18th Apr 2009, 22:56
"There are HUGE differences between the Fusion and the MKZ".
I made comment 00:41, and today I drove mom's MKZ about 30 miles and made a special effort to discern ANY real differences in ANYTHING on the car. The results are:
1) The material used on the seats, dash and door panels looks and feels absolutely IDENTICAL to that of our Fusion. I suspect a Lincoln salesman has slightly exaggerated about the "higher quality leather". I can't feel or see the first hint of a difference. They appear to be exactly the same leather seats used in our Fusion.
2) As I've said before, you could not tell which car you were riding in by the ride if you were blindfolded. There is virtually ZERO discernible difference. The sound over bumps MIGHT be a tiny bit less in the MKZ, but again, not enough to be noticeable.
3) The MKZ engine IS quieter than our Fusion, but our Fusion is an I-4. The V-6 Fusion is also whisper quiet. Even the I-4 Fusion certainly could NOT be classified as "noisy" by any stretch of the imagination.
4) The 3.5 Engine in the MKZ definitely is more powerful off the line than the I-4 Fusion, and the shifting is much smoother due to the 5-speed automatic versus the 6-speed in the MKZ. The V-6 Fusion has EXACTLY the same 6-speed automatic as the MKZ and is equally as smooth. I noted that the acceleration of the MKZ at speeds above 45-50mph is not much, if any better than V-6 Fusions I've driven.
5) I put the MKZ through some fast corners and hard-turning takeoffs and noticed that it does not corner quite as well as our Fusion. This is to be expected as it has a slightly softer suspension to cater to older people like my mom who never drive over 40 and who have bad backs. I LIKE a softer suspension (actually I have a bad back myself), but it doesn't inspire as much confidence in cornering as the Fusion does. Either car is a competent car in the area of daily driving.
All-in-all, it boils down to whether you want the exact same car with a different grille and tail lights and $10,000 worth of sound insulation. Mom has always driven Lincolns because she is wealthy and likes them. My wife and I prefer paying less for the same car with a Ford emblem and using the money saved for other things, such as vacations, home improvements, or (in my case) a customized Mustang.
23rd Apr 2009, 19:36
The Lincoln MKZ is actually the twin of the Ford Taurus/500, Mercury Sable/Montego. The Fusion/Milan is the smaller of them, different setup, but a nice vehicle.
26th Apr 2009, 12:32
No, the MKS is the same as the Taurus/500. The MKZ is the Fusion with different grill and tail lights.
19th May 2009, 23:18
Nope. The MKZ is a Fusion with a different grille. Exact same car. We have one of each. They are twins. You could be blindfolded and not tell which one you were in. The MKS is the same as the Taurus.
On a side note, mom got rear-ended in the MKZ (what can I say, she drives like an old lady!!) The MKZ suffered virtually no damage while the Civic that hit her looked like it was totalled. The MKZ's (and Fusions) are solidly built.
3rd Jan 2011, 17:24
"Yep, it's solidly built. Mexicans build great cars."
Sorry, the Fusion/Milan/MKZ is still an AMERICAN car. I realize Japanese car dealers love to confuse people, but Ford is an AMERICAN car company. Even if their cars were assembled on Mars, that does not make Ford a "foreign" car company, and does not mean the U.S. economy does not benefit from their sales.
Ford has done so well in fact (outselling now disgraced Toyota by 27% overall in November of 2010) that assembly of the Fusion is being moved back to the U.S. as is the production of several GM cars. Import propaganda has not yet succeeded in totally destroying U.S. jobs.
21st Apr 2011, 14:48
A follow-up on the MKZ. Thus far, absolute perfection. And I might add, the same can be said of our Fusion as well. No repairs, no rattles, no glitches of any kind. It's no wonder recent long term reliability studies now rank the Lincoln above Lexus in build quality.
The MKZ is averaging 19mpg with its rather gas-hungry V-6. The Fusion I-4 consistently averages 27-29mpg and easily surpasses 34 on the highway. Needless to say, the Fusion is getting driven a lot more than the MKZ. Luxurious or not, we won't be buying another V-6 automobile with gas prices at $4.00 per gallon.
22nd Aug 2012, 18:31
Luxury cars shouldn't have FWD. It's a novelty for cheap cars; you don't see ultra-luxury cars like Rolls-Royce or Bentley offering FWD models. Mercedes-Benz and BMW are also firmly into RWD.
RWD handles better for pros, FWD is more noob friendly, and if you lose control with a RWD car, you can regain control of your car fairly easily, so long as you know what to do. With a FWD car, losing control isn't good at all, because it's so much harder to get it back. Not to mention the fact that you can do all those tricks with RWD cars, a major reason why cops love them. Why do you think the police fishtail trick works so often? Because most people have FWD cars that completely lose control in intense situations.
28th Nov 2014, 21:15
This isn't just the North American market; just take a look at Audi and VW, or Toyota and Lexus, or Honda and Acura
Badge engineering is nothing new, and nothing that's just Chrysler, GM or Ford.
14th Mar 2017, 04:14
Who wants to drive a car such as a MKZ like a "pro"? With the demographic Lincoln is after, the space and fuel efficiency of FWD will be much more appreciated than any handling benefits. It's not as if the difference will be discernible under mundane driving circumstances, anyway.
15th Mar 2017, 02:31
You guys are totally forgetting AWD. It's great. I do not like front wheel drive cars especially at high speed. The steering gets pretty hairy. Rear wheel drive is nice when the front end gets lighter at high speed. In bad weather though front wheel drive has good grip with the weight of the engine there.
18th Apr 2009, 00:41
There is virtually ZERO discernible difference between our Fusion and our MKZ. The interior is pretty much identical (the leather seats look and feel exactly the same in both cars).
There is little difference in ride, and the sound level in the Fusion is hardly any higher than the MKZ.
The MKZ does have the more powerful engine, but I'd hardly say it would warrant another $10,000. Our I-4 Fusion is amply powerful and the V-6 Fusion we test drove felt almost identical in every way to our MKZ.
I still maintain that if someone wants to pay 10 grand more for a few pounds of insulation and badge appeal (as my mom did) that is entirely their choice. To argue that the cars are not virtually identical in EVERY RESPECT indicates that you haven't spent time on the same roads and same conditions in both cars, as we have. If you were blindfolded you couldn't tell which car you were in.