lincoln

Subaru will treat owners of the 2011 Forester with a better-sounding radio through HD Digital Radio.

The service will be included with the "premium radio" package option on the Forester. HD Digital Radio offers more than 2,000 crystal-clear AM and FM stations without a subscription fee.

Other automakers that offer HD Digital Radio receivers include Audi, BMW, Ford, Hyundai, Land Rover, Lincoln and Mercedes-Benz. This option is a first for Subaru models.

The service will also offer iTunes Tagging. iTunes Tagging lets you capture information about a song on the radio and store it on your iPod … Read more

I know it might seem like a crazy idea, but do you ever listen to music without doing anything else? The musicians sweated over the tiniest details of the music and sound when they recorded it, so why not give it your undivided attention? Is music worth savoring?

Then again, it's not just recorded music, a lot of people can't keep their mouths shut at concerts. Sometimes they quiet down at the end of a tune to applaud, and go on yammering when the music starts again. The crowd at City Winery here in New York jabbered their hearts out the night I saw Dr. John in August. I paid more than $100 for the ticket, food, and drink, so I assume everyone else there spent about the same, but more than half the crowd talked, loudly, through Dr. John's long set.

The woman sitting next to me wasn't talking; she was too busy texting and e-mailing, and the light from her phone was hugely distracting. Her boyfriend was into the music, but she was sitting next to me so he wasn't blinded by her phone. They say times are tough, but I can think of better ways of blowing $100 for a night of music you totally ignore.

New York's free outdoor concerts are even worse places to listen to music. The talkers and texters make up an even larger majority of the crowds, even for a classical concert with the Kronos Quartet at Lincoln Center. The sound coming out of the huge PA speakers was surprisingly good, but I couldn't stand the crowd's noise so I left after 20 minutes.

Music, by itself, can't hold the audience's attention anymore; it's just a nice backdrop to other activities. Is there another explanation? I swear I don't remember it always being this way. … Read more

We're in a 2011 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid a few hundred feet away from our hotel in the heart of Georgetown during rush hour, sweat dripping off our faces, our necks, and legs, visibly soaking our clothes. D.C. is experiencing a heat wave, but we've got the windows rolled up and the air conditioning off.

"Let's roll down the windows," I beg.

"Stay strong--we're so close," my driving partner urges.

But I'm dehydrated and my heart is beating as though I've been working out when all I've been doing is stewing in stop-and-go traffic. Reprieve is only a few minutes away in the form of a cooled hotel lobby, and yet I feel I could faint before that point. This competition of suffering will end when we get to the hotel and Lincoln's marketing team logs our average gas mileage for the 24-mile hypermiling challenge, which is slipping from its peak of 52 mpg down to 50. That we are doing this at all is ridiculous. We are two 30-something automotive writers sous-viding ourselves in our own sweat inside the enclosed cabin, all for the chance to win an HD radio and bragging rights.

It's not worth physical injury, I finally decide. I roll down our windows and expect the gauge that monitors the accessory load to skyrocket and our gas mileage to plummet. Nothing happens. We coast into our hotel driveway at the same gas mileage as we had when we were marinating in our self-created steam room, 52.2 mpg. All that suffering for nothing.

When the hypermiling challenge was proposed to us that morning in an air conditioned meeting room in National Harbor, the temperature had not swelled to the forecasted 93 degrees, so the competition seemed easy enough, … Read more

DETROIT--Ford Motor will sticker the 2011 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid at the same price as its conventional gasoline sibling rather than charge a premium for its hybrid technology.

The MKZ Hybrid, which goes on sale this fall, will start at $35,180, including shipping. The pricing is identical to the 2011 Lincoln MKZ gasoline model.

It's also below the price of the 2010 Lexus HS--the MKZ Hybrid's nearest competitor, which starts at $35,525, including shipping. Lincoln wants to offer customers the luxury, room, and comfort of a mid-size sedan while providing environmental benefits, a representative from Ford said. … Read more

Ford Motor Company will be ending production of its Mercury vehicles division in the fourth quarter of this year in order to refocus its resources on building the Lincoln brand. Seriously, who didn't see this coming?

We've found ourselves openly questioning Mercury's continued existence many times over the past year. The Mercury brand was originally created in 1939 as a premium tier of Ford vehicles. However, as the quality of Ford-badged vehicles has increased and Ford has continued to shine the spotlight on Lincoln as its luxury-brand golden child, Mercury has gradually become irrelevant and, frankly, unexciting. … Read more

NEW YORK--In one of the bigger no-brainer moves in recent memory, Lincoln gave its MKZ model a hybrid drive train, launching it at the 2010 New York auto show. The MKZ uses the same platform as the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan, both of which got hybrid versions for the 2010 model year. In addition, the Ford Fusion Hybrid won the 2010 North American Car of the Year award, making the MKZ Hybrid a likely success.

Lincoln is touting its first hybrid as the most fuel-efficient luxury sedan in the world; a reasonable claim as the MKZ Hybrid, like its … Read more