The 2011 Lincoln MKX available in both front-wheel- (FWD) and all-wheel-drive (AWD).
The official fuel economy estimates for the 2011 MKX are 19 city / 26 highway miles per gallon (MPG) with FWD and 17 city / 23 highway with AWD.
The 2011 MKX is equipped with premium painted 18-inch alloy wheels clad with P245/60R18 tires as standard equipment. Our test unit was equipped with the optional 20-inch chrome-clad aluminum wheels wrapped with P245/50R-20 tires.
Interstate Mileage Testing:
Cruise control off, target speed 60-72 MPH, A/C off/heat on, windows up: 24.4 MPG
The FWD MKX tips the scales at 4,251 pounds.
Highway driving range is acceptable when driven conservatively. The AWD MKX is fitted with a 20 gallon fuel tank, while the FWD MKX gets by with a slightly smaller 19 gallon tank. All MKX’s are designed to run 87 octane regular unleaded fuel.
The MKX is equipped with four wheel anti-lock (ABS) disc brakes, and AdvanceTrac with Roll Stability Control.
We tested the MKX under winter conditions and found its intelligent AWD system to be surefooted and reliable. The MKX’s luxurious cabin won rave reviews from all our passengers. Rear seat heating is optional.
Dual five-way buttons and voice controls keep the driver’s hands on the leather-wrapped steering wheel. The relining second row will win plenty of fans, with 39.3 inches of rear seat head room and 39.6 inches of rear seat leg room.
The cargo area provides 32.3 cubic feet of storage with the 60/40 rear seat up and a generous 68.6 cubic feet with the rear seat folded down.
We’ll forgive you for not believing us, but there are signs of life at Lincoln. Now there’s the heavily revised 2011 MKX, a crossover that takes many of those vehicles’ best attributes and stirs in bleeding-edge technology. Baby steps.)
Although the MKX was Lincoln’s first-ever crossover when it launched for 2007, its conservative, heritage-inspired interior and exterior styling—and matching driving dynamics—made it feel dated right from the git-go and failed in any meaningful way to set it apart from its cheaper Ford Edge twin. Having already used the virtually identical MyFord Touch system in the 2011 Edge, we found MyLincoln Touch to be pretty familiar. We also wondered how the controls would function while wearing gloves and managed to test them out with racing gloves—perhaps the only time racing gloves will be worn in an MKX, ever—and, to our surprise, they worked. Expect lots of extra button touches if you live in colder climes.
The driver can also use the right-side thumb controls on the steering wheel to control audio, nav, phone, and climate-control settings via the right LCD. It seems all the bases were covered, which is good because the 2011 Lincoln MKX won’t be available without MyLincoln Touch. The cheap, sparkly plastic that Lincoln loved so much has been banished, as have most sources of interior noise. The MKX is seriously quiet even at speed, the better to hear the optional 14-speaker THX II sound system.
The Lincoln MKX is improved dynamically, although it’s hardly a poor man’s Porsche Cayenne. Even with the 3.7’s higher output, fuel economy remains at 17 mpg city and 23 mpg highway for all-wheel-drive examples; front-wheel-drive models improve on their 2010 city and highway ratings by 1 mpg, now achieving 19/26.
In contrast to the Edge Sport with which it shares its engine, the MKX chassis setup favors luxury over sportiness. That means $39,995 for front-wheel-drive versions and $41,845 for all-wheel-drivers. Options include blind-spot detection, adaptive headlights, adjustable ambient lighting, adaptive cruise control, a panoramic sunroof, and the aforementioned THX sound system.