2023 Lincoln Corsair Boasts Segment-First Hands-Free Driving

• For 2023, the refreshed Corsair gets a new, larger grille, and the front fascia is a bit more chiseled. The decorative fog lamps are gone.
  

• Lincoln claims a segment first, as the ‘23 Corsair offers Lincoln ActiveGlide 1.2 for radar-based hands-free driving on mapped highways up to 80 mph.

• Not everyone wants a bright red interior, but it’s now available for the first time in the Corsair, marketed as Eternal Red and punctuated by handsome “Pista” textured aluminum trim.

Lincoln celebrates its 100th anniversary this year as Ford’s standard-bearer in the luxury segment, and in 2022 its best-selling model, the small-ish Corsair crossover, is getting a series of meaningful upgrades, including a bold red interior and available hands-free driver-assistance technology.

The Corsair first arrived in 2019, sharing some of its underpinnings with the less-expensive (and popular) Ford Escape. For ‘23, the Corsair’s exterior styling gets a modest refresh: The headlights and sheetmetal are the same, but the new grille is larger (a widespread trend among luxury brands), and the front fascia is a bit more chiseled. The decorative fog lamps are gone.

On Grand Touring models, the new grille features oval design elements—coated in a satin metallic foil—that appear like drops of falling rain. A new 20-inch wheel option is available, as are two new exterior colors (Crystal Red and, new to Lincoln, Whisper Blue), along with the Jet Appearance Package with blacked-out exterior trim.

“With the new Corsair we are offering a glimpse into Lincoln’s new exterior design language and introducing new and more youthful colors and materials to offer more ways for our clients to make their vehicle their own,” said Kemal Curic, Lincoln’s global design director.

Yes, the Corsair is Lincoln’s best-selling vehicle in the US (up 21% this year, according to the team), and the brand has delivered 18,139 Corsairs this year through August. And yet, the Corsair is a middling contender in the midsize luxury crossover segment as tracked by Wards Intelligence, being outsold by a wide margin in the first six months by the Audi Q5, BMW X3, Lexus RX, and Mercedes GLC.

If the Corsair’s modest exterior upgrades fail to move the sales needle, perhaps the revisions inside the cabin—and on the technology front—will.