It was a virtually untouchable pedestal-swivelling pre-production concept at the January 2012 Detroit show, and having personally missed its virtually ready production debut at New York in April, it was good to finally see the smart and well-proportioned new Lincoln MKZ in LA.
Hidden in a well-guarded show stand ante room on the first press day, with pride of place instead taken by some fantastic classic cars from Lincoln’s back catalogue, the second day of the LA show saw the Lincoln exhibition space taken over by the new MKZ in numerous colours, some with a large but slick-looking, darkened glass sliding sun roof.
But particularly smart – and apparently a Lincoln exclusive its sister Ford Fusion/Mondeo model won’t get – is a ‘now you see it, now you don’t’ touch-sensitive centre stack display. With the display off, the floating buttress-style stack helps create a very elegant ‘less is more’ cabin feel. But touch the stack when you need to alter aircon or the stereo and its control labels shine into life. It’s a great surprise and delight feature, which is just what Lincoln needs, as it tries to make its cars match the theatre and quality of its new show stands – I just wish at the bottom of the stack it didn’t say SYNC and Microsoft.
By Guy Bird
