Ford is betting big on crossovers – not only for its own main brand, but for the Lincoln division, too. It has a new Aviator in the works, and a replacement for the MKC in the pipeline, too. Now word has it that the latter could arrive much sooner than expected, bringing with it a new nameplate. As you may recall from the report we brought you less than a month ago, the MKC is slated to be replaced by the Corsair, following along the same nomenclature as the Navigator and the forthcoming Aviator.

That wasn't anticipated to happen until 2021. But Ford Authority claims that the Corsair's been fast-tracked for production, and could arrive as soon as 2020. This despite the MKC having just been substantially updated for 2019, with a fresh face and new tech – though still bearing the same old name. If the latest reports prove accurate, that'd give the revised MKC just one or two years on the market before it's ushered out. And for the bean-counters in Dearborn, that will have meant a significant investment to recuperate in a relatively short timeframe. But such, we suppose, is the market demand for fresh crossovers (particularly in the luxury compact segment).

Though the Ford Authority report identifies the upcoming Corsair as an all-new model (heavily influenced by the recent Aviator concept), Lincoln could ostensibly splash out the new nameplate on the existing model and give it more time to capitalize before being replaced, while still giving the appearance, at least, of a new model. It wouldn't be without precedent, after all. Lincoln just did the same with a mid-cycle update for the MKX, which it rebranded as the Nautilus. Mercedes followed a similar approach with some of its crossovers as well, rebranding the M-Class as the GLE, for example, and the GL as the GLS. And Infiniti, for another, reworked its entire naming scheme and applied it to some models in the middle of their lifecycles.