So Saturday I had time to kill, I've been toying with the idea of a new vehicle, and happened to be close to a Lincoln dealer. What better way to kill time than test drive the new MKX?

Highs:

• Headroom & legroom generous and should fit just about anybody
• Pretty zippy, engine has some ***** to it.
• Quiet. Very quiet!
• Lots of gizmos when loaded. Nav looks good.

Lows:

• Torque steer a bit much when floored
• WAY over-boosted steering, no feel to road at all.
• THX certified sound system my ****. Bleh.
• Tall drivers, forget about the big sunroof. 3" of headroom lost! D'oh!
• Vintage looking gauge cluster belongs in 70s where it came from.

I was kinda impressed with the vehicle, and with the low price makes it a contender. My huge **** fit in comfortably... plenty of headroom w/o the moonroof, my knees are not in the dash. Bummer is the center console doesn't leave much east to west room for my right leg. Bummer. They did however, make the edge of the console some kind of soft material that is kinda cushy - not hard plastic like most. Nice attention to detail.

It rode very well, was very quiet and the engine had some grunt. I drove a FWD version and when punched the thing wanted to go to the right, and in a hurry. Also had bad wheel hop when powering out a tight turn. Steering feel was the worst with a WAY over-boosted feel. Jesus Lincoln - YOUR ENTIRE VEHICLE LINEUP DOES NOT NEED TO HAVE THE STEERING LIKE AN OLD TOWN CAR. For the love of god stop the insanity! The Lincoln LS has been the only Lincoln product with decent steering. If anything will prevent me from getting an MKX, its the horrid can't-feel-the-road steering. It sucks the fun right out of this vehicle.

All in all, if you want a smooth, quiet, comfy vehicle with good road manners but not much fun to drive (though very easy to drive) - this is your next car.

The remainder of my shopping list:

BMW x3, 3-series sedan, 5-series sedan
Acura MDX
Open to suggestions...

 

Drive a Toyota Avalon, those things have some bad wheel hop.

 

How about the new Mazda Miata?
You could pretend you're a Shriner in a parade.

 

Pretend?

 

Hey D,
While I am not familiar with the Lincoln you talked about, I see BMW is on your list. Just wanted to tell you I had to work a crash scene Saturday early a.m. involving a sedan. It was the squarer type. Not sure of exact model as there were no emblems left on it. Upon sliding 472' they made contact with a 3.5' Oak tree at the right rear tire it spun and flipped approximately 5 more times coming to rest almost 300' from the tree. It did remove most of the cars rear. The passenger recalled looking at the speedo in the slide and seeing 130mph. While the passenger was better off than the driver, he still had some injuries. The driver was helicoptered out with severe head injury due to the driver a pillar collapsing and bringing the roof with it. This car had 6 airbags and all deployed. About a foot more to the front and the car would of wrapped the tree like a horseshoe.
Anyway, don't overlook the safety built into a BMW! I have some pictures I snapped with my phone, but I haven't loaded them onto any of my servers. I can email if you PM me an addy....

 

And maybe just to make things interesting we could shoe-horn Hersh into the passenger seat -- now that would be a sight!

 

Yeah, BMW's are very well engineered in the safety department. It is one of the top reasons I ended up with my BMW motorcycle. A automaker that makes silky smooth engines, cars that are glued to the road yet offer a comlpliant ride... I wish more automakers took after them.

dzervit at gmail dot com is my e-mail. I'm interested to see if I can figure out what the car was prior to the tree. I love that game!

 

Did our firewall at the office allow the email to a gmail account?

If so, any luck? Not the best pictures I know, but I did lighten them up some.

 

The pix did make it through... its definitely a 3-series coupe... could be a 330ci or an older 318... those wheels look like the older stuff, not the E46 model's sport wheels... but that front end pic would tell the tale if it was lighter. Thanks for the pics, that is crazy!

 

?

If it's the older body it's between 1995 and 1998 (above).
1995 was the first year the 3 series had six bags.

 

No, it was a fairly new model that his grandma bought for him. He's a known crack addict and was high at the time of the incident. Not much left of the front end either. The fire men pulled the hood up in the picture as it was flattened down. The battery was in the back if that helps. The rims were 18's I think I recall seeing. I did not do the crash report, so I did not see the registration. It was very sporty, full leather, etc. I will see if I can find one online....

The rims in the picture have 20 spokes if I counted them correctly. I also found it interesting that the air cleaner was laying on the ground directly by the front tire, but the hood was mashed done tightly into the motor prior to the f/f prying on it.

 

I say this was it: 2004 3 series 325i with different rims.

 

No, the ladder E46s... the 18" wheels.

 

The Lincoln MKR and MKS look pretty sweet. Check out the Lincoln website.