While I wasn't crazy about its rear angle, the MKT looked great from the front. It has a huge, aggressive grille that works well with the crossover's size. It looks unique — in a good way.

The MKT is more than an interesting face. My test car had the optional 355-horsepower, turbocharged 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6. The MKT takes premium gas and gets an EPA-estimated 16/22 mpg city/highway.

The MKT has a standard power liftgate and a good amount of cargo room for a seven-seater.

It also has a standard backup camera with parking sensors. I'm glad these are standard because the rear visibility isn't great. The rear window is difficult to see out of because it sits so high up on the tailgate and the wiper housing juts up into the windshield, creating further obstruction. The MKT's available blind spot monitoring system was a necessity because of the rear visibility issues; the system made up for some serious design flaws in the MKT. I had a hard time seeing out the vehicle's rear quarters and relied on the mirrors and the monitoring system a lot more than I'm comfortable doing.