Refreshed 2013 Lincoln MKS Gets Toothy Grin, More Power and Better Efficiency

Lincoln is on the ropes. In recent years Ford has been cutting itself to just the essentials and have sold Volvo, Land Rover and Aston Martin and has shuttered its Mercury sub-brand. While Cadillac has been refining its styling and improving its performance cache, Lincoln has had little success getting out of its stodgy image. Lincoln has refreshed the 2013 MKS with a new grill and improved engine with more power and better economy.

The standard 3.7 liter V6 is now rated at 300hp, a 16hp bump from last year, and its economy is now rated at 19mpg city and 28 mpg highway, a 3mpg improvement, on the front-wheel drive version of the car. The 3.5 liter Ecoboost V6 with 355hp remains unchanged for 2013. Both engines are mated to a six-speed automatic transmission.

To deal with the extra power, Lincoln has enlarged the vented brake rotors by an inch to 13.86 inches. The rear discs get a half inch increase to 13.58in.

Lincoln is pushing Continuously Controlled Damping system that is standard on the refreshed 2013 MKS that monitors the roadway and tunes the suspension accordingly. The system is controlled by Lincoln Drive Control in the cockpit in either normal or sport modes. In sport mode, the car gets torque vectoring control to route power to the wheels with the most traction when going through a corner.

Other new technology for the MKS is a faster 15:1 steering ratio, compared to 17.1:1 last year, and an optional active parking assist system.

To improve driver safety for the MKS, Lincoln has added a Blind Spot Information System, Adaptive Cruise Control, Collision Warning, Auto High Beams and a lane keeping system.

The refreshed 2013 MKS will be in dealers in the spring of 2012.