>> As you might imagine I'm not exactly prone to loving anything with a third row. Not just because putting me in here is kind of like putting a horse in a cat carrier but because I just hate big dumb SUV's. But once I manage to bend my parts through that way to get out of it, I actually like this car a lot. This is a good looking three row and I don't say that very often. Let's go for a ride in the 2010 Lincoln MKT all-wheel drive with the eco boost motor and of course check the Tech.
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>> Now to my eye the MKT accomplishes what Mercedes wishes they nailed with the R-Class; three rows without anyone saying minivan. They call this one steel blue metallic and on the inside is a classic black leather. I like the interior of this Lincoln because it's got that recent Ford mature look. We've seen this in the Taurus, the Fusion, the MKS. Ford's doing some nice cabins these days and luckily putting some good technology within them. Not a whole lot that we haven't seen before but luckily it's good stuff. Here is out 8-inch LCD. You get one of these whether you have NAV or not. Obviously there's no navigation displayed if you get the base car. It will show other controls and interfaces for the vehicle. But this NAV system is one of our favorites; it's hard drive based by the way and we know that because if we go to the media selection, one of our choices is jukebox. And content on it can come from the optical drive which is as you can see will also play DVD's while you're parked or from an audio disc you pop in the slot, single slot here because you've got a hard drive no need to stack up the discs. And of course you've got a USB drive here next to your AUX jack for thumb drives like I'm using or for your iPod or your iPhone using your standard Apple cable. Now whether you're listening to your USB drive or your iPhone or your Satellite radio or your DVD or Jukebox or whatever, it's going to come out of one of two audio systems. The base system is just Lincoln sound. What we have here on this car luckily is one of our favorite audio systems which is the THX Audio System--THX2 5.1 Surround. And that THX sound puts more speakers around the cabin but most importantly really advanced digital amplification that I've always thought does one of the best jobs of any of the high-end systems of keeping you from screwing up it. It's a well-policed, well-behaved system that almost never sounds out of shape. And of course blue tooth hands free is also part of Sync so Sync brings a lot of things together and that's standard on this vehicle. And of course on a car in this price class that comes standard with an LCD, you'd better have a rearview camera and of course it does. It gives you color-coded zoning as to where you're headed but it does not give you any kind of trajectory indication geared to the steering wheel angle. Available in a package and only in a package by the way, is this thing they call the Power Vista roof. And it's this large panel over the first row that slides back over a thick panel over the second row. Oh speaking of that second row, come here. Nice accommodations back here--you've got bucket seats with this full length console--I mean full length that goes from here to the front of the car. This is a standard arrangement on this vehicle and not some kind of an up rated seating package. Now this is fun--you've got our cup holders and let's find some stuff, you've got a 110 outlet here like you have in your house and oh what's this? A little cooling button for fridge or freezer which lives right here. This is an ala carte option by the way, lift the lid and it's like one of those little hotel ice buckets but it really works--that's really cold. Now up here Ford's taking advantage of a couple of the big ideas in automotive engineering right now which are direct injection and turbocharger. An ego boost engine has a pair of little turbos that are optimized for different parts of the RPM range and direct fuel air mixture injection right into the cylinders at the combustion point. A number of companies are doing this and many say DI is the big idea right now in combustion motors. Supposedly that means a V6 will give you V8 power with V6 economy. This is a 3.5 liter V6; we get 355 horsepower, 350 foot pounds of torque, zero to sixty and 6.1 out of 4900 pounds of vehicle so I can believe the V8 power and performance thing. Unfortunately the MPG is nothing to write home about; 1622 and in the real world we just plain got sixteenish. The 3 and one-half twin liter twin turbo direct injection V6 ego boost motor tries to deliver on that V8 power from a V6 block marketing line. But the size and weight of the MKT is just a little too much for that and the six speed auto is just a little too in love with top gear as well. That said, the MKT moves well just not quite as smartly as the MKS Sedan does with the same power team. The ride comes off as mostly smooth and then you think planted, the cabin quiet and the whole experience makes you wonder is this really the same Lincoln that makes the Navigator? Okay let's price this big guy. A 2010 MKT eco boost all-wheel drive is 50 grand and by the way Eco boost and All-wheel drive always go together on this vehicle. Now the big package is called the Elite package. For $4,000 that gets you the voice-activated GPS NAV; not just a dumb vehicle configuration screen on the LCD; the THX2 5.1 Surround--that's a winner; also gets you blind spot detection and the cross traffic alert on the back and that gigunda [assumed spelling] of Vista panoramic glass river.
