“Oh honey, Lincoln’s trying to recreate itself–aaagain”

You’ve got to hand it to Ford’s luxury-car wing, Lincoln. It’s Navigator helped to popularize the large, luxury SUV market tremendously, and it maintained two sedans (although pretty stale towards the end of their lives) that survived several decades. But one problem has kinda plagued Lincoln for some time: Older generations traditionally preferred it (save for the Navigator), while Lincoln has for years vied for younger buyers’ dollars. Perhaps the 2013 MKZ is the ticket?

The 2013 Lincoln MKZ, a substantial update of the current model, recently made the rounds at the New York Auto Show in April and, overall, wooed both auto journalists and general passersby. It touts three engine choices: a 2.0L four with Ford’s gas-saving EcoBoost tech, 3.7L V6, and 2.0L hybrid four.

Mechanics aside, the 2014 MKZ now sports a very groovy (can we still use that word?), svelte interior and no longer feels like a ‘fancified’ Ford product—although it still shares some underpinnings with Ford’s Fusion. The shape, consistent with the trending “four-door coupe” style, features a sleek, angled windshield, gracefully-sloping rear window, and thick C-pillar. Most notable is the gigantic, 15.2 sq-ft. panoramic moonroof (from the looks of it, we’d actually call it a sliding roof), which will likely be the largest in the world on a production car.

Inside, things only get better. The last generation MKZ’s interior was acceptable for a luxury sedan, but the new one is more along the line of ‘exceptional’. Looking strikingly similar in some respects to the new Cadillac XTS’s cabin, genuine bits of real wood and alloy bits grace parts of the doors, dash, and center stack–supple (standard) leather occupying seating surfaces. And the eight-inch touchscreen system, dubbed ‘MyLincoln’, and 10-inch LCD instrument cluster do the interior remarkable favors aesthetic- and functionality-wise.

Key competitors to the MKZ include Infiniti’s M37, the Lexus ES, Acura TL, and Mercedes-Benz C-Class.