Driving the 2025 Lincoln Corsair AWD Grand Touring III

Car shoppers, we have good news. The 2025 Lincoln Corsair is a sneakily good car and is about to be canceled.

Say what? How is that good news?

Dealers are sometimes willing to accept lower offers for a car the automaker has canceled. They want to clear lot space for cars the company is still advertising.

The Corsair isn’t being cut from the lineup because there’s anything wrong with it. Ford needs the Louisville, Kentucky, factory where the compact luxury SUV is built for something else.

Ford has a master plan for its future, which involves a new modular building process and a full lineup of electric vehicles (EVs) based on one platform. They’ll remodel the Louisville plant to launch those cars, which means it needs to stop building Corsairs and Ford Escapes by the end of the year.

But the factory hasn’t stopped yet, and dealers have an ample supply of 2025 Corsairs on lots still for sale. That gives you a chance to get into a deceptively good compact luxury SUV at a reasonable price.

I drove one for a week around suburban Washington, D.C., including plenty of stop-and-go traffic and a highway jaunt to Baltimore and back (about 80 miles round trip). Here’s what you can expect from the Corsair.

Which Trim Level

Lincoln offers the Corsair in three trim levels, but one differs significantly from the other two. The Premiere and Reserve models use a turbocharged 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine making 250 horsepower. The top-of-the-line Grand Touring model is a plug-in hybrid (PHEV). It uses a larger 2.5-liter 4-cylinder without a turbo, paired with an electric engine. The combination makes 266 hp. Lincoln says it travels up to 27 miles on electric power alone.

Lincoln loaned me the Grand Touring III model in Harbor Grey Metallic. Its only options were Perfect Posture 24-way adjustable seats (which are worth the money) and 20-inch machined aluminum wheels, I might skip if I were shopping.

Favorite Feature

When you’re buying a car, you’re also buying a piece of furniture. Depending on what you do for a living and how far you drive to get there, your car’s seat may even be the seat you spend most time in.

Several automakers make excellent seats. Car critics frequently single out Nissan and Volvo for particularly comfortable seats. But, for my money, Lincoln’s Perfect Posture seats are the best in the automotive industry outside of six-figure, ultra-luxury cars.

These add $1,285 to the sticker, but they’re worth it. They adjust an astonishing 24 ways, including the only split-knee bolster I’ve seen. Weirdly enough, it can be quite comfortable to support each leg separately. They also have a firm massage function that is energizing on long rides.

What It’s Like to Drive

There are compact luxury SUVS built with an eye toward performance driving. There are others built for comfort, meant to isolate their driver from the outside world and not concerned with performance numbers in magazines.

The Corsair is definitively one of the latter. Its acceleration won’t embarrass you, but you’re better off letting the BMW drivers have their stoplight races. The Corsair has all the power you need, but nothing to show off.

Handling is unremarkable, and the suspension leans a little toward the soft side. It absorbs bumps nicely and allows little body roll in casual driving. I do suspect the larger 20-inch wheels on my test model made potholes a little harsher. You might be better off without them.

Lincoln says the Grand Touring’s PHEV drivetrain should allow 27 miles of electric-only range. But, fully charged, the meter in my tester read 31.

The braking in some PHEVs takes a bit of getting used to, as engineers use regenerative technology to capture some brake energy for the battery. I couldn’t even detect it in the Corsair — the brakes are firm and surprisingly normal.

The best part of the driving experience, though, may be the part that lets you take your hands off the wheel. Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free highway driving system works only on pre-mapped highways but can accelerate, brake, and steer to keep pace with traffic as long as you keep your eyes on the road.

It may be the best system of its kind, and the Corsair is one of the least expensive ways to get it in 2025.

Interior Comfort and Technology

I’ve already gone on at length about the Corsair’s fantastic seats. Beyond them, the interior is that of a functional luxury car. There’s nothing paradigm-shattering about it.

Other 2025 Lincoln models use an innovative screen layout with a huge, cabin-wide screen up high against the base of the windshield and a smaller touchscreen to control it. The Corsair is the last Lincoln product not to get it.

Instead, you get a driver’s instrument screen and a separate central touchscreen. I appreciate that the steering wheel doesn’t block your view of anything important.

You shift gears with piano-key style buttons under the central screen. KBB editors generally aren’t fans of piano key transmissions. But, since you engage the gear only when you start to drive, you grow used to owning one quickly.

My tester was upholstered in color Lincoln calls Medium Smoked Truffle. It’s a dark enough grey-beige blend to risk looking muddy, but it works. I suspect the lighter Light Smoked Truffle solves that problem, and the Eternal Red leather is the right choice for those who want some style.

Limitations

There’s risk in buying a discontinued model from a lesser automaker. But the Corsair shares many parts with the hyper-popular Ford Escape, and there are so many of those on the road that repair parts should be easy to come by for the life of the car.

Shoppers should be realistic, though, that owning a PHEV is like owning two powertrains. Under warranty, there’s little to worry about. I’m not sure I’d want to own a 10-year-old one. If you tend to keep cars long past their powertrain warranty, I might skip this one.