MKZ: Lincoln luxury has not yet arrived

While the MKZ communicates the pavement surface quality all too clearly, it's practically mute when it comes to letting you know what the car itself is doing. In part, that's because important information -- how the car is responding to the steering wheel and brakes -- gets drowned out by the bumps.

The suspension is adjustable but in neither setting does it feel right. In "comfort" mode the car pitches, rolls and bounces like a beach ball at a bikini party. "Sport" mode stiffens things up but that just accentuates its gritty ride quality while pointing up the fact that, really, "sport" just isn't in this car's vocabulary. The interplay between driver and car feels, at best, artificial. There's just no pleasure in it and certainly no fun.

The transmission, meanwhile, adds to this unfortunate mix with its tendency to make ill-timed and rough shifts, making it feel as if you're getting an occasional gentle kick in the pants as you drive through town.

NEXT: Interior complications