Lincoln’s fun-to-drive, well-mannered LS sedan has unfortunately been something of a wallflower since its introduction in 1999–in spite of capturing top honors as Motor Trend’s Car of the Year that year.  That’s partly because it’s a very good car in a segment that consists of nothing but very good cars.  The buyers of upscale sports sedans have been among the most discerning and, well, downright picky consumers since BMW and Mercedes came over in the early 1980s and hooked a generation of Yuppies on the joys of sports-car performance in …

Okay, say what you like about the Lincoln Town Car.  It’s not cutting-edge.  It’s a relic of an era whose time has passed.  It’s downright shameless with its battleship-like proportions, big V8, and rear-wheel drive.  That’s what everyone (except, of course, the cadre of fiercely loyal Town Car buyers) says.  None of that matters in light of one simple fact:  No one makes a big, fat slab of automobile the way Lincoln can.  Challengers like the Mercedes S-Class and Lexus LS430 may have the edge in high technology and Euro-styling, …

We can forgive Lincoln for not getting it right the first time.  After all, the Navigator was the eighty-two year old manufacturer’s first foray into the world of trucks, and it helped to launch a whole new category besides.  The category of high-luxury, full-size SUVs was all but created by the Navigator and Cadillac Escalade.  As a freshman effort, the Navigator was acceptable.  It was a bit (well, a lot) too similar to the less expensive Ford Expedition, and it rode like a truck, and maybe it didn’t quite seem …

One glance and it’s obvious that the Lincoln Navigator shares a lot of its genes (and most of its letters) with the new Aviator.  Based on the Ford Explorer, Lincoln’s new mid-size SUV represents an almost perfect distillation of its super-size, super-luxurious sport-ute into a smaller package.

That smaller size makes the Aviator somewhat easier to like, too.  Since it’s uncommon to see full-size luxury sport-utes going off-road or even hauling soccer teams about, the Navigator’s tendency to serve as six-thousand pound, 11-mpg transport for just one or two people makes …

The naysayers are sharpening their tongues already:  Lincoln is building a pickup truck.  A fifty-thousand dollar pickup truck.  It’s absurd.  It’s foolish.  It’s nothing but an attempt to make more money.

The only problem, really, is that they’re trying to call the 2002 Lincoln Blackwood a pickup truck at all.  Actually, Lincoln is calling it an Ultimate Utility Vehicle, like the Chevrolet Avalanche.  But that’s not what it is.  Yes, it’s got the underpinnings of a Ford F-Series under there, and it’s got a bed instead of a trunk, but the …

The elderly, bearded gentleman in overalls watches as the 2000 Lincoln LS pulls up in front of a little antique store somewhere in rural Texas.  Eyeing the slim red badge in the center of the grille, he asks, “That the new Lincoln?”  When we tell him that it certainly is, he nods slowly.  “They sure changed ‘em,” he says with a note of approval in his voice.  “They sure changed ‘em.”

You can still get old-school Lincoln chrome and gadgets if you want them–but not in the new LS.  This is …

There’s not much future in building cars for old men in this business.

It was a cold, rainy late-winter day, and I was not in the mood to travel. I always enjoy the New York Auto Show, but the dismal weather and a backlog of work to be done around the house meant that my desire to make the nine-hour drive to the Big Apple was at an all-time low. Nonetheless, duty called, so I saddled up and got on the road. Once I was there, the 2008 Lincoln MKX did an excellent job of improving my spirits.

The MKX is improving Lincoln’s …