The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Navigator beats Escalade on frills
Refined family haulers are getting competitive.
A familiar family scene in a full-size SUV: Two parents up front, four tweens behind, a sister in the third row aggravating her brother and his teammates in the second row, who are barking and bobbing with all the excitement of leaving for a far-away game. Here’s where it becomes less familiar: the parents are talking calmly, almost softly, massaged by 30-way adjustable seats and a sound system that dulls the discord from the rear seats.
To be clear, the 2018 Lincoln Navigator didn’t mute all the nuisances of traveling en masse, but this land yacht certainly diminished the dissonance from the deep. We could have fit two more tweens in comfort and relative quiet.
This calm in the storm might fit Lincoln’s marketing mantra of “quiet luxury” for the fourth generation full-size SUV, but we’d rather take a phrase from Seinfeld and call it “serenity now.”
Whatever it’s called, Navigator is deserving of its 2018 North American Truck of the Year award.
We can talk about the 200pound reduction in weight from the outgoing model, a more fuel-efficient and more powerful 450-horsepower twin-turbo V-6 engine paired to a new 10-speed transmission used in Ford’s off-road warrior known as the Raptor, or that it’s built very similarly to the Ford F-150, America’s best-selling vehicle. That’s all fine and good but those seats! Those seats are something else.
It’s like a recliner built into a seat, but better than a LaZ-Boy because there is a separate thigh adjustment for each leg. Then there’s all the side bolstering and back and butt functions. To customize the massager, the lumbar, mid- and upper back regions all have their own setting, with 10 degrees of intensity accessible through the touch screen. Unlike other luxury massagers, the activation button is on the door panel with the other seat buttons, so it’s magic hands at the push of a button. I’ll go ahead and use Lincoln’s phrase of “perfect position” seats (a $1,500 option that is well worth it).
The seats epitomize Lincoln’s intentions with the new Navigator. For nearly $90,000 Lincoln wants to provide first-class comfort with full-size family functionality. Each of the three third-row seats can be lowered with a push of the button, and third-row passengers are not relegated to third-rate status, because a button reclines their seats as well. There’s plenty of headroom for two adults to fit back there, too, for when the tweens become teens. Overall, it is roomier and more evolved than the Cadillac Escalade.
Approach the vehicle and
welcome lighting illuminates the door handles and ground. The power running board acts like a robotic servant helping you in and out. Visually, the massively broad mesh grille dominates rear view mirrors, yet it can still fit in most garages, even with roof rails. The 22-inch wheels with 16 spokes can be dizzying to some, yet at most speeds it looks like the spokes are not moving at all.
Inside, the quiet cabin has gorgeously rich wood trim on the dash, doors and massive center console, which has an open storage area beneath it for handbags. Clever storage spaces abound throughout. It’s luxury defined on first sight, and that is reinforced by the technology, for the most part.
The 10-inch touch screen is clear and sharp, even with the middling Sync3 system, but the screen is planted smack dab in the middle of that otherwise clean spartan dash. Embedded screens look and feel more unified. The controls, from the vents to the steering wheel, have notched dials, which provides a nuanced consistency. It took a while to figure out the functions of the steering wheel controls, from adaptive cruise to adjusting the head up display, and how to quickly access the menus in the instrument cluster so you don’t have to bother with the screen. Cadillac’s system is more intuitive in that regard, but we started to get the hang of it by the end of the week in the Reserve trim tester. The head up display is broad and low, and full of the essential drive info without being cluttered. And it’s a blast to blast Beastie Boys or Imagine Dragons for the beastly boys in the back, from the wonderful Revel 20-speaker sound system.
Expectations should be high at this price point, and Lincoln exceeds them. The Navigator in Reserve trim is roomier, more refined and more complete than the Escalade or the Infiniti QX80. The $10,000 question is if it’s worth that much more than the new 400-horsepower Ford Expedition in Platinum trim.