Hello everyone.
I just bought a CPO select with Tech, Pano, Revel Stereo, and Select Plus. I bought it CPO with 8k miles. I live in Fort Worth, Texas but bought in Chicago. Saved 16k off a new MSRP and got a vacation out of it. I am a MINI person. Love those cars to the point I traded in an '02 corvette on my first one back in '06. The problem is I do a lot of modifications to my MINIs and now have to drive about 40k miles per year for work. Frankly a tight tuned suspension on a short wheelbase with a loud engine and exhaust was killing me on these 1k mile journeys. Loved the looks of the new Continental. Went to look at one and saw the MKZ grill changed and fell for the car. Nearly pulled the trigger on a new Reserve until I saw the CPO's with such low miles at a nearby dealer. Problem is there were none with a Tech package. Did a few searches and found the one I bought. Yeah I want the AC seats and other toys, but the truth is on my long straight drives I do I really wanted the auto cruise and lane keep. Fast forward. The dealer I used was great. They basically gave me the price I asked for and we did everything over email which allowed me to be in and out of the dealer in an hour including financing. I started my drive home and immediately played with the perpendicular parking. Loved it, but was nervous. Thought the revel sounded great so I can only imagine what the revel Ultima sounds like. I am an audiophile with a decent vinyl collection and decent components in my dedicated listening room. So it is nice having a good sounding system in the car without having to go aftermarket. Now I start home on the Highway. After about an hour of auto cruise and lane keep turned on I started get comfortable letting the car do its thing. I also became comfortable playing with the settings and going down the highway barely holding the steering wheel as I see the limits of the lane keep assist and basically feel like I am in a pinball machine as the car goes down the highway. Enough of that. I decided I needed to turn the alert portion of the lane keep from high to low. I also quit being dangerous and let the car assist instead of basically doing the work when it came to staying between the lines. One habit I realize I need to change is not using my blinker to change lanes. I didn't realize how often I don't signal a lane change when driving fast down the highway. Kind of an eye opener really. Now the auto cruise control. I realized on long stretches of highway keeping the car spacing set at 4 is fine, when the traffic tightens up I better reduce the spacing because otherwise I felt as though I was on a roller coaster with the car constantly slamming on the breaks and hitting the throttle as cars would jump in front of me constantly. I did find my happy mediums for most driving. One other note, the setting of the system threw me at first. I am used to holding down the speed + button until I get to the speed I want to add a few MPH. The dealer didn't let me know that this system is different and wondered why I was getting close to 100 MPH when I just hit the button a couple of times. Then I realized you set the speed with the indicator in the instrument cluster. Not a big deal, just something I need to get used to and remember when I switch cars. Now the panoramic roof. It is not an option I care about. I don't like sunroofs, I really don't like this roof. I had a convertible when I wanted to feel the air around me. I did play with it some both open and closed. The MPG did drop fairly substantially when opinion the highway. About 1.5 MPG's. Not horrible and really what I expected. I do wish the sunshade was a bit more substantial. While it was good about keeping light out it stunk for keeping heat out. Overall it is a nice option, just not one I will use much. If I could've found a car without it I would have. This is definitely personal to me. The engine. I'm ok with it. I toyed with looking at the V6, but this car is about comfort and quiet while I drive to West Texas from Fort Worth. I think the engine is adequate, but I am used to more horsepower (thanks to engine mods) in a much smaller and lighter car. I do think I will be exploring ECU tunes, but since it is CPO I will try to defer any real engine mods until I hit 100k in about 30 months. MINI and Audi have been tuner friendly, but I don't want to risk Ford and Lincoln not being. Overall I am pleased with the purchase in the initial 1.4k miles I added to the car bringing it home. The seats are comfortable, the car is easy to drive, the suspension settings let me play some and the car gets to where I need it to go with little fuss. The fresh styling doesn't make me worry about being 45 and already in a Lincoln. It also keeps my girlfriend quiet about not wanting to be in a race car all of the time and has made her even consider getting one. I think Lincoln is on the way up with their new styling and am glad to be an ambassador for the brand in my my friends group. Michael R. Jordan Fort Worth, Texas
