The Car Connection Expert Review
Likes
- Nifty styling
- Nice interior, too
- Great turbo-4
- PHEV frugality
Dislikes
- PHEV availability
- Some low-buck touches
- No sporty version
- Can crest $60,000
Buying tip
features & specs
Optioned judiciously, the 2025 Lincoln Corsair can be a strong small luxury SUV contender.
What kind of vehicle is the 2025 Lincoln Corsair? What does it compare to?
The 2025 Lincoln Corsair is a compact luxury SUV. Shop it against the Acura RDX, Lexus NX, and BMW X3.
Is the 2025 Lincoln Corsair a good SUV?
It’s a good overall choice with a properly luxurious personality and attractive styling that you won’t necessarily find in your neighbor’s driveway. The 2025 Lincoln Corsair scores well for its tech, comfort, and refinement, netting it a 6.8 on the TCC scale. (Read more about how we rate cars.)
What's new for the 2025 Lincoln Corsair?
For the most part, the Corsair sees little more than tweaks to color availability for 2025.
Lincoln’s smallest SUV wears attractive styling with a big grille up front and smooth, toned looks from the side. It’s somewhat muscular, though don’t look for a particularly sporty version here. The rectangular look continues inside, with a simple, elegant appearance and generally nice materials throughout.
Lincoln builds the Corsair in two versions: with a 250-hp 2.0-liter turbo-4 and front- or all-wheel drive, or with a 266-hp 2.5-liter inline-4 that’s part of a plug-in hybrid setup that provides all-wheel drive. The turbo-4 is peppier and smoother, though the hybrid’s ace is its 27-mile range on a full charge before the gas engine kicks on. It’s a shame that Lincoln bundles powertrains with specific trim levels; we can see where some shoppers might want a relatively inexpensive plug-in hybrid.
Both powertrains are paired with a responsive, borderline entertaining chassis, even though Lincoln doesn’t market the Corsair as a particularly driver-centric choice. It rides and handles well overall.
Inside, the Corsair has decent cargo space and terrific seats—particularly up front, where you’ll find up to 24 ways of power adjustment on top-end models. Nice materials elevate the Corsair above many of its rivals, even though slightly too many Ford-sourced buttons and knobs have made their way into the Corsair.
Corsairs can come with Ford’s terrific BlueCruise driver-assistance tech, plus automatic emergency braking and blind-spot monitors. This model’s crash-test record is mostly solid, though the IIHS has some minor concerns with its headlights and it has scored a relatively unimpressive “Moderate” in one of its most demanding crash tests.
How much does the 2025 Lincoln Corsair cost?
Including a mandatory $1,495 destination charge, the base Corsair runs $40,880. It’s decently equipped with a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, a 13.2-inch touchscreen, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a power tailgate, synthetic leather upholstery, and 18-inch alloy wheels. You can spend another $20,000 on optional features to kit out your Corsair with soft leather seats, 24-way power-adjustable front seats, and a Revel audio system, too.
Where is the 2025 Lincoln Corsair made?
In Louisville, Kentucky.
2025 Lincoln Corsair Styling
The Corsair is a cut-above compact luxury SUV.
Is the Lincoln Corsair a good-looking SUV?
It’s a standout, that’s for sure. We like the way the Corsair looks inside well enough, but it’s the somewhat muscular exterior that really stands out. It’s an 8 on the TCC scale.
The 2025 Lincoln Corsair may share some bones with Ford’s Escape, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find much styling similarity. It’s elegant and stately, with a blunt front end that gives way to a toned profile. Just enough hints of chrome give the Corsair a suitably upmarket overall ambience.
Inside, the Corsair channels its larger Lincoln siblings, albeit with proportions that are more budget SUV than big bruiser. The big touchscreen sprouting from the dash sits above a wide band of vents. A handful of buttons sit precariously above a big, fairly empty center console. Add a few options and the cabin can look really nice, but you’ll want to avoid basic black synthetic leather.
2025 Lincoln Corsair Performance
The 2025 Lincoln Corsair is quick but no thrill ride.
Lincoln’s smallest SUV is polished and peppy in most configurations. It’s a 7 on the TCC scale.
Is the Lincoln Corsair 4WD?
The 2025 Lincoln Corsair can be had with either front- or all-wheel drive. The hybrid comes standard with all-wheel drive.
How fast is the Lincoln Corsair?
Models with the 2.0-liter turbo-4 run to 60 mph in the seven-second range, but they feel quicker than that thanks to an ample torque band. Officially, they’re rated at 250 hp and 280 lb-ft of torque, which goes to the front or all four wheels via a smooth 8-speed automatic gearbox.
The top Grand Touring trim comes only as a plug-in hybrid that makes use of a 2.5-liter online-4 paired with a pair of electric motors good for 266 hp combined. It’s about as quick as the standard Corsair, though that model has more power in reserve for highway passing. The powertrain is reasonably refined, though; it’s a good match for what Lexus offers, even if it’s not as zippy as what you’ll find in the Mercedes-Benz stable.
The Corsair has a comfy ride with good responses, particularly with the optional adaptive dampers that help quell road intrusions via the available 20-inch alloy wheels. The Corsair’s steering is relatively high-effort, and it combines well with the reasonably taut chassis to deliver cut-above handling. It’s almost fun, even though there’s no distinctly sporty version here.
2025 Lincoln Corsair Comfort & Quality
The 2025 Lincoln Corsair can feel quite luxurious if you max it out with optional extras.
The 2025 Lincoln Corsair has a comfy, classy cabin that scores an 8 here thanks to good front seats, a useful second row, and a good cargo area.
The front seats have as many as 24 ways of power adjustment, which is remarkable for any vehicle let alone one in this segment. They’re exceptionally comfy, and they can be wrapped in leather as well as heated and cooled.
Row two isn’t quite as good, but with about 39 inches of legroom and a nicely padded bench, it’s fine for two and adequate for three if necessary.
The standard power liftgate opens up 27.6 cubic feet of space, which maxes out at 57.6 cubes with the second-row seat backs down. Hybrid models are slightly trimmer due to the battery in the floor.
Synthetic leather seats are standard, but higher-end versions have lovely real leather and every Corsair has very nice materials for the price point. Only a few hints of Ford-typical switchgear stand out; that’s something that you won’t find on a Lexus or an Audi.
2025 Lincoln Corsair Safety
The Lincoln Corsair has generally done well in crash tests.
How safe is the Lincoln Corsair?
It should be a good choice, though this basic design is beginning to show its age. It scored five stars in NHTSA testing in 2024, though it missed out on a Top Safety Pick award from the IIHS due to a “Moderate” score in the updated side-impact test and headlights that rate no higher than “Acceptable.”
Factor in its good crash-avoidance tech including automatic emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection plus its available BlueCruise system that allows for limited hands-off driving, and the 2025 Lincoln Corsair is an 8 for safety.
Other standard safety features include adaptive cruise control, active lane control, blind-spot monitors, rear cross-traffic alerts with automatic braking, automatic high beams, and rear parking sensors.
A surround-view camera system, a head-up display, and automatic parking are optional.
2025 Lincoln Corsair Features
The 2025 Lincoln Corsair can be a good value in low- and mid-level configurations.
So long as you don’t go all-in with options, the 2025 Lincoln Corsair can be a fairly good buy. It’s a 7 here thanks to its good standard equipment and its terrific infotainment system consisting of a 13.2-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility.
The 4-year/50,000-mile warranty is luxury-typical, but Lincoln no longer includes free maintenance.
Which Lincoln Corsair should I buy?
The base version is probably fine for many drivers. Rather than adding options to this trim, we’d consider the step up to the Reserve, which at about $48,000 comes with soft leather seats, ambient lighting with a star-like finish on the dash, cooled front seats, and adaptive dampers paired with 19-inch alloy wheels. It’s also available with useful options including BlueCruise, a head-up display, 24-way power-adjustable seats, a big sunroof, and a 14-speaker Revel audio system. Sure, the $7,200 jump from a Premiere to a Reserve is substantial, but it makes more sense to spend here than it does to add much to the Premiere. We'd also add all-wheel drive for $2,300.
How much is a fully loaded Lincoln Corsair?
At about $55,500, the Grand Touring is more or less a Reserve with the plug-in hybrid powertrain. It’s possible to option one north of $60,000.
2025 Lincoln Corsair Fuel Economy
The 2025 Lincoln Corsair is reasonably frugal.
Is the Lincoln Corsair good on gas?
It’s not too bad even in non-hybrid form. We rate it at 3 out of 10 based on last year’s EPA estimates, which pegged the front-wheel-drive Lincoln Corsair at 22 mpg city, 30 highway, 25 combined, and the all-wheel-drive one at 21/28/24 mpg.
The plug-in hybrid wasn’t rated last year, but Lincoln estimates it to deliver 27 miles of range on a full charge and 33 mpg combined thereafter, which is fairly good.
It’s worth noting that the Corsair uses regular unleaded fuel in a segment full of vehicles that need premium.