Ultimate luxury SUV

If you’re considering the all-new Lincoln Navigator for use as your next luxury SUV, now’s a great time to start thinking of witty comebacks for the “Gosh, that’s huge” comments you’ll frequently receive from friends and family.

The new Navigator is one of the biggest vehicles I’ve ever travelled in without having to buy a ticket. And though my tester was enormous, there’s even a lengthier, extended-wheelbase model available, should you find the standard “little” Navigator a tad too small.

My tester landed just above $100,000 as tested. That’s big bucks, though they’re selling fast: the factory in Kentucky that builds these behemoths can hardly keep up with demand.

What’s it like? Imagine taking a luxury spa, sticking four wheels beneath it, adding a twin-turbo engine, and you’re in the ballpark. Put simply, Navigator is supremely comfortable, has a swanky-asheck interior and delivers off-thecharts ride comfort over almost everything.

It’s built like a truck, not a car, so the feel is solid and tough and rigid throughout, though adaptive dampers carefully fine-tune the ride for every inch of travel. From the driver’s seat, it’s a pickuptruck feel of rugged, rigid durability, alongside a ride that’s creamy and well-calibrated. You feel like you’re in something big, safe and secure as Navigator undulates gently down the road, and this is among the most comfortable highway cruisers I’ve ever driven.

Highway steering feel is heavy enough at speed to help keep the Navigator bolted nicely to the line you select. The stability control has a zero-tolerance policy for slipping and sliding, and those after absolute traction will be happy to know the system absolutely neutralizes slips, squirms or slides the millisecond they think about existing. If you want to feel absolutely supported up in bad weather, you’re covered nicely here. Note that my tester was wearing a set of Blizzak tires.

Point Navigator through a blizzard and it’s all about confidence: With four-wheel drive, the long wheelbase and Navigator’s hefty weight, you relax in planted comfort as winter-driving hell breaks loose beneath you, while you sit back and unwind and relax.

Navigator can be set to twowheel-drive, four-wheel-drive or four-low-range by selecting the appropriate drive mode from a console-mounted dial.

Power comes from a high-output Ecoboost V6, with 3.5 litres displacement and twin turbochar- gers developing 450 horsepower and even more torque. The engine loves low-rpm work, where it generates massive torque from just off idle, and works in near silence. She’ll fire past 18-wheelers with urgency, and a meaty roar, when requested. There’s a 10-speed automatic for improved performance and mileage. By and large, the transmission is invisible — you never feel or detect it doing much of anything.

The cabin is gorgeous-looking, bright, vivid, hugely upscale and pulls its weight toward the bigdollar price tag. Navigator’s cabin goes its own way, introduces some yet-unseen styling elements and surrounds occupants with space and storage galore. Don’t miss numerous floating elements, including the floating centre console, which hovers above the front floor and is about the size of a small office desk. Or the seats, comprised of segmented leather pads which float above the main seat structure. Best of all, designers used the Navigator’s massive size to both enhance the sense of space but also to showcase even more of the high-grade trimmings inside.

Three seating rows are on offer. Use the front two, fold the rear into the floor at a button press and you’ve got a four-per- son hauler with near cargo-van storage volume, and a nearly silly amount of at-hand storage, charge ports and space for four. Driving to Florida for the winter? Navigator is perfect for the job.

Feature content? It’s got everything, including a Revel Ulitima stereo, massage seats, powerdeployable running boards, a monster panoramic sunroof and more.

A few final notes: First, Navigator is big on visibility. The LED headlights are magnificently powerful and the backup camera system has a built-in washer sprayer for a consistently clear outward view. It’s also not as hard to park as its size leads on, thanks to a relatively small turning circle.

Gripes? The instrument cluster colour scheme is dull and drab, which isn’t my favourite on latenight drives. It’s an all digital display with a few too many animations and effects that look a little overdone, but some will like the high-tech presentation.

Brakes, further, offer fairly poor feel at the pedal. They’re powerful enough and perform well, though in stark contrast to how easy so much of the Navigator is to drive, the brakes require a bit of a workout, often needing an inch or more of pedal input before anything happens at all. In a vehicle this big, I’d appreciate a much more responsive and precise feel at the pedal.

In all, the gripes shouldn’t much dull Navigator’s appeal, especially for shoppers after what’s arguably the ultimate luxury SUV on the scene today.