2016 Lincoln MKS

The 2016 Lincoln MKS sits at the tail end of a generation whose federal record is anything but uniform: complaints ran 43–56 in the early years (2009–2011), collapsed to 16 in 2012, then spiked sharply to 140 complaints and 7 recalls in 2013 — clearly the problem year of the run — before tapering to 43 (2014) and 17 (2015) with a handful of recalls each. The 2016 model year marks the cleanest point of that arc, with just 3 complaints, zero recalls, zero investigations, and no crash or fire filings, while all three documented complaints cluster around low-severity electrical concerns (forward collision avoidance, powertrain/electrical, and electrical system in general). The one red flag worth flagging is the 85 Technical Service Bulletins — the highest in the generation and well above the 2015 figure of 49 — suggesting Ford/Lincoln was still actively issuing service guidance even as formal complaints dried up, likely a function of the model being in its final year rather than a wave of new defects. Positioned after the 2013 recall storm and the steadily declining complaint count of 2014–2015, the 2016 represents the most refined and least problematic year of the MKS lineage. For a used-car buyer, 2016 is arguably the safest year to target in this generation, provided a pre-purchase inspection confirms the electrical systems are functioning as the TSBs intended.