Ford's new US design cheif does not like the MK X and does not want to see it built.
However I have seen several people report seeing the MK X on the road being tested prior to NAIAS. This is very unusual, most concepts are not running cars (or barely running cars, like the 427). To be road testing the MK X prior to NAIAS says that it is more than a concept, its a running production prototype.
My guess is that the logic for the MK X is as follows:
1. Lincoln needs some sort of sporty halo car to combat the press Caddy is getting with its XLR.
2. With the T-Bird going away at the end of 2005, the MK-X which is really a re-bodied T-Bird is a good way to get a couple more years out of the tooling and production line they built at Wixom to make the T-Bird. That is, there is little new investment required to build the MK-X so they could actually make some money on it even if they only sell 15,000 / year of them.