, as well as Ford racing, but this month he was named to the top spot. We’re eager to ask him what he thinks NASCAR needs to do to become more technologically relevant to the auto industry. Also, how can racing help sell the new reality of premium small cars in America? John McElroy will be here for the discussion as well as David Welch of BusinessWeek and Bloomberg and Peter De Lorenzo, the Autoextremist.
Every week like brand-new 21-year-olds we hit up the clubs and dive bars of the internet to celebrate our freedom. Before blacking out in a stranger’s rose bushes, we might find a few interesting things to talk about, or even a cohesive, Zen-like theme. On the road to incapacitation we’ll ride in a Sidecar through Manhattan to grab a Long Island Iced Tea. But we’ll have to watch out for Irish Car Bombs, relations between Black Russians and White Russians have been on the rocks. If we can dodge the hail of 9 mms and avoid ending up like JFK, we might be able to get some Old Fashioned advice from Three Wise Men. Thank GOD birthdays – and podcasts – only come once in a Blue Moon. What starts out like Sex on the Beach, ends like an apocalypse with Four Horsemen.
It’s like they say, you only turn 21 once, so join us as we celebrate with a bad decision or two. A New Hampshire woman racks up three DWIs in one week. Australian scientists come up with fabric technology that will resist vomit smell. And, we wake up next to an Iranian diesel and wonder what else we did last night. Plus we’ve got another installment of AutoGadget and Zach Bowman finally gets back into the press fleet with In the Garage.
The Autoline crew is back from the Washington Auto Show just in time for another great discussion on Autoline After Hours. We’ll be talking about all the big news of the week: Ford’s huge profits, Toyota’s giant recall and Big Ed Whitacre’s takeover as permanent CEO of General Motors. This week we’re joined by our friend, Eric Trytko, the blogger and podcaster behind the website Rumblestrip.net. We’ll also be joined by David Welch of BusinessWeek and Bloomberg News and Mr. Autoextremist himself, Peter De Lorenzo.
Well, the North American International Auto Show–otherwise known as the Detroit Auto Show–has made all the news it’s going to make for this year. It was a rocky year for the Motor City, and in a way, it really showed at Cobo Hall in Detroit. The digs might have been better than last year (Chrysler was a series of unadorned cars on beige carpet in 2009), but the product reveals were notably less exciting. With the patient on the slab, we called in the best team of doctors we know … our … selves. Well, anyway, we’re here with the official RoAb postmortem of NAIAS.
Is the new Cadillac XTS worthy of being the luxury brand’s new flagship? Does the Volkswagen NCC bring anything new and exciting to the German marque? Will the Honda CR-Z finally be a hybrid that’s fun to drive? We debate all these and more. Plus we’ve got another installment of our new Meet Your Roadmates segment, a Stupid Car Trick and the triumphant return of the long lost Psy-car-logy.
Things are not always what they seem. For instance, you might think this episode is nearly a week late. Wrong as usual, idiot. We were planning to do this episode a year from now, so technically it’s early. Why are you so offended? Clearly you are unfamiliar with the word “idiot’s” Greek roots. I was simply suggesting you were a private person unfamiliar with the vagaries of podcasting. Again, not what it seems.
So there you go. Houston, we have a theme. This week we’ve got the coolest 4×4 you never expected, a bevy of protests as the Detroit Auto Show gets going and a wrecked Yaris that is more functional than you’d think. Plus we’ve got some new fun and games this week including our Mystery Words of the Week, a new segment where we get to stereotype drivers and a couple of burnouts gone terribly wrong.
It’s time for a taste of the Emerald Isle! That’s right, St. Patrick’s Day is just a few hours away, so raise a glass with the RoundAbout crew and toast everything green in this “magically delicious” episode. From a one-of-a-kind Chip Foose-customized farm implement to a South Korean road that’s green in a different way, we’ve got all of our Irish bases covered. Among a plethora of other topics, we also chat about Ford’s brand-new Paddy wagon and expound on the dangers of grooming yourself while driving. But there’s a whole lot more than that, so you’d better listen up. Where else will you find out what Michelle Naranjo loves about Riverdance and where Zach Bowman’s hidden his pot-o-gold?
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