Lincoln’s replacement for the current MKZ will debut in concept form at the 2012 Detroit auto show this January, we’ve learned from two sources inside Ford. Lincoln’s new design director, Max Wolff, arrived from Cadillac with enough time to influence the MKZ’s styling, which is described as clearly evolved from the current design language, rather than a radical departure. The 2013 MKZ will ride on a new platform, which also will underpin the next Ford Fusion (spy photos of which can be seen here) and its European counterpart, the Mondeo. Like the Fusion, the next MKZ will continue to use a front-wheel-drive platform, and likely will again offer optional all-wheel drive. Having proven popular with the current car, a hybrid version will again be offered to supplement a range of V-6 and turbocharged four-cylinder engines.
With Mercury’s mercy-killing last year, Ford is finally committing resources and personnel to rebuilding Lincoln into a brand that garners respect outside the nursing-home parking lot. To that end, enthusiasts would like to see some kind of bad-ass Lincoln sports sedan based on the Australian-market rear-wheel-drive Ford Falcon, but while we’re told that’s not out of the question in the very, very long term, Lincoln’s not yet strong enough to pull multi-billion-dollar development budgets out of the Ford coffers. To get there, it will need solid base hits, and that appears to be exactly what the company is aiming for with the 2013 MKZ.
We expect production-version Mk2 of the MKZ to debut later in 2012 at one of the spring shows in Chicago or New York, or possibly at November’s L.A. extravaganza.
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