I agree with Car and Driver’s characterization of the vehicle’s “goofy proportions and polarizing snout”, not to mention its “boattail butt”.
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/09q2/2010_lincoln_mkt_with_ecoboost-short_take_road_testBut TTAC’s second take is a little more accurate:
The Lincoln MKT is a Looney Tunes cartoon: based on previously made creations, packaged into something unique. While the animated series started from the Warner Brother’s impressive music library, the MKT comes from an old Volvo S80 platform, sharing a motor with the Mazda6. So both creations are downright looney. Which explains the MKT’s krill filtering grille:
silly in pictures, insane in natural sunlight where it’s obvious that 40% of it’s toothy smile is blocked off by solid plastic paneling. Which probably says more about the current state of Lincoln better than anything else.While the Lincoln MKT’s design is proportionally derivative and stylistically challenged, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Still, the
MKT’s droopy butt sticks out like a sore thumb in any lighting condition outside of a PR-coordinated photo shoot: even the oversized, italicized “T” on the decklid badging reeks of branding desperation.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/review-lincoln-mkt-take-two/And their first take spot on:
The MKT’s grill is so unrelentingly grotesque it’s easy to overlook the fact that the crossover’s hind quarters are equally—if less aggressively—hideous. For anyone who appreciates well-sculpted sheet metal and artful illumination, the MKT’s butt is an abomination. The enormous red strip bisecting the back end at nipple height is a distorted echo of an over-sized Ford Thunderbird logo pasted onto an homage to the Acura RL’s ungainly reverse snow plow motif. Adding insult to aesthetic injury, the MKT’s back-up lights are in exactly the wrong place (dead center).
But wait! There’s more! The rear’s glass-to-metal ratio and forward tilt suggests nothing so much as an oncoming Amtrak train.
You can’t ask the MKT’s designers “what the hell were you thinking?” because, clearly, they weren’t. The MKT’s profile is blessedly bland, if you discount the 10-spoke 20″ EcoBling wagon wheels filling-up the arches and ruining the ride. We’ll get to that . . .
Based on its looks, the only logical market for Lincoln’s unfathomably ugly station wagon is someone driving a hearse.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/review-lincoln-mkt-ecoboost/I guess a lot of people are “wrong” about this elegant vehicle.
Jaeger