timf

As of this week lincoln.com now shows the 2016 MKZ.

Is there a start of production date for the Platinum yet?

I noticed one parked in front of my local dealer last week, and several in their inventory lot today.

Dealer orders will certainly start showing up before August, but it's highly likely that a custom order won't arrive before August. Custom orders don't start getting scheduled until after the OK to buy is achieved. If that happens early June, you are probably looking at production mid July and delivery in early August.

Do you know if the Platinum is going to have delayed availability? I haven't seen any pop up as dealer orders yet, granted we are still very early in production.

You have until the end of January to order a 2015.

The 2015 MKX is already on dealer lots. It is nothing more than the 2014 model with a different year. The all-new model will be introduced as a 2016 model sometime around summer-fall 2015.

That would be Bronze Fire. It's a new color that is showing up on most larger Ford models as well as the MKZ for 2015.

The flow rate is tied to the direction. You can either have full flow when aimed directly at you, slide the lever all the way to the side to close the vent, or pick something in between. However, there is no way to have it aimed at you and reduce the flow without adjusting the fan control for the whole car.

2015 Taurus Build & Price is available on ford.com. http://bp3.ford.com/2015-Ford-Taurus?branding=1&lang=en#/ChooseYourPath/

The Transit Connect takes a bit longer to get than that since they're built in Spain - probably in the neighborhood of 4 months +/- 1.

The Lincoln order guides are harder to come by since our usual forum sources only have access to the Ford order guides. However, the 2015 information is available on kbb.com and you can build and price them using the "See what you should pay" button. http://www.kbb.com/lincoln/mkz/2015-lincoln-mkz/ The key things to know are: * The Preferred (top) equipment package has been eliminated. Heated rear seats and steering wheel are now included with the Reserve package. All other features of the Preferred package are available as standalone options. * The Premiere (base) package now includes leatherette rather than real leather, just like the MKC, and is late availability. You must order at least the Select package in order to get real leather. * Sunset, Dark Side, Sterling Gray, and Ice Storm are out. Bronze Fire, Guard, Magnetic, and Luxe are in.

I used the elevation information from Google Earth. Checking again, it's actually 150 feet between home and work, and then 300 feet between the golf course and home. The hills around here may not seem that big but they add up.

I'm now 6 months into ownership and have seen just about every condition and my car performs just as I'd expect it to fuel economy wise. In mild weather with little need for climate control, my average fuel economy was right on the advertised 45 MPG mark. As the weather has continued to warm up and I've been using the air conditioning more, that number has dipped back to 44 MPG. During the dead of winter, I was lucky to see 40 MPG and the actual fuel economy was even lower if I used the remote start function to preheat the car. The car has made me aware of elevation changes I never realized existed before. The elevation at my office is about 200 ft higher than my house, and I generally see around 40 MPG coming in and over 50 MPG going home. Certain routes have even a greater elevation change and I can regularly see over 60 MPG on the downhill legs of these trips, while only getting in the low 30s on the way there.

I've seen Bronze Fire in person (on a 2015 Navigator) parked next to my Sunset MKZ. The color reminds me most of the Cinnamon color Ford offered a couple years ago. There's not really any orange to it at all. It's more of a maroon color (brownish red) and a bit darker than Sunset. This was in cloudy conditions so I can't comment on how the metallic flake might affect it.