Lincoln MKZ AWD Dallas TX

BY TONY QUIROGA

After one year on the market, and just as people might be starting to wrap their heads around what a Lincoln Zephyr is, the company is putting the nameplate back on the shelf, next to Versailles. From here on, new Lincolns will wear the letters MK, and a third letter — be it an X, an S, or in this case, a Z — will denote the model. Unlike the Mark LT pickup, the MK isn't short for "mark" but is pronounced by the letters themselves, as in "M K."

The change from Zephyr to MKZ is a bit more involved than simply slapping a different chromed badge onto the Lincoln's rump. Several real alterations, from chassis tweaks to powertrain improvements, make the '07 MKZ more than just a marketing experiment. Ford's new 263-hp, 3.5-liter V-6 now resides under the hood — Lincoln's more plebeian brethren, the Mercury Milan and the Ford Fusion, will have to wait at least until 2008 to get the larger engine. Our MKZ also came with newly available all-wheel drive, which put the power down easily and added $1875 to the sticker.

At the track, the MKZ's extra 42 ponies didn't make it any faster than the Zephyr. Quarter-mile and 0-to-60 times were identical to those of a front-wheel-drive Zephyr we tested in April 2006. The MKZ has 267 more pounds to carry than did the Zephyr (due primarily to the AWD system), but its 14.5-pounds-per-horsepower power-to-weight ratio is still better than the Zephyr's 16.0 pounds per horsepower. Identical gearing in both cars leads us to believe our MKZ might have been an unusually weak example or that the added friction and rotational inertia of the all-wheel drive sapped a significant chunk of life from the new engine. However, when a 4528-pound Ford Edge SEL Plus AWD with two more horsepower runs 0 to 60 in 7.6 seconds — only 0.3 second longer than the 715-pound-lighter sedan — one wonders why the MKZ wasn't faster.

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