What a difference a year can make. Last year when we reviewed the new 2015 Lincoln MKC we found it rather underwhelming. We found it too expensive, the seats lacked any real support and the performance was meh inducing. Now fast forward a few months to the 2016 model and with the overall changes, the feel of the MKC has completely changed.
Officially for 2016 the MKC comes with a revised interior, the new SYNC 3 infotainment system and that’s about it. Here is the thing though, last year’s model was rather lazy feeling, the engine lacked any gusto or motivation. Fast forward to this year and engine very happily responds to your right foot. So it may not be ‘official’ but we feel the engine has re-tuned as well. When you hit ‘S’ on the gear selector it dials up the responsiveness even more. S gives you sharper throttle, more aggressive gear changes and stiffens up the suspension and steering. With the AWD option in our tester, this thing will hang on to a corner rabidly without any noticeable understeer.
The interior hasn’t changed dramatically compared to last year’s model but what has changed is the seats. The seats now offer increased lateral support and the difference is amazing. The new found support plus the beautifully stitched leather makes it one of the best in its class. Overall the interior is adorned with leather, wood and metallic accents. The doors are heavy and close with an authoritative thud not clunk found in other models.
As mentioned above the MKC now comes with SYNC 3. Now this is absolutely the best infotainment system I have ever used. It’s extremely quick, the graphics are great and an imbecile can use it. It makes you wonder what went wrong with all the other infotainment rigs out there.
Now how does this compare to the NX and RDX we reviewed previously? Well as we said before the NX has an extremely divisive design language. Either you love it or you hate it and while the 2.0 turbo is a great motor the 2.3 in the Lincoln spanks it in horsepower and torque. Design wise the MKC is one of the classiest looking vehicles on the road. The taillights are stunning and the front end is masculine. The RDX looks well like an Acura. So it’s just meh but it does come with a great V6. For our money it’s a toss-up between the RDX and the MKC. The steering is too light in the RDX and optioned out the MKC is a lot of coin (but it offers a lot of goodies not found in the Acura). If you can bargain yourself down to the RDX price point the MKC is a great and different alternative.
