DETROIT, Mich. - Like Jackie Gleason in the final scenes of the original Smokey and the Bandit, Lincoln is "not givin' up" on the truck market after its colossal market miscalculation with the ill-fated Blackwood pickup. The Lincoln Blackwood, you may recall, was essentially stillborn when it arrived for 2002 to battle the Cadillac Escalade EXT for luxury truck buyers.

Problems with the Blackwood included a carpeted bed with a power tonneau cover that carried little more than the trunk of a Lincoln Town Car, ugly ash-colored fake wood on the sides of the bed, a dashboard design that didn't even start to disguise the truck's Ford F-150 basis, and the inexplicable rear-drive only powertrain layout. The Lincoln Blackwood spectacularly imploded, and the plug was pulled before dealers were able to move the first 1,000 units.

The 2006 Lincoln Mark LT should prove to be a much more palatable alternative to the giant Cadillac and the GMC Sierra Denali than the Blackwood did. As with Lincoln's first pickup truck effort, the 2006 Mark LT is based on the brand spankin' new Ford F-150 SuperCrew.