If anything is clear from driving the 2016 Lincoln MKX, it’s that Lincoln has started a return to their roots.  While the Germans, Japanese, and a certain American luxury brand all fight for performance cred and the fastest lap times, Lincoln is quietly content to remain the comfortable, stylish brand that can’t be bothered with horsepower figures.  Their commitment to “quiet luxury” is so strong in fact, that at a recent Lincoln event when I asked them about the powertrain under the hood of the achingly-retro-cool Navigator Concept, they said “somewhere around 400-horsepower… but it’s not really important as long as it gets out of its own way.”  While the folks at Cadillac engage in a performance battle with the Germans over who can make the fastest, least garish sedan, Lincoln returns to its roots of making comfortable, lavish cars with presence.  FOLLOW THE DAILY NEWS AUTOS ON FACEBOOK! ‘LIKE’ US HERE.  The 2016 MKX, the all-new overhaul of their popular midsize luxury SUV, is the ultimate incarnation of this ideology – at least until the Continental comes along, of course.  With an interest in returning to the roots of the company’s namesake, I took the 2016 MKX on a road trip to historic Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to see just how important it is to look backwards as well as forwards.  As with any good car, the very first thing you notice about the MKX is how it looks, and to these eyes, it looks darn good.  Sleek lines, a sculpted profile, and wildly-cool 21-inch wheels give this SUV a presence not usually found on this side of the Atlantic… at least in this day and age.  A handsome (if a bit anonymous) LED signature lights up sequentially when you approach the car with the key, and the mirrors project the Lincoln logo on the ground just outside the doors on either side. It’s a simple touch, but a very neat party trick, and one that feels particularly special.  Out back, a full-width LED taillight gives the SUV a squat stance, and a look all its own. Call us crazy, but it’s becoming hard to tell various Mercedes-Benz and BMW models apart from each other.  FOR MORE INFORMATION ON LINCOLN MODELS, VISIT OUR BUYER’S GUIDE.  I must admit that I’m more of a fan of Lincoln’s split-wing front grille than the new Bentley treatment they’ve given their cars, and I wish they had stuck with it. But beggars can’t be choosers.  Inside, there’s less to be excited about design wise, as this is where Lincoln’s ties to Ford shine through the brightest. The center instrument panel is almost indistinguishable from the Ford Edge with which it shares a powertrain and platform, and that’s good for Ford, but bad for Lincoln.  Regardless, everything works simply and intuitively, except, of course, for the old SYNC software. Lincoln claims new MKXs come with the massively-improved SYNC 3, but it was nowhere to be found on this particular model. Oh well – a week of frustrating voice command and touch response experiences isn’t the worst thing in the world… but a 3-year lease might be.  There’s lots of tech goodies too, including blind spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, 360-degree parking cameras (including one hidden under the front logo), and even Ford’s active park assist that will back into parallel and perpendicular spots for you, and even help you leave those spots later.  What genuinely surprised me, though, was just how quiet and comfortable the cabin was – so much so that the atmosphere felt almost worthy of a car costing well over 6 figures. The MKX shuttles you along in a cocoon of silence and stability, with minimal input from road noise or blemishes.  An optional seating package gets you 22-way adjustable front seats, with massage capabilities for your back and backside. Touring the Pennsylvania countryside was laid back to begin with – now imagine that with your own personal masseuse. Not too shabby.  The optional 19-speaker Revel Ultima audio system is certainly loud, but lacks the same sound depth as the Burmester and Harmon/Kardon systems found in the Germans. The serenity of the cabin is so refreshing though, you may just want to turn off all sound in general and listen to the sound of the world going by around you.  Clearly, many thousands of dollars (and hundreds of pounds) were spent on making this a quiet sanctuary rather than a cockpit of engagement. The engine sound is so distant that it almost sounds like it’s being called in over the phone.  Speaking of the engine, while base MKXs are equipped with a 3.7-liver V-6 with just over 300-horsepower, my tester had the optional 2.7-liter twin-turbo EcoBoost V-6, which makes a respectable 335-hp and a whopping 380 lb.-ft. of torque. That peach of a power plant gives the MKX some serious hustle, enough to get to 60-mph in just about 6-seconds.  Over the course of several hundred highway miles and some city driving, I even saw around 22-mpg on average, a figure finally consistent with FoMoCo’s oft-maligned EcoBoost EPA numbers.  So Lincoln has built an SUV that’s quiet, comfortable, and stylish, but it’s affordable too, right? Unfortunately, this is the MKX’s biggest gripe… at least the one that I drove.  It’s almost as if Lincoln priced a fully-loaded MKX as if the last 25 years hadn’t happened, as my tester came in at a whopping $63,735 after destination charge. That’s German money, and increasingly hard to justify when you notice all of the carryovers from Ford’s parts bin. Skip the more expensive options like the massage seats and 19-speaker stereo, and you will barely break $50K – and for that price, the MKX makes a whole lot of sense.  “Four score and seven years ago,” Lincoln made some of the most stylish and comfortable cars on the planet. Nowadays, they’re not quite there yet, but not far off.  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While most luxury automakers push performance, Lincoln veers off in favor of ‘quiet luxury.’ But does it work?