In 2006 Ford introduced its Ford Fusion mid-size sedan and its divisional platform-mates the Mercury Milan and Lincoln Zephyr, all based on Japanese-partner Mazda's well-respected MAZDA6 front-wheel-drive architecture. All three have earned media praise, strong quality reviews and good first-year sales. Building on this proven platform, Lincoln adopts a more powerful 3.5-liter V6 engine, six-speed automatic transmission and available "intelligent" all-wheel drive to create the mid-size 2009 Lincoln MKZ (pronounced "M-K-Z") luxury sedan. Although the name is confusingly similar to the MKX crossover and new MKS luxury sedan, Lincoln simply follows a long line of luxury manufacturers whose marketers prefer letters and numbers to easily-recognizable names.