Lincoln seems to have been wandering the automotive wasteland for a few years now. With the brand’s meat-and-potato Town Car model gone from the ranks, few buyers really have a grasp on what Ford’s entry-level luxury brand is still doing making cars. While General Motors is in the midst of a successful rebranding of its once-geriatric Buick line, Lincoln seems content to plod along as an also-ran. Or at least it did. The brand just announced that the EPA has certified the brand-new 2011 hybrid version of the Lincoln MKZ at 41 mpg city and 36 mpg highway, making it the most fuel-efficient luxury sedan in the United States. That’s a big claim, especially considering all of the engineering and marketing dollars Lexus has poured into its hybrid game as of late, and the news may give Lincoln the focus that it has been yearning for. Long, long ago, Lincoln was a bastion of new automotive technology, but over the past four decades it has been little more than a shell full of rebadged Ford products.
To some end, that hasn’t really changed. The 2011 MKZ manages its staggering fuel economy numbers thanks to a 2.5-liter Atkinson Cycle 4-cylinder engine with 191 combined horsepower borrowed from none other than the Ford Fusion Hybrid. Instead of the technology launching under the luxury banner and floating down to Ford -- as would be expected -- it’s moving the opposite direction.
Fortunately, most consumers don’t realize the parts swapping going on just under their noses. So long as Ford can take the high-tech, high-efficiency ball and run with it, Lincoln may have an opportunity to move from the back of the luxury pack.
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