2023 Lincoln Corsair Review: Quiet Luxury, Laggy Tech

The smallest offering in the Lincoln luxury showroom has received a refresh for the 2023 model year, bringing with it some minor styling refinements, new tech, new colors and a new multimedia system. Most of the 2023 Corsair is unchanged from prior years, but with other models in the Lincoln lineup (like the redesigned 2024 Nautilus we recently saw) seeing some serious improvements, it was time for the Corsair to get a mild update to keep up with its siblings. And while the majority of the changes to the new Corsair are minor, they add up to an intriguing offering in a crowded field of competitors.

Related: 2024 Lincoln Nautilus Preview: A Stunning Display of Stunning Display

Classy Looks

From the outside, the new Corsair isn’t much different from the outgoing 2022 model — you have to know what you’re looking for to figure out which model year is which. The ‘23 has a new, larger grille and LED running lamps, but perhaps the best thing that can be said about the Corsair’s look is that it doesn’t resemble in the slightest the vehicle upon which it is based — the Ford Escape. It features a totally different look, with classier trim, genuinely artful proportions and design details, and a more luxurious look to the Escape’s more mundane, ordinary styling. Not much was wrong with the Corsair’s look prior to this mild nose job, and not much is wrong with it now. But I do wonder how it will fare once the new ‘24 Nautilus arrives with its new Lincoln look that eschews the upright grille in favor of a much more horizontal, wider design. This freshening will do for now, but a new Corsair had better be in the pipeline for the next few years.

Powertrains Unchanged, For Better or Worse

Powering your ‘23 Corsair is a choice of two drivetrains: a standard turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine making a robust 250 horsepower and 275 pounds-feet of torque or an optional plug-in hybrid version combining a non-turbo 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine with an electric motor for a combined 266 hp (torque figures for the system weren’t available as of publication).

My test vehicle was an all-wheel-drive Grand Touring trim featuring the plug-in hybrid drivetrain. I’ve tested this powertrain before in both the 2021 Escape PHEV and the older Corsair, and it’s a fantastic hybrid drivetrain — it packs plenty of power in normal operation, and it also lets you run the engine, depending on drive mode, to maintain a charge for later in the lithium-ion battery pack.

But one of the foibles of this powertrain is that it never lets you stay in EV mode if the SUV decides it shouldn’t be. Other PHEVs, like the Toyota RAV4 Prime, remain in all-electric operation when the battery has a charge unless something extraordinary happens, like flooring the accelerator pedal, that pulls you out of it because the electric motor alone can’t keep up. But this PHEV powertrain will fire up the engine whenever it thinks it should, even if you have it set to EV mode.

This makes it problematic as an actual PHEV, as many PHEV owners like having all-electric operation along with the peace of mind of a range-extending gas engine. But the philosophy behind the Corsair’s PHEV system is less “range-extended EV” and more “super-efficient hybrid,” with the goal of the plug-in system and larger battery instead being to maximize your fuel economy rather than your EV operation.

And in that regard, it’s perfectly acceptable. The system is genuinely peppy and seamless, with smooth and quiet operation that gives you good acceleration when you want it and nearly silent around-town motoring when you’re just commuting or cruising the streets. No official fuel economy estimates have been published yet for the ‘23 Corsair PHEV, but the ‘22 model has an EPA rating of 33 mpg combined and up to 28 miles of electric range, and that’s about what I saw in my brief time with the vehicle. This is an improvement from the base turbocharged gas engine’s EPA rating of 21/28/24 mpg city/highway/combined for a 2023 Corsair with AWD, but not as much as one might expect given the gas-electric powertrain.

Still Artful, Now With More Science

The interior of the Corsair has always been a highlight — as have frankly most Lincolns these days — with an opulent mix of fine materials, tasteful brightwork, and the retention of actual buttons and switches for controls rather than full touch-sensitive interfaces (Lincoln tried that years before anyone else and learned their lesson). The front seats are comfortable; there’s acceptable room in the backseat (this is a compact SUV, after all, so you shouldn’t be expecting massive amounts of passenger space); and there’s a suitably sized cargo area. The Corsair delivers a quiet, opulent driving experience that will genuinely surprise you in how calm it is — the whole “Quiet Flight” marketing idea Lincoln has been touting is real, not just an advertising slogan. The Corsair feels like it punches above its weight class, delivering a beautifully composed, luxurious drive that eschews sporting pretense for comfortable coddling. I dig this direction for Lincoln.

My Grand Touring trim had all the bells and whistles one expects at this price level, but for 2023, two new additions are what Lincoln is focusing on. Yes, there are some new color palettes inside, and they do look good, but the arrival of ActiveGlide 1.2 and the Sync 4 infotainment system with a new touchscreen are the things Lincoln would like to point to for 2023.

ActiveGlide 1.2 is Lincoln’s latest and greatest hands-free driving system. You might have also heard it referred to as BlueCruise in Ford models; it’s essentially the same thing, but Lincoln needed to make it sound fancier (but has actually dropped that name in the 2024 Nautilus, which has BlueCruise, so whatever). New for ‘23 is its ability to change lanes autonomously, with the driver asking it to do so by activating the turn signal while the system is active. It also can better, more naturally adjust the Corsair’s position in its lane and will also now slow upon entering corners.

Perhaps the best thing anyone can say about any hands-free driving system is that it works and does so without hinky episodes that make your butt clench and make you grab for the steering wheel in a panic. Lincoln’s ActiveGlide system and Ford’s BlueCruise don’t do that: They work quite well, enabling a calm “driving” experience when technically you’re not really the one driving — the car is.

Like GM’s Super Cruise hands-free driving system, the ActiveGlide system requires you to pay attention at all times — and monitors you to make sure you’re doing so, observing your head and eye position to make sure you’re not nodding off, eating a burger or playing with your phone. The system maintains speed, lane position and steers with a confidence-inspiring smoothness. Lane changes are also non-events; just tap the stalk, and if the way is clear, it will pull you out and accelerate you into the lane you have chosen. It’s not quite as advanced as the latest Super Cruise system, however; that system automatically detects whether it can go around the car in your way and does so without any driver input required before slotting you back into your original lane once you’ve passed the slower traffic. It’s a bit more next-level than ActiveGlide 1.2’s latest abilities, but I have no doubt that Lincoln is working on adding that capability soon enough.

Not All the Tech Is Grand

While the improvements to ActiveGlide are impressive and work beautifully, the same cannot be said for the new multimedia screen, a larger 13.2-inch horizontally oriented touchscreen running an updated Sync 4 system. While its organization and menu system are easier to use, and it’s simpler to find various features, the operation itself is oddly laggy, with noticeable delays between selecting a menu feature and being able to use it. In a world where this kind of thing has been largely eliminated in just about every automaker’s onboard screens, this came across as surprising and disappointing, and I half wonder if this was simply an early production example in need of a software update (which can now be done over the air, according to Lincoln). If the actual released software is this laggy on this big, shiny touchscreen, Lincoln customers who have been waiting months for their ‘23 Corsairs to arrive might be disappointed at how the multimedia system performs. For their sake, I hope this was just an issue with my test vehicle and not a characteristic of the production-intent system.

Available Now

Pricing for the new ‘23 Corsair is competitive with the rest of the class, if perhaps a bit on the high side for a loaded example. It starts with the Standard trim that rings in at just a tick over $40,000 (all prices include the destination fee) and stretches up to the Grand Touring PHEV that starts at $55,280. Add in all the bells and whistles like the multi-way Perfect Position front seats, a slick red leather interior, fancier paint colors, bigger wheels and tires, and you can top out over $67,000 for a loaded model.

At lower prices, the Lincoln represents an excellent value for a punchy, quiet, genuinely luxurious driving experience in a compact SUV. At the top end of the price range, however, it’s stretching that value equation rather thin, as there are many other entries in the segment that vie for your worthy attention, many of them from the traditional German luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz and BMW, or even Porsche if you’re looking to go sporty with a lower-trim Macan.

Lincoln’s update to the Corsair should keep it interesting for people who already intended to go down that ownership route. But given what we’ve seen of Lincoln’s upcoming models with the redesigned Nautilus, we’re really excited about what might be next for the Corsair in a few years’ time.

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