F Ford Motor Company

By Dan Neil 

PITY THE 2020 Lincoln Corsair. It wants so very much to be electric.

New from Ford's premium division, the Corsair is a smartly attired compact crossover based on the company's C-segment front-drive architecture. With strong sales of its refreshed Navigator and new Aviator SUVs, Lincoln is clawing its way back to premium-luxury relevance after decades of being the car you rode home in from the airport. Lincoln brand is targeting younger buyers using leitmotifs of mindfulness and dangled promises of "quiet flight," "serenity" and "sanctuary."

Mm-hmm. It all sounded like the usual Detroit balderdash until I got into an Aviator and discovered that, huh, they really were trying to create a vibe there. Imagine yourself inside Matthew McConaughey's head. It's that quiet.

The Corsair is snipped from the same firmament as the Aviator, conveying much of the larger car's presence -- the brightwork grille, the blacked-out roof pillars, the sloping roofline, the stately stance -- in a smaller package, little luxe-lite.

The program's engineers want consumers to know it's not just a gussied-up Ford Escape. Among the callouts is the integrated bushing multi-link rear suspension, a road-smoothing upgrade from the Escape's short-long-arm suspension. Our Reserve AWD edition ($60,110, as tested) was also fitted with adaptive suspension, much as the top-end Aviators. If Aviator rides like the proverbial flying carpet, the Corsair aspires to be a levitating doormat.

Inside, our tester was upholstered in a lovely, glove-soft leather. But Lincoln's pomp-masters went too far with the boast of "hand-selected" cabin materials. What other appendage would you use?

I was charmed by the push-button selector for the transmission, a row of Wurlitzer-like tabs marked P, R, N, D, in the center stack; less so by the lagging and limited central touch screen. Ahead of the steering wheel, the digital instrument cluster hosts mood-enhancing animation -- including images of Mother Earth, which swims into view when drivers select the "Conserve" drive mode. Feel free to reward yourself with a big steak and a blood-trade cigar.

Power comes from either a turbo 2.0-liter four-cylinder gasser (250 hp/280 lb-ft); or, as in our tester, a 2.3-liter turbo four (295 hp/310 lb-ft), the same pepperbox found in the Mustang. An eight-speed automatic transmission directs torque to the front wheels unless the sensors detects a loss of traction or control, at which point the AWD auto-engages, if so equipped.

Drivers can engage AWD themselves by selecting "Slippery" or "Deep Conditions" drive modes. I'll take rejected Van Halen album titles for $200.

Under the hood is what Lincoln weirdly calls a "dual-walled dashboard," as if it were model-year 1925. This is actually a baffled engine shroud, creating a soundproofing air gap between engine and cabin (this part is also shared with the Ford Explorer/Lincoln Aviator). Unpleasant excitations that get through the firewall get throttled by the cabin's sub-aural noise cancellation system.

What's with Ford's sudden crush on hush? The company opened a new driving dynamics laboratory in Dearborn in January 2018, a facility which includes a semi-anechoic test chamber with four-wheel rollers, in a room capable of extreme temperature testing, from -40 to 140 F. While you're thinking how awesome that is, spare a moment to be horrified that Ford didn't have such a facility before, which is vital to tracking down acoustic hot spots like whistling, droning, buffeting, and unexpected resonances.

Ford's investment in NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) brings it into line with its premium-luxury competitors, some of whom, like Toyota-Lexus, have been selling serenity for decades. But all OEMs are running into the same acoustic wall: To meet fuel economy and emission standards world-wide, car makers are shrinking internal-combustion (IC) engines and requiring them to work harder. And louder.

Which brings us back to the Corsair. In what qualifies as an engineering irony, because other noises and vibrations are so well attenuated, the engine and drivetrain stand out in curious relief. It sounds a bit like you're being discreetly tailed by somebody in a Mustang.

The 2.3-liter is not the most melodious of organs, anyway. It sneers grumpily if you drive off before the cold-start cycle is complete, which everyone always does. Faint piping and whisper-whistles (the turbo) carry over the piston-ginning under a hard throttle, before the eight-speed transmission skip-steps to high gear, and the rpm falls. Yes, it's virtually silent at idle; the ticking of the direct-injection jets is inaudible. But when you start pumping a lot of air and gas through it, you can't unhear the quiet riot.

It's not vibration reaching the driver. The Corsair passes the stop/start engine-shake test with flying colors, with a barely discernible tremor. It's the half-heard soundtrack of a distant, disconnected power source that's weird.

So, to recap: Here is a product whose makers heavily invested in cabin quiet as a market differentiator, using latest methods and best practices. These engineers have battled howling winds, whistling side mirrors, roaring roads, and droning tires -- all that, only to provide an empty stage for a one-man gasoline band, playing furiously.

As much as there is to like about Lincoln's new direction, it will be hard for any IC-powered vehicle to tout cabin isolation and powertrain refinement in the growing shade of vehicle electrification. Those bars have been reset.

It's a lot to put on these little, likable shoulders. But the Corsair feels representative of the moment when the present is unsatisfactory and so much of the future is caught in the pipeline.

2020 Lincoln Corsair 2.3L Reserve

Base Price: $42,630

Price, as Tested: $60,110

Engine and Drivetrain: Turbocharged and intercooled direct-injection 2.3-liter DOHC inline four; eight-speed automatic transmission with manual-shift mode; on-demand AWD

Power/Torque: 295 hp at 5,500 rpm/310 lb-ft at 3,000 rpm

Length/Width/Height/Wheelbase: 180.6/83.0 (w/mirrors)/64.1/106.7 inches

Curb Weight: 3,848 pounds, before options

EPA Fuel Economy: 21/28/24 mpg

Cargo Capacity: 27.6/57.6 cubic feet (2nd row up/folded)

Write to Dan Neil at Dan.Neil@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 27, 2020 15:45 ET (20:45 GMT)

Ford Motor (NYSE:F)
Gráfico Histórico do Ativo
De Mar 2024 até Abr 2024

Ford Motor (NYSE:F)
Gráfico Histórico do Ativo
De Abr 2023 até Abr 2024