The Lincoln MKS stands close to the pinnacle of the short list of world-class, high-tech, U.S.-designed grand touring sedans. (Very short list.) The audio, navigation, information, and phone systems are about as good as can be. The new Sirius Travel Link provides both traffic information, five-day weather forecasts, nearby movie times, sports scores, and even ski conditions. Automated Mayday calling is free. And that's enough to carry the rest of this pleasant, Ford Taurus / Ford 500-based platform, which is tuned for the handling rigors and treacherous switchbacks of the American interstate highways.

Lincoln MKS slideshow: Click Here

Here's what makes the MKS one of the best technology cars around, at least for infotainment:

Highest-tech center stack ever?
In the center stack, you'll almost certainly want the $3,000 navigation package comprising a 8-inch touchscreen Xanavi navigation system, THX-II audio with a dozen speakers, and rear view camera. Every MKS comes with Sirius satellite radio and the useful Microsoft Sync voice control system that provides Bluetooth and USB connections for phones, iPods, lesser music players, and memory keys. (See Ford's YouTube overview of Sync). Sirius Travel Link, first offered on the MKS, adds a range of real-time services for $7 a month:

-- Traffic data.
-- Weather (current and five-day forecasts, weather radar).
-- Fuel prices.
-- Movie listings.
-- Sports scores.
-- Ski conditions.

Ford couldn't resist playing safety-nanny with Travel Link: Although you can view movie listings and gas prices while under way because you might want to navigate to the theater for filling station, you can't glance over at last night's NHL scores or today's NBA starting times because that might be dangerous. See the difference? Me neither. And it still doesn't work if it's being used by the passenger not the driver. A cynic might conclude Ford has best enabled the services where Ford might be in line for a referral fee in the future. Compare this to BMW's Google Search option, available in Europe, that lets the front seat occupants search Google's yellow pages while under way.

Music every way you want it (just say "User Device")
The navigation system runs off a hard disk that stores ripped CD music as well. Entertainment options are broad:
-- CDs via a single-disc or optional multi-disc player
-- Music ripped to the hard disk (listed as the jukebox on the audio screens) with Gracenote lookups for artist, track, and title information.
-- Music from an iPod, Zune, or other music player
-- Music loaded on a USB memory stick, portable hard drive, or anything else that holds MP3 or WMA files
-- AM and FM radio, possibly HD radio as an integrated (dashboard controlled) accessory later in 2009.

As is the curious custom of the Microsoft-developed Sync, your iPod isn't addressed as an iPod but as a "User Device." No matter how clearly you say "iPod" when you press the voice button on the steering wheel, you'll stump Sync in the same way Apple's other successes have stumped Microsoft. Even with 160 million iPods sold, it's not in the Sync vocabulary. Here's another oddity: You can upload photos to the dashboard LCD display in case you forgot what Mittens-the-cat looks like, but the photos are transferred by ripping a CD (an mini-environmental nightmare if ever I heard one), not putting them on a re-usable memory key.

The touchscreen display has a couple split-screen modes. One, suited for long trips, puts the navigation info on the left half and splits the right between audio info and climate control. On othe other hand, no matter what display mode I chose, I didn't find one to display a list of current and pending audio tracks.

Other tech goodies: affordable ACC, capless gas tank
The MKS offers radar-based active cruise control for $995, about half the price many others charge. New to the FoMoCo lineup, a SecuriCode touchpad on the driver-side doorframe lights up when you tap it (it's invisible until then), allowing you to enter an unlock code. High-intensity discharge (xenon) headlamps are standard and steerable headlamps are part of a technology package ($1,115) that also has front sonar, and keyless remote.

All-wheel-drive adds $1,890 and cuts economy by 1 mpg from 17 city / 24 highway for the V6 engine mated to a six-speed automatic. When you refill (premium for best performance and 273 hp, regular when you want to save a few bucks), you just open the filler door and push the gas nozzle into the capless filler opening - no gas cap to unscrew and possibly lose.
Inside, heated and cooled front seats are standard, as are heated rear seats. That's one unexpectedly nice touch that helps explain a list price, $37,655 for the front-drive MKS, that seems optimistic by a couple thousand dollars. Also, the MKS uses Bridge of Weir leather. Unlike Chrysler's self-annointed "fine Corinthian leather" gambit of the 1980s, Bridge of Weir is a real, Scottish company with high-end clients.

Cheap touches here and there
This isn't tech-related, but you should know: Most of the cockpit looks luxurious, but parts feel low-cost, as if Lincoln was forced to pick from the parent company's lowest-common-denominator parts bin. Cheapest of the cheap is the array of same-size, same-shape steering wheel buttons that feel especially hollow if you catch a fingernail on the underside. The console shifter feels clunky rather than silky. The center stack controls are also a monotonously similar shape and size. (And just below them is a fixed panel, labeled Lincoln, that looks as if it should open to provide storage; it doens't.) Try finding the emergency flasher button in an emergency. But never mind, for help will arrive soon: Come 2009, Sync-equipped cars will be able to call for help in a crash if your Bluetooth phone is connected. It's called 911 Assist. Note this well: Ford offers free the same lifesaving service that in OnStar cars costs $15 a month.

Little glitches
Cars driven by journalists age in dog years, so my Sangria red MKS with 5,000 miles probably had 40,000 miles of wear and tear. A section of the Bridge of Weir leather trim on the side of the driver's seat no longer met the seat moulding, exposing the padding underneath. The speed sensitive volume raised and lowered as if a bored 3-year-old were playing with the radio. The toothpick-shaped chrome trim strip on the ignition remote came unglued at one end and became a mini-spear my pocket. For a while when the car started, the wipers made one sweep, then parked. None of this went to the essential goodness of the car, but of the dozens of test fleet cars I've drive, none had so many little hassles that would annoy paying customers. The trunk is huge but the opening is small because of a high liftover height; this seems minor but could be a turnoff for people trading in a Town Car. If you're the Town Car demographic, which is somewhere between 60 and R.I.P., maybe you aren't so good at lifting anymore.

On the road: Pleasant isolation
The MKS isn't a sports sedan so much as a plush touring car at home on the interstates. An MKS it is out of its league when an Audi or Infiniti pulls up behind you on a twisty country road; you're about to be passed. The 3.7-liter V6 engine is a bit harsh under hard acceleration and it might be worse were it not mated to a six-speed automatic. Understand, it's not a barge, but it's not a BMW, either, and at the same time, it doesn't have the silky soft ride of a Lexus. Lincoln has a 340-hp turbocharged version coming within the year, called EcoBoost, and one hopes a sports suspension will be offered alongside. Ford calls its turbos EcoBoost because a V6 turbo has the potential to provide 15%-20% lower fuel consumption and emissions than a comparable V8.

Building and buying online: good luck figuring it out
Silly me, believing the build-your-own part of the Lincoln.com website would be about my buying needs, rather than Ford Motor's desire to show more videos and 360-degree photos of the car. After going to the site, admiring the pretty design and ignoring the invalid website security certificate warning (on the days I visited), choosing the MKS, and clicking build your own, I was hit by a request for my zip code (not unusual), watched a zoom and pan mini-video of the MKS set to music, got a second request to pick the model I wanted (still MKS), got a choice to pick a pre-built or custom built MKS (maybe Lincoln doesn't want you custom-building after all), and reached a ferris wheel-of-features picker, but still wasn't configuring any cars. I exited, looped back, and on the next try got to the configurator.

As you pick options, linked options are automatically added (you want aluminum trim, it also adds the technology package) or removed. The options titles were truncated (truncated even on my 1600-by-1200 pixel display) so you didn't know which of the two THX audio packages to explore and choose. Every time you choose an options package, the contents of the window with the package choices disappear and then jerkily scroll back into view. When I was done with my first stab at configuring an MKS, at the summary screen my audio and navigation packages didn't appear to be part of the chosen options, and those are reasons 1 and 2 for buying an MKS. Actually, they were included in the MKS Ultimate Uber-Package and the summary lines that listed the audio and navigation packages perhaps should have said "included" rather than "$0." Websites can and do change, but in the week I visited, the technology image Lincoln.com projected was of technology run awry.

Should you buy?
The Lincoln MKS is the tech-heavy luxury sedan in the Lincoln lineup, intended to lure customers away from the time warp Lincoln Town Car and make them forget the forgettable Lincoln LS sedan. The MKS is not to be confused with the Lincoln MKX (SUV) or MKZ (mid-size sedan originally called Zephyr). What are the MKS attributes? Technology for sure, luxury as well, sports maybe, bang-for-the-buck unclear. The MKS comes available with front- or all-wheel-drive; prices start in the high thirties and, loaded, approach $50K. Lincoln put a lot of effort into crafting a first-class infotainment experience for the driver and passengers. Whether "complete interactive experience" or "leather-wrapped cyberspace" (two slogans for the MKS) will resonate with Lincoln's traditional customers remains to be seen.

The Lincoln MKS is a study in contrasts: high tech cockpit and center stack vs. a nothing-special drivetrain and handling biased toward Lexus not Infiniti. For everyday driving, the MKS is fine. For interstate cruising, it's delightful. For sporty driving, it's far back in the pack. The smaller Cadillac CTS is the best U.S.-built sports sedan and the one that's world-class in every respect. The MKS is more on par with the costlier, better-handling Cadillac STS; the MKS is roomier inside. The front-drive Buick Lucerne and Cadillac DTS would compete also. Chrysler's closest model would be the 300.

On the world stage, the center stack holds its own against most all comers, but the Germans (all of them) and the Infiniti M35/M45 surpass the MKS on handling. The Lexus GS350 is a close competitor because of its soft ride and interior appointments. The cheaper Toyota Avalon, built to handle like an American car, would be competition. So would the outgoing Volvo S80, which has the same chassis as the MKS, since Ford currently owns Volvo. A car that has to be especially worrisome is the Hyundai Genesis: Lexicon audio, Harman navigation, cockpit controller (that's usable), reasonable handling, excellent fit and finish, roomy interior, and a price that stops at $42,000 with a V8, $38,000 with a V6.

FACT FILE
Lincoln MKS
www.lincoln.com/mks
Price: $37,655 - $48,870
Type: 5-passenger full-size sedan, front- or all-wheel-drive
EPA economy: 17 city, 24 highway (front drive)
Pros: Superior navigation system, THX audio, Sync USB-and-phone connector. Sirius Travel Link adds useful travel real-time info. All-wheel-drive available.
Cons: So-so handling. Common-to-Ford parts cheapen the interior. Price vs. competitors.
Bottom line: World-class infotainment, third-world website, handling somewhere in between. Ailing Ford Motor needed a home run, got a ground-rule double out of the Lincoln MKS.