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<p><em>This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Lincoln.</em></p>
<p><strong>Check out the <a href="http://www.blogher.com/lincoln-night-on-the-town-sweepstakes?Reviewer9" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BlogHer.com special offers page</a> to check out other blogger reviews and to enter for a chance to win a night on the town from Lincoln! <a href="http://www.blogher.com/lincoln-sweepstakes-official-rules-6">Official Rules are here</a>.</strong><a href="http://oascentral.blogher.org/RealMedia/ads/click_nx.ads/blogher.org/Lincoln_Q1-10_Review_9/1[randomNo]@x13" target="_blank"> </a></p>
<p><em><strong>Also! Check the bottom of this review for your chance to win a $500 Visa Gift card! </strong></em></p>
<p>I&#39;ll start at the end: I was sorry to see this car go.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/diary/4420732697/" title="DSC_0101 by R. S. M., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0101" height="334" src="http://www.everydaytreats.com/wp-content/uploads/4420732697_da1c9d6116.jpg" width="500" /></a></p>
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<p>That alone should tell you plenty, but there&#39;s more to this story than that.</p>
<p>When I fell pregnant with our third child, my husband and I started looking for a bigger car. We wanted something that could handle three kids in car seats and visiting grandparents, plus play dates, strollers, and oh yeah, groceries. We really, really wanted to avoid a minivan, so we looked at crossovers galore -- but we always felt cramped and there were always features missing. And then it hit us: We didn&#39;t like any of the crossovers because deep down we really wanted a minivan.</p>
<p>Gulp. I mean, that didn&#39;t sound like us...but there was nothing out there that met our needs. So that must mean that we needed a minivan, right?</p>
<p>Full disclosure: In all our driving of crossover vehicles, we never once considered going into a Lincoln dealership. But here we are, still needing a bigger car, not quite ready to buy a van. So when BlogHer asked if I&#39;d like to test drive a Lincoln crossover I very quickly agreed. What did I have to lose?</p>
<p>The Lincoln MKT has many fabulous aspects to it, and some not so great things about it. I can summarize it for you like this: Love the interior, hate the exterior.&#0160;</p>
<p>Let&#39;s get the dislikes out of the way:</p>
<ul>
<li>The Lincoln grille: It&#39;s a love-it or hate-it thing, and unfortunately I&#39;m in the hater camp. It&#39;s too aggressive for my taste, and I&#39;m dismayed that so many car makers are headed in this big-grilled direction. Car designers? Please stop it with the big grilles.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The third row: It&#39;s cramped. It seats two. It&#39;s hard to get to. I&#39;m 5&#39;7&quot; and my head was hitting the ceiling. However! My five year old and two year old fit just fine. Related peeve: The second row doesn&#39;t move forward to give more room to the third when needed. I wish I had tried out a model with captain&#39;s chairs, but since I didn&#39;t I can only tell you what it was like in a model with a bench on the second row.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The car&#39;s exterior seems unnecessarily long -- I feel that space is wasted to make the car look pointy and long. I&#39;d rather have had that space on the inside of the car. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The rear window: You cannot see from the rear window. I mean this, there is close to zero visibility. No, really. Look: </li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/diary/4421687086/" title="IMG_0606 by R. S. M., on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_0606" height="375" src="http://www.everydaytreats.com/wp-content/uploads/4421687086_6a3b591e37.jpg" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>So, what <em>did</em> I like about the MKT?</p>
<p>A lot, it turns out. Like I said earlier, this is a luxury car, as evidenced by the myriad little details that make driving this car a pleasure. To wit:</p>
<ul>
<li>This car is quiet. So very quiet. It was such a treat to enjoy the delicious silence -- there was no engine noise, no road noise, nothing. Driving this car was actually relaxing. Well done.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The interior is full of nice details. First of all, it&#39;s beautiful:</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/diary/4420729205/" title="IMG_0612 by R. S. M., on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_0612" height="500" src="http://www.everydaytreats.com/wp-content/uploads/4420729205_31c06feab5.jpg" width="375" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/diary/4421497494/" title="DSC_0099 by R. S. M., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0099" height="334" src="http://www.everydaytreats.com/wp-content/uploads/4421497494_d7d0d3a6e6.jpg" width="500" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/diary/4421494958/" title="IMG_0613 by R. S. M., on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_0613" height="375" src="http://www.everydaytreats.com/wp-content/uploads/4421494958_45684e953d.jpg" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>Nice, no?</p>
<p>There are also ridiculous little luxuries, like heated <em><strong>and</strong></em> cooled seats:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/diary/4420729859/" title="IMG_0625 by R. S. M., on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_0625" height="375" src="http://www.everydaytreats.com/wp-content/uploads/4420729859_ef50488d8b.jpg" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>A little light under the side mirror to light the ground for you when you get in and out of the car at night:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/diary/4420731515/" title="DSC_0098 by R. S. M., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0098" height="334" src="http://www.everydaytreats.com/wp-content/uploads/4420731515_dd4fd49bf9.jpg" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>There are also removable foot rests, headlights that turn on automatically when needed (incredibly nice when you enter a dark parking garage!), built in window shades for the second row...it&#39;s a lot of little things that add up nicely.</p>
<ul>
<li>The back-up camera: While the rear window is pretty much useless, the car makes up for it with a fantastic back-up camera. Not only does it show you what&#39;s directly behind you, it also shows you what&#39;s coming from the sides of the car AND it makes backing up and parking pretty much idiot proof with handy trajectory predictors. Here I am trying to park on my first day with the car, when I simply wasn&#39;t familiar with its dimensions. As you can see, I was about to park on the sidewalk, which the guides made painfully obvious before i even took my foot off the brake:</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/diary/4420941737/" title="IMG_0603 by R. S. M., on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_0603" height="375" src="http://www.everydaytreats.com/wp-content/uploads/4420941737_951ee4f48c.jpg" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>So with a flick of the wheel, a frustrating parking job became easy:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/diary/4420728993/" title="IMG_0605 by R. S. M., on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_0605" height="375" src="http://www.everydaytreats.com/wp-content/uploads/4420728993_f11e9b49cf.jpg" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>I also loved the blind spot alarms -- they never went off on the open road, but they came in handy when parking in tight spots, which when you live in Boston is everywhere. The car I tested didn&#39;t have active park assist, but that would have been the icing on the cake.</p>
<ul>
<li>The second row is ROOMY. It fits three car seats without any problems:</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/diary/4420733547/" title="DSC_0105 by R. S. M., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0105" height="334" src="http://www.everydaytreats.com/wp-content/uploads/4420733547_bacb0e80cf.jpg" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>Here&#39;s a gratuitous shot of my son, trying and failing to kick the back of the seat in front of him. (Airplane manufacturers, take note!)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/diary/4420728895/" title="IMG_0607 by R. S. M., on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_0607" height="375" src="http://www.everydaytreats.com/wp-content/uploads/4420728895_a67327c90c.jpg" width="500" /></a></p>
<ul>
<li>Push Button Start: So, in this car you don&#39;t insert the key into the ignition. Weird, huh? Instead you press a button, and the car starts with a sequence of happy beeps as it adjusts your seats to your preferred position. This keyless start was frankly disturbing at first, but after a week of using it on the MKT I&#39;m annoyed at having to actually use a key to start my normal car. You just press a button! You can&#39;t beat that.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The trunk: It&#39;s roomy and deep, like in a minivan. It has a power liftgate. I&#39;m sorry if this isn&#39;t interesting to you, but I have kids and that means that I have stuff. This car can handle it, even with the third row seats up. Here&#39;s the trunk, holding $200 worth of groceries (which admittedly isn&#39;t much these days, but there you are):</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/diary/4420729579/" title="IMG_0622 by R. S. M., on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_0622" height="375" src="http://www.everydaytreats.com/wp-content/uploads/4420729579_fd88b61b4e.jpg" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>Not bad. Now, fold down the third row and you can haul pretty much anything. I stuck a child&#39;s bike in there to give you a better idea of just how much room you have:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/diary/4420734829/" title="DSC_0108 by R. S. M., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0108" height="334" src="http://www.everydaytreats.com/wp-content/uploads/4420734829_7c9390088d.jpg" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>You can also fold down the second row for even more room, but I&#39;d keep that information to myself if I were you. You don&#39;t want everyone calling you when they need help moving, now do you?</p>
<p>The Lincoln MKT is powerful, fun, quiet (did I mention quiet?), and turns on a dime - I felt very confident driving it. That&#39;s why I miss it. It&#39;s a bit roomier than other crossovers - and a lot more luxurious. If you need a minivan or a minivan alternative, chances are you spend a lot of time in your car. This car makes you feel pampered while you sit around waiting for the kids. I must say, the MKT made running errands fun. I miss it!</p>
<p><strong>Now!</strong></p>
<p><strong>Would you like to win a $500 Gift Card of your very own? Of course you do!<br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Leave a comment on this post, telling me what car you drive right now (or maybe you take the train?) and I&#39;ll use random.org to select a winner. </strong></p>
<p><strong>Contest runs from 3/15/2010 to 3/31/2010</strong></p>
<p><strong>I&#39;ll need a valid email address to contact you if you&#39;re a winner -- so be sure to use a real email address when you leave your comment. </strong></p>
<p><strong>Good luck!</strong></p>
<p><strong>&#0160;</strong><em><strong>Check out the <a href="http://www.blogher.com/lincoln-night-on-the-town-sweepstakes?Reviewer9" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BlogHer.com special offers page</a> to check out other blogger reviews and to enter for a chance to win a night on the town from Lincoln! <a href="http://www.blogher.com/lincoln-sweepstakes-official-rules-6">Official Rules are here</a>.</strong><a href="http://oascentral.blogher.org/RealMedia/ads/click_nx.ads/blogher.org/Lincoln_Q1-10_Review_9/1[randomNo]@x13" target="_blank"> </a></em></p>
