Andrew L’s review on the 2013 Lincoln MKZ 2.0 EcoBoost FWD (warning it's not as good as I was hoping)
Well recently I have been shopping around actually at other cars. Not because I am sick of my LS but because I live only 10 minutes from my office so I do a lot of city driving and my fuel economy has seen a sharp drop from where it used to be (around 23 mpg mixed driving). I was trying to find a used or reasonably priced RWD Hybrid but I soon found out my options there are limited leaving me mostly with an Infiniti M35h or a Lexus GS450h which begs the question where are the American automakers here? I recently went to Autoway Lincoln to get a feel for an MKZ but they turned me away and said they would only let me test drive if I was ready to buy. I decided to go to Parks Lincoln in Tampa to check out their inventory. They had about the same amount around 7 or 8. They were surprisingly pretty busy so it took a while for a dealer to come out and show me the car, after showing it to me he asked if I wanted to drive it, I promptly said yes.
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Interesting note about this handle if you have the key on you and you touch the bumpy area it will unlock all doors or lock them instead of having a physical button thought that was kind of cool
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This model was equipped with the Reserve Package which included:
- Navigation
- BLIS
- Sync
- THX Sound System
- Heated/Cooled front seats
- Memory Seats for 3
- Power tilt and telescope steering column
- Power opening and closing truck with soft close
- Rear view camera
- Parking sensors
- Single panel moon roof
- 19” Wheels
- Crystal Champagne Tri Coat
- Light Dune interior
- Final price of $42,615
Most of the models on the lot were entry level models barely any were high end and NONE had the BAMR (Big @$$ Moon Roof). The car drove very nicely which surprised me. I started driving it in sport mode around town. The paddle shifters responded quickly. The ride was firm and I didn’t notice any body lean. Interior was very quiet as well. Once I hit the highway I switched it to comfort mode and didn’t notice a difference at first but as soon as I went over a bump the car rocked softly. The whole car just felt very solid the whole time the doors had a nice quiet thud when opening and closing them. The 2.0 feels great also. I was afraid of it being like so many other 4 cylinders that I have driven in the past where on the highway they buzz and feel tired but this vehicle felt great on the highway and in fact felt A LOT like my V6 in my LS. 3 things I was disappointed with, first being when I opened the shade on the moon roof the whole panel slid way to easily and felt VERY cheap, second there was really bad glare off the speedometer when the sun was over us, and third the dashboard was all soft touch but not leather stitching (which I already knew about) but for a car in this price range feels cheap. I was impressed with the car overall but something was missing from it, a certain character that my LS has and this car was missing. Was it because it was RWD? I don’t think so and that’s me being honest as much as I love RWD it was not that at all. It just felt too boring for me even in sport mode.
But the biggest disappointment came from the dealership experience. I was standing around waiting for almost 15 minutes because they were slammed with customers, which was fine by me but the last part really got me the most. The dealer wanted me to buy the car right there on the spot it was VERY high pressured sales and after I told him no he got his sales manager out to talk with me and he was pushing very hard and kept telling me that he had no wiggle room. They quoted me at $580 a month for 39 months and 10,500 miles. They also offered me 2500 on the trade in for my LS. Now… I know my car isn’t the newest but my LS is in immaculate condition and only has 75,000 miles on it. KBB puts it at 5,900 for Excellent, 5,852 for Very good and 5,527 for Good. I told them no thanks and they lowered my monthly payments to 500 a month. I still refused and walked out. The dealer came running after me and asked me what was wrong, asked if it was the color of the car or asked if they were too expensive and wanted to know my magic number. I told him I wasn’t ready to buy period. After I came home I went to Lincoln.com to build that exact car and something caught my eye…
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Even if I change the down payment to 2500 it comes out to 472 a month
If this is the new Lincoln dealership experience I am VERY disappointed. Normally I wouldn’t be this taken back by something but I just feel like they were really trying to screw me over on this one. I cannot honestly say that my next car will be a Lincoln… Ford I am very disappointed in you.
One final note, why is this important? I think most have seen me post here but not really everyone knows me except maybe 2b2 and we have discussed this before. I feel like I am the perfect demographic for Lincoln to be aiming at. I am young at 24 years old, I have a Bachelors of Science in I.T. Network Engineering and have been working in my field since 09 and graduated in 2010, I was working full time while going to school full time. I am a young professional I have a job I love and I make excellent money for my age. I go on business trips for the company, I work with vendors and try to help create cost cutting in the I.T. department and I am considered a part of administration for my office since I am the only I.T. person on site in St. Petersburg. I am the exact person that Lincoln should be going after, someone who is driven and really starting their life. I see a lot of young professionals driving the competition and Lincoln is nowhere to be found here.
Well recently I have been shopping around actually at other cars. Not because I am sick of my LS but because I live only 10 minutes from my office so I do a lot of city driving and my fuel economy has seen a sharp drop from where it used to be (around 23 mpg mixed driving). I was trying to find a used or reasonably priced RWD Hybrid but I soon found out my options there are limited leaving me mostly with an Infiniti M35h or a Lexus GS450h which begs the question where are the American automakers here? I recently went to Autoway Lincoln to get a feel for an MKZ but they turned me away and said they would only let me test drive if I was ready to buy. I decided to go to Parks Lincoln in Tampa to check out their inventory. They had about the same amount around 7 or 8. They were surprisingly pretty busy so it took a while for a dealer to come out and show me the car, after showing it to me he asked if I wanted to drive it, I promptly said yes.
Interesting note about this handle if you have the key on you and you touch the bumpy area it will unlock all doors or lock them instead of having a physical button thought that was kind of cool
This model was equipped with the Reserve Package which included:
- Navigation
- BLIS
- Sync
- THX Sound System
- Heated/Cooled front seats
- Memory Seats for 3
- Power tilt and telescope steering column
- Power opening and closing truck with soft close
- Rear view camera
- Parking sensors
- Single panel moon roof
- 19” Wheels
- Crystal Champagne Tri Coat
- Light Dune interior
- Final price of $42,615
Most of the models on the lot were entry level models barely any were high end and NONE had the BAMR (Big @$$ Moon Roof). The car drove very nicely which surprised me. I started driving it in sport mode around town. The paddle shifters responded quickly. The ride was firm and I didn’t notice any body lean. Interior was very quiet as well. Once I hit the highway I switched it to comfort mode and didn’t notice a difference at first but as soon as I went over a bump the car rocked softly. The whole car just felt very solid the whole time the doors had a nice quiet thud when opening and closing them. The 2.0 feels great also. I was afraid of it being like so many other 4 cylinders that I have driven in the past where on the highway they buzz and feel tired but this vehicle felt great on the highway and in fact felt A LOT like my V6 in my LS. 3 things I was disappointed with, first being when I opened the shade on the moon roof the whole panel slid way to easily and felt VERY cheap, second there was really bad glare off the speedometer when the sun was over us, and third the dashboard was all soft touch but not leather stitching (which I already knew about) but for a car in this price range feels cheap. I was impressed with the car overall but something was missing from it, a certain character that my LS has and this car was missing. Was it because it was RWD? I don’t think so and that’s me being honest as much as I love RWD it was not that at all. It just felt too boring for me even in sport mode.
But the biggest disappointment came from the dealership experience. I was standing around waiting for almost 15 minutes because they were slammed with customers, which was fine by me but the last part really got me the most. The dealer wanted me to buy the car right there on the spot it was VERY high pressured sales and after I told him no he got his sales manager out to talk with me and he was pushing very hard and kept telling me that he had no wiggle room. They quoted me at $580 a month for 39 months and 10,500 miles. They also offered me 2500 on the trade in for my LS. Now… I know my car isn’t the newest but my LS is in immaculate condition and only has 75,000 miles on it. KBB puts it at 5,900 for Excellent, 5,852 for Very good and 5,527 for Good. I told them no thanks and they lowered my monthly payments to 500 a month. I still refused and walked out. The dealer came running after me and asked me what was wrong, asked if it was the color of the car or asked if they were too expensive and wanted to know my magic number. I told him I wasn’t ready to buy period. After I came home I went to Lincoln.com to build that exact car and something caught my eye…
Even if I change the down payment to 2500 it comes out to 472 a month
If this is the new Lincoln dealership experience I am VERY disappointed. Normally I wouldn’t be this taken back by something but I just feel like they were really trying to screw me over on this one. I cannot honestly say that my next car will be a Lincoln… Ford I am very disappointed in you.
One final note, why is this important? I think most have seen me post here but not really everyone knows me except maybe 2b2 and we have discussed this before. I feel like I am the perfect demographic for Lincoln to be aiming at. I am young at 24 years old, I have a Bachelors of Science in I.T. Network Engineering and have been working in my field since 09 and graduated in 2010, I was working full time while going to school full time. I am a young professional I have a job I love and I make excellent money for my age. I go on business trips for the company, I work with vendors and try to help create cost cutting in the I.T. department and I am considered a part of administration for my office since I am the only I.T. person on site in St. Petersburg. I am the exact person that Lincoln should be going after, someone who is driven and really starting their life. I see a lot of young professionals driving the competition and Lincoln is nowhere to be found here.
