The Lincoln Mark LT is the newest entry in the luxury pickup segment.

DETROIT (CNN/Money) - Ebony wood accents. Heated Nudo leather seats. Moon roof or a DVD player. Assisted lift gates that can be opened with one hand.

You call that a truck?

Lincoln and its parent, Ford Motor Co. (Research), are betting that many buyers will say, "Yes," and some auto industry experts agree with them.

Just a few years after briefly trying, and failing, with the Blackwood pickup, the folks at Lincoln who helped make luxury sport/utility vehicles an auto industry profit staple rather than an oxymoron are giving pickups another try.

"This is going to be a good test," said John Fitzpatrick, general marketing manager for Lincoln. "Everything we've looked at says there's a market for a luxury truck."

Monday at the North American International Auto Show here, Lincoln unveiled its new Mark LT pickup, based on the nation's best-selling vehicle, the Ford F-150 pickup truck.

It is looking to sell 15,000 of the trucks in 2005, but could go higher in future years depending on demand. Production starts next month with the first pickups hitting Lincoln dealer showrooms early this spring.

The Mark LT isn't that much pricier than many of the spiffier versions of the Ford F-150. The company revealed a "Harley Davidson" limited edition of the F-150 Sunday. It plans to sell about 10,000 of those, and most will likely sell for more than the $40,000 list price of the Mark LT.

And some decidedly non-luxury brands, such as GMC, Chevrolet and Dodge have their own full-size pickup versions with list prices over $40,000, some even approaching $50,000.

The only other luxury brand with a pickup, the Cadillac Escalade EXT, is built on a SUV rather than pickup platform.

"I was one of those naysayers who thought you'd never sell an upper end version of the F-150 for more than $40,000," he said. "How could someone with tools on his belt ever want leather seats in his truck?"

Sales of higher-end Ford and GMC trucks have proved him wrong, he said.

As far as Lincoln's failure with the Blackwood in 2002, Fitzpatrick said that Lincoln discovered quickly it had made a mistake with that vehicle, which had a cargo cover that couldn't be lifted more than a few degrees and virtually no towing capability.

"Our dealers were telling us, 'We can sell a luxury truck, you just have to work on your execution,'" said Fitzpatrick. "We went back to the customers to research it further, and it turned out the dealers were spot on."

While almost all luxury brands have SUVs that make up a significant percentage, if not a majority, of their sales today, only one -- General Motor Corp. (Research)'s Cadillac -- has a pickup truck offering. The Escalade EXT, which was introduced as a 2002 model, is built on an SUV rather than pickup platform.

But some other experts say it's not clear that the luxury pickup segment will ever grow above a niche market, with more than a single-digit share of the 3-million-plus pickup truck market.

"What you have to look at, any one vehicle in a category can do well, but does it exhaust the category?" said Mike Flynn, an auto expert with the University of Michigan.

Flynn points out that the stylish Chevrolet SSR compact pickup, which lists for more than $40,000, has been a relative flop, with a huge supply going unsold on dealer lots. And the Escalade EXT has seen its sales decline every year since its introduction, with 2004 sales off about 40 percent from 2002 levels.

Even Fitzpatrick can't tell you whether the Mark LT will be competing primarily with the more expensive trim versions of Ford's, Dodge's and GMC's pickup offerings, or with the Escalade EXT.

Cadillac Product Director John Howell says he believes that the luxury truck market can grow enough to support more than one player, and says that some of the offerings from non-luxury brands like GMC need to be considered luxury trucks.

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One big advantage that Detroit has in the market, he said, is that the Asian manufacturers who have been grabbing an ever-increasing share of the luxury SUV market don't have much in the way of full-size pickup offerings on which to build.

"There's a limited number of players who can compete in this," he said.

So, if the Mark LT proves that pickup buyers want creature comforts or luxury buyers want a cargo bed, then it's a profitable market that GM and Ford Motor may have virtually to themselves, at least for a while.