Cadillac ATS vs. Lincoln MKZ

[Caddy]

Cadillac and Lincoln always put up a good fight as rivals, but the new battle of entry-luxury vehicles is leaning in Caddy's favor. The Cadillac ATS has two transmission options and three available engines; it is a serious performance vehicle that looks good and drives well. The Lincoln MKZ however looks great on the outside but is over-sized, clunky and frankly, boring. Lincoln attempted to de-clutter the interior by replacing buttons with touch screen controls yet the interior of the MKZ is left feeling cramped (especially in the backseat) and confusing. The 2013 Cadillac ATS has already won a ton of awards for Car of the Year, best luxury car and so on. It handles superbly, receiving an 8.2/10 rating by the US News and World Report while the Lincoln MKZ apparently suffers from dull handling, receiving only a 6.2/10. The ATS has some of the best safety ratings around (9.9/10) too, compared to the 8.7/10 rating received by the 2013 Lincoln MKZ.
In my opinion, Cadillac is offering the better entry-level luxury vehicle. What do you think?

[JavaGirl]

I test drove the ATS, MKZ and MKS. The interior of the MKZ felt cheap, cold and hard. The interior of the MKS was the best. The best buy for the price (including fuel economy and safety features) was the ATS.

[HoosierDaddy]

Never even an option for me (same for the ATS V6) because I will never drive an automatic transmission car if there is any comparable manual transmission model, Same regarding RWD. And my wife of 40 years feels even stronger about both. I know we are a minority, but that's my two cents. Cadillac cares about that minority Ford/Lincoln doesn't.

[cfrp]

ATS is more performance oriented. MKZ has a nice design but I'd pick the ATS because of manual transmission and the performance/handling aspect.