2009 Lincoln MKS

There’s been a stigma about American cars for many years that, well, they’re all style and no substance.

Sure, the Ford Mustang and the Dodge Challenger are great to look at, but they’re terrible to drive and the interior is made from polystyrene. Right?

Well, perhaps in the past, but not so much any more. While the like of Lexus and Audi still lead the field when it comes to build quality, US automakers – particularly Ford – have made great strides forward in recent years.

So it’s a pleasant surprise to find that the 2009 Lincoln MKS is rather good. It’s far from inspiring on the eye, but the interior is well made, comfortable and crammed full of gadgets, and the drive is decent as well.

The MKS is a four-door saloon powered by a 3.7-litre V6 engine, which makes 275bhp, attached to a six-speed automatic gearbox. That’s not a huge amount of power for the size of the engine, but the MKS is nevertheless fairly sprightly away from the lights and will happily change velocity with minimum effort while cruising.

The standard features list is the MKS’ most impressive boast. The exterior, rather dull save for its signature grille, is equipped with adaptive headlights that will move with the angle of the steering wheel when cornering, as well as automatic windscreen wipers, LED tail lights, front fog lamps and keyless entry – just touch a button on the door handle and the car unlocks. It rides on 19-inch wheels.

Inside, our favourite feature is the SYNC entertainment system. We’re usually sceptical of voice-activated systems as the majority just don’t seem to work, but SYNC does. And well. Connect your iPod and after a brief scan through the device, SYNC will play any track or artist just by your asking for it. We tried it with several obscure bands and tracks and nine times out of ten it had nor problems locating it. Much easier than fiddling about with menus and sub menus.