More than any other automotive brand, Lincoln has had a difficult time over the past two decades figuring out what it is supposed to be. Traditionally American, or international? Plush, or sporty? Refined, or brash? Sadly, the brand’s strategy has shifted far more frequently than sheetmetal can be restyled. This has yielded some very confused vehicles…

The LS midsize “near-luxury” sedan was introduced for 2000 as a cut-rate BMW 5-Series clone that had nothing in common with other Lincolns. For 2003 the LS received its mid-cycle enhancement. That same model year the Navigator and Town Car received more extensive changes, the Explorer-based Aviator was introduced, and the Continental went away. By at least freshening every model in its line-up at once Lincoln sought to grant them a common look and feel. I haven’t driven the others, so I cannot comment on Ford’s progress towards this goal. I can, however, comment on the freshened LS after taking a 2004 V8 Sport for a test drive.

Lincoln LS Reliability

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Styling

Four years ago the LS looked pretty sharp, if a bit derivative of a BMW—or a Mitsubishi Galant. I especially like the bold front end, the subtle shoulders that flow into the bodysides from atop the front wheels, and the smoothly arcing roofline. I also like the basic proportions of the LS: a very short front overhang, much longer (in fact, too long) rear overhang, and generous 114.5” wheelbase.

The last Acura Legend had similar proportions, and I liked them on that sedan as well. If that car is any guide, however, good proportions are lost on 99% of the market. Give most people well-proportioned, clean lines and they simply see a plain car. I suspect that the LS has also suffered this fate, which will only be compounded by the recent appearance of the brash Cadillac CTS.

Exterior styling changes for 2003 were largely limited to revised taillights and new wheels. The revised taillights are most welcome. I always hated the original taillights: their shape, their proportions, their ribbed surface. The rest of the LS’s styling is so conventional, couldn’t they have gone with a conventionally styled rear, like that of the Cadillac Seville, and been done with it? The new lights have a more conventional shape and no ribbing. There much less to say about them now, good or bad.

Three of the four new wheel designs have thick, flat, non-tapering spokes like other current Lincolns. Wheels with such spokes look good on the SUVs, but not so good on the LS. The V8 Sport has wheels with seven pairs of thin spokes that look better on the car, but these neither fit the new family “look” nor suit the car as well as the original 17s. They look elegant, but not very sporty.

The LS has always been blessed with some well-chosen paint colors. To me it looked best in a pea soup green (not the official name for the shade). That color is gone. But the new palette suggests the revised car’s higher level of refinement. The silver blue and silver green metallics look almost ethereal, while the extra cost ivory and white “tri-coats” suggest Palm Beach in their suave elegance. Think fine linen suit. This is fitting. The first Edsel Ford was far more sophisticated than his father and had an eye for style. He frequented Palm Beach, generally in a Lincoln, his baby within the company.

In design the revised interior retains the original’s utter conventionality. The center stack seems especially in need of additional character. That said, improvements were made last year. The original interior looked and felt a bit cut-rate. Materials have been sufficiently upgraded that the current interior does not. The new leather feels significantly richer. The center console, which looked especially cheap in the original, has been replaced with a more solid unit that provides some desperately needed additional storage capacity. To provide space for this additional capacity, the former hand-operating parking brake lever is gone, replaced by an automatic parking brake. (The LS’s sister car, the Jaguar S-Type, benefited from a similar change last year.) One more strike against the car’s sportiness, but a gain overall.

When I reviewed the 2002 I noted the absence of trendy metallic trim. Well, that changed for 2003. “Satin nickel accents” now cover the center stack and much of the console. A bit much? I never cared for the wide strip of faux wood across the dash and door panels in the original. It’s gone. In its place are three different trims. The base V6 has black laquer bits. The V6 and V8 Premium models have real wood bits. And the V8 Sport I drove has “aluminum.” I prefer the last, as it lends the interior a sportier atmosphere. Get the non-premium Sport and you also miss out on wood across the top of the steering wheel and shifter. I dislike having two different textures on the steering wheel, with one of them hot and slick, so in my book this is a good thing.

I appreciate where Lincoln is trying to go with the new colors and interior materials. Sadly, the basic styling, in and out, doesn’t fit. It suggests generic German sedan, while the revisions seek to take the brand back to its roots. Through the 1960s Lincoln continued to display Edsel’s influence. Its cars’ styling was always much more restrained and refined than Cadillac’s. If only they could have started from scratch. As it is, the LS serves as a more restrained counterpoint to the CTS, but fails to make a strong statement of its own.

Accommodations

The driving position did not bother me as much this time around. Maybe it and the car’s revised character are a better fit. I’d still prefer the A-pillar more upright, and thus further from my face, but it’s no longer something I might reject the car over. I never have minded the close-fitting nature of the interior. It makes the LS feel smaller than it is, a good thing in my book, and lends the car a sportier character.

Front seat comfort and support are significantly better than I recall from my past two test drives, so the seat revisions have been worthwhile. These seats are softer than those in German sedans, yet still provide very good support both longitudinally and laterally. Good lateral support is especially nice to see at a time when it seems to be becoming less and less common. Are manufacturers reacting to the ever increasing obesity of Americans by designing seats that don't fit most of us?

Rear seat comfort is very good for two adults. The cushion height and angle provide good thigh support. Legroom is more than adequate, but if you want legroom to spare a large sedan is still the way to go.

The car I drove had the optional heated and cooled front seats. Heated rear seats are also available.

Usually I do not discuss stereo systems, but the Audiophile system standard in the V8 sounded outstanding to me. An even better THX-certified system comes with the $2,995 navigation system package.

I’ve already mentioned the increase in interior storage space courtesy of a redesigned center console. The trunk is about average in size for this class of car, which is to say adequate but much smaller than domestic luxury car buyers are used to. As in many midsize rear-wheel-drive cars the trunk is shallow vertically. The hinges are the conventional, intrusive sort. Thankfully, if you need more cargo space the rear seat folds down in two sections. I use this feature often in my own cars, and would not want a sedan without it. (Are you listening, Lexus, Infiniti, and Acura?) BMW, Mercedes, and Cadillac charge hundreds extra for this feature. It’s standard on the LS.

On the Road

The 3.0-liter V6 provides marginal performance in this car (it has gained ten horsepower since I drove it, to 220, but that increase is not enough to make a difference). This time around I drove the 3.9-liter V8. This engine received a boost from 252 to 280 horsepower last year. It remains available only with a five-speed automatic.

The V8 doesn’t feel very strong from a dead stop, but comes into its own once over twenty. It is especially responsive on the highway. It sounds refined but not remarkable in any way, good or bad. The smooth-shifting transmission gained a manual shift feature for 2003. I’m not much a fan of such systems, vastly preferring a conventional manual, and found this one especially sluggish in responding to my requests for downshifts.

The LS’s brakes are powerful, slowing the car confidently even at highway speeds (80 around here), but feedback could be better.

The LS’s handling seems to have worsened with the 2003 revisions. The car sticks well when pushed (and the tires don’t complain), but it understeers far more than a rear-driver with a nearly balanced weight distribution should. Understeer, where the nose resists rotating and plows through a turn, is a car’s way of telling you to back off. A 280-horspower, rear-drive sedan’s chassis should feel more interested in aggressive driving.

In addition, the steering feels more distant than I like in a sport sedan (especially on center). Oddly, communication of what is going on where the rubber meets the road is much better through the seat than through the wheel. Stability control is optional, and heavily recommended for those who might be driving on ice and snow.

In contrast to the car's handling, its ride seems to have improved. The 2004’s chassis feels much more luxurious than I recall the 2000 and 2002 feeling. Noise levels are generally luxury-car low. I felt more cushioned and encapsulated than in those earlier cars. Substantial, graceful, fluid--the words to thoroughly describe the experience of how a true luxury car goes down the road escape me. The LS provides a good measure of this experience, and is not far off the new BMW 5-Series (and superior to the Mercedes E-Class) in this regard. I suspect this improvement was bought at the expense of the car’s handling. All is not well in this department, though. I could feel quivering in the body structure through the steering wheel.

Pricing

For quick, up-to-date pricing, and especially user-specified price comparisons, check out the website I created: www.truedelta.com. Why yet another vehicle pricing website? Well, I personally lacked the patience to keep using the others. They were too slow and required too much effort, especially when trying to compare prices. So I taught myself some programming and created a site where there is no need to dig through option packages, prerequisites, and the like one by one -- the TrueDelta algorithm figures these out for you in one swift pass.

The following is from when the review was originally written:

The LS has gotten considerably more expensive over the last few years. In 2000 the base price on the V8 was just over 35. Now it’s just over 40. This is hardly the way to revive slowing sales. Fitted with a sunroof, stability control, and climate controlled seats (standard on this model last year, $575 this year), the price rises to $42,855. This is far higher than it should be given the Lincoln’s weaker brand position, lack of distinctiveness, and thoroughly average performance for the class. But of course no one pays this much. After the typical dealer discount (based on Edmunds) and the current $2,500 rebate the price drops to $37,200, a much more reasonable amount. If you want HID lamps add another $595 to the list. Heated rear seats are a $400 option.

The Cadillac CTS comes only with a V6, but it’s a 3.6-liter with 255 horsepower. Combine this modest disadvantage with advantages in other areas and the Cadillac is as quick as the Lincoln even with two fewer cylinders. Even after 2004 revisions that took the edge off a bit the Cadillac is a sportier but less luxurious car. It is far more distinctive. A similarly equipped CTS lists for $41,095. The typical discount brings this to about $39,600 There is currently no rebate on the CTS. Consequently, the Lincoln lists for more but ends up costing much less.

Perhaps the most similar car to the Lincoln is the even slower selling (by quite a margin even) Infiniti M45. The 340-horsepower Infiniti is quicker but less attractive, less roomy, and even less of a handler. I cannot find prices for a 2004 yet. They might still be working to unload the 2003s. A 2003 equipped like the LS I drove lists for $46,995, but the typical discount brings this down to $40,800. If the Lincoln’s likely lesser reliability can be factored out (a big if) it appears the better buy. Either car will depreciate furiously.

Other alternatives to the LS fall into two groups: more compact V6 near-luxury cars like the Infiniti G35 and Acura TL, with prices in the low 30s, and V8 midsize luxury sedans like the Lexus GS 430, BMW 545, and Mercedes E500, which cost ten to twenty thousand more than the Lincoln. The closest of the latter in price, the Lexus, lists for $48,665 and the typical discount takes this only to about 48,000.

The G35 and Tl are both excellent cars. Despite having “just” six cylinders they are quicker, and the Infiniti in particular is more fun to drive. They should retain their value much better than the Lincoln. On the downside, neither feels as luxurious as the LS (especially not the Infiniti). They generally feel like “less car.”

The better V8 imports do just about everything better than the Lincoln (with the exception of rear seat room and comfort) but you pay for their excellence. Based on my test drive of a new 530 the 545 is the best choice if money is no object, while the Lexus offers entertaining handling, good comfort, and proven reliability at a significantly lower price. The Mercedes is both most expensive and my least favorite.

All in all, if the Lincoln’s blend of attributes appeals to you then its typical selling price is reasonable. Remaining issues include potential reliability issues and definite extreme levels of depreciation.

Last Words

As with my review of the 2002, writing this review took me much longer than it should have. The reason: car’s with ambiguous identities are harder to evaluate, and the Lincoln LS more than ever blends sport sedan and luxury sedan elements without being fully either. The rear-drive platform, near 50/50 weight distribution, strong V8, tight-fitting interior, and better-bolstered front seats mark it as a sport sedan. But the revised chassis tuning and basic relaxed driving character say luxury sedan. I’m still not sure what the styling says.

Add it all together and this remains a car without an identity--its generic non-name fits in this sense--and to sell in this price range a car needs an identity. If your main interest is fairly strong acceleration and luxurious cruising in a demure package the LS might fit the bill. Even if you want a cut-rate BMW 5-Series it's not too far off in many areas, and the price is certainly much lower. But even then, given the LS's rapid depreciation, I’d advise looking for a year-old car. Also, be sure to buy an extended warranty if you plan on keeping the car beyond four years/50,000 miles.

Lincoln will redesign this car in a couple more years. Hopefully at that time they give it a real name, styling that provides a clear identity, and more dynamic chassis tuning.

Update: The MKS has now been shown at the 2006 Auto Show. Sharper styling, but not much more distinctive. And the name is only a bit of an improvement.

To learn more about my reliability research and sign up to participate in it, or to perform thorough, up-to-date new car price comparisons, visit www.truedelta.com. A link to this website and alphabetized links to my other vehicle reviews can be found on my profile page.

My reviews of related vehicles:
Lincoln LS [2002 manual]
Acura TL
BMW 3-Series
Cadillac CTS
Infiniti G35
Lincoln Zephyr
Mercedes C-Class
Saab 9-3
Volvo S60 R

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 42,855
Model and Options: V8 sport with sunroof, heated/cooled seats, stability control