You seem to really like the MKZ, and it seems to fit the bill for your desire for "sporty-ish" plus a decent level of luxury - it's probably a blast with the 3.0TT. As you determined, you can acquire a vehicle through any mechanism (lot stock, custom order) and lease it, heck, you can even haggle over purchase price (and you should), with a lease (we got $5K off the DD/RT, nothing down, and a money factor that equates to a ~0.25% finance rate 😀)
Yeah, I really do like the MKZ and Lincoln. Just yesterday I was at my folks house and talking with my dad I mentioned that I think I was spoiled on Lincoln growing up. Dad had a 1989 Town Car, bought used and didn't keep for too long due to ongoing transmission problems. He also had a 1992 Town Car, which I learned to drive on. That car is still a beloved favorite of mine to drive, though it's long been gone and all I have are memories. Then both my parents had a series of Mark VIII's which were fantastic cars. Now here I am with my own Lincoln.
My salesman texted me yesterday with the sad news that the last day to order the MKZ from the factory will be June 30th or July 1st. That may be too early, even given COVID delivery delays, to turn in my current lease without penalty. However, I am going to head over to see him on Monday to talk it all over and see if we can figure something out. He seems to think that he can find the exact car I want later on, but I'm doubtful. The Lincoln sales numbers, especially for the MKZ and Continental are very low and still falling, hence the end of production decision Ford made on them. Couple that with trying to find a 3.OL will probably make it more difficult yet. I remember 2 years ago trying to find the exact car I wanted was hard and I ended up settling on the one I have which did not have all the options I was looking for. He's more optimistic than I am on this situation.
We may be joining you in the Ford 3.0TT world, as I am seriously thinking that our next family vehicle is going to be an Explorer ST (but that's still ~10 months ago, and a lot could change ...)
For a brief day the other week I considered an Edge ST and watched some videos on it. I quickly dismissed the notion because I'm just not keen on SUV's/crossovers (whatever) which as I mentioned before are just station wagon's with lift kits. Don't get me wrong, they're practical and very useful and I got my dad to get one because it's far easier for him to get in and out of given his deteriorating health and mobility at his age.
But I also wasn't impressed with the power output of the Edge ST on paper. Perhaps if I drove one it could change my mind about it. That's just me though.
Looks like the Explorer ST still produces less power than the MKZ 3.0L and it's much heavier too. However, if it's going to potentially be your next family vehicle, it should still be most excellent to haul people and things around with no effort at all.
I love the Raptor and everything it stands for, but I don’t have any regrets I didn’t buy it. I’m just not a ‘truck person‘, but you can find those with some decent deals as well, They just don’t have a fast turnover, As those trucks really do have to appeal to a certain demographic.
Raptor's seem to really hold their resale value from what I've seen, even 6 year old ones are quite pricey. I see quite a few of them around where I live. I think if I were to get one, I'd have to be the type to drive off road on a regular basis to justify having one to myself. Otherwise, I'd just get a regular F-150 since I drive 'on road' 99% of the time.
As for the SHO, [Being they are discontinued], they’re awesome; Ford gives you everything in those vehicles (The heated steering wheel is almost instantaneous, by far my favorite feature.) Also from your mentionings above, the other way you can identify SHO’s on the road, they are the only Taurus model that has the ‘mono-chromatic’ blackout grill and black accent headlights, aside from the SHO badging.
Yeah I forgot about the grill, but didn't know about the unique accent headlights.
Anyways, I’m a huge fan of white for cars as your MKZ, my previous 17’ SHO was ‘white platinum metallic tri-coat. You just can’t beat that color in terms of cleanliness and elegance.
In terms of buying what you like, if nothing else, you can’t go wrong with the MKZ. It’s just a classy ride all around.
Yeah I like white on cars too, but I'm thinking about black for the next one, or maybe ruby red which is the color I wanted on the current one but just couldn't find with the options I wanted.
I admit to not being a fan of the MKZ, and I've had mine for 4 years and about 50K miles now.
Still, though, I was spoiled by the car it replaced, the LS. I LOVED that car, and IMO it's easily among the best sports sedan of the early to mid 2000s, and probably the best(sort of) designed in America. I loved every one of the 100K miles I put on mine over 8 years, and in retrospect wish I'd fixed and kept it(it's still out on the road).
The MKZ was something of a let-down after that, but like I said I'm biased.
I also haven't driven a recent one. I have the 3.5L V6, which is no slouch of an engine, but seems to lack the "grunt" of the 3.9L V8 in the LS. It seems to have more of an economy tune, which I appreciate when driving it, but not when driving it for fun 🙂 . Of note, my MKZ just plain runs out of steam around 121-122mph, while at 135mph the LS seemed to be saying "Give me more, give me more"(that was where I gave out). I'm sure the newer Ecoboost engines are a lot better than what I have.
In all of this on the MKZ, though, I think a friend of mine nailed it a while back-"You just don't like it because it's front wheel drive." I think that was more true than I'd realized. Still, though, it's been comfortable and reliable.
You must have the older MKZ with the 'wing' grill then? I'm not a fan of that styling on the Lincoln's and am very glad I have the newer grill on mine which I think looks far better and luxurious than the 'wing' grills.
As for the LS, I remember when they came out and thought they looked pretty nice. I never drove one or even sat in one. But I seem to recall hearing that the LS was not of good build quality and had reliability issues. What has been your experience in that regard? Perhaps what I heard wasn't indicative of the mass of LS cars.
Sadly though, most LS's I still see driving around haven't aged well and look rather terrible as their owners haven't cared after them too much, or at all.
Regarding speed, I've had my MKZ up to 130 only once and had to back down due to catching up with traffic. It felt like it still had some more to give but probably not much more. That's with the 2.0L engine though. I'm also curious to know if it is speed-limited or not.
Spent some time with the dremel porting a spare intake manifold.
I made some good progress, but I'm not happy with the line(not sure if it's a casting line or welding line) where the balance tube attaches to the runners. I've worked to smooth that, but am waiting on some aluminum epoxy filler to get here to do some dramatic reshaping around the balance tube. I'm afraid I'll end up with things too wide if I try too hard to smooth that particular area out.
Also, I'm finding that there really is no substitute for "real" DyKem. I tried to use some thin laquer paint, but it takes way too long to dry and won't take a scribe line anywhere near as nicely as the real stuff.
I've only worked on one port, and as can be seen I still have a lot of opening up to do(the head was ported to match this gasket, and I'm trying to match the manifolds to those ports).
A few other things-aluminum really fouls up grinding stones, and I see why the pros prefer a die grinder. Some of this work is tight enough that a Dremel is really the right tool, but it can also be awfully slow at removing material and also overheats way too easily.
Are you able to, if you have the tools, to put it on a drill press and bore the hole out that way?
