The Corsair is the smallest-but-one of Lincoln’s newly extended family of four SUVs. In descending size order, they are the Navigator, Aviator, Corsair and Nautilus. The three smaller ones are unibody-type crossover vehicles. The size-XXL Navigator is a full-length body on a Ford F-series truck platform, but you’d never know it by the sprightly way it drives. Family resemblance is strong across the lineup.

The Corsair—corsair, btw, is a 16th Century term for a pirate—is a two-row “compact” (looks midsize to me) SUV available in Standard and Reserve flavors, starting at about $36,000 and $43,000, respectively. A third row of seats aside, this opens up an enormous gap between even our well-equipped Reserve AWD, at $57,000, and the $84,000 Lincoln Aviator Hybrid of recent memory.

For 2021, Lincoln has added a plug-in AWD hybrid to the Corsair lineup too, the Grand Touring, which starts at $51,000 and change. With any luck, its driving dynamics are better sorted out than the hybrid Aviator’s.

The Corsair starts with front-wheel-drive and a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine rated for 250 horsepower and 280 lb-ft of torque. The upgrade engine in our Corsair is also a turbo Four, but 2.3 litres (138 cubic inches) in size and peaking at 295 horsepower and 310 torques. Both engines get 8-speed automatic transmissions with paddle shifters. Both drivetrains get almost the same MPG, too: about 21 in city driving and close to 30 on the highway.

AWD can be had with the smaller engine, but checking the box for the big engine brings AWD with it. That’s fine, and we can’t complain about this Corsair’s acceleration and throttle response, which perfectly suit such hushed and plush transportation. The Corsair is more a passenger’s vehicle than a driver’s; a comparable European wagon is livelier and more refined underway. 

Lincoln SUVs are deluxe analogs of comparable Ford models. The Corsair is based on the Escape, but so re-worked, re-styled and re-skinned that its blue-collar roots don’t show at all. Especially with a few upgrades, such as the $3,000 Technology Package and the $4,200 Group 201A Package with the Co-Pilot360 Plus safety suite, the Corsair stands alone as Detroit’s version of a deluxe two-row ute.

Silvio Calabi has been reviewing cars since Ronald Reagan removed the solar panels from the White House. He lives in Camden.