As cheesy as the name is, the Yacht Club Theme interior is quite impressive in person!
How hot is the new Lincoln Navigator? So hot that Ford has boosted production targets 25 percent since the SUVs introduction last fall.
How hot, again, is that new Navigator? From a Ford release: “Lincoln dealers simply can’t keep the entirely new Navigator on dealer lots; the luxury SUVs are spending an average of just seven days at the dealership before they are sold.”
Once more, how hot is that Navigator? How about North American Truck of the Year.
So, yeah, in the world of trucks it’s a fairly big deal.
It’s also a fairly big truck packed with a lot of stuff. Standard power comes from a twin-turbo, 3.5-liter engine–450 horsepower along with 510 lb.-ft. of torque–backed by a 10-speed automatic transmission. Yes, that’s more than you’d find in other 3.5-powered Ford vehicles.
Our test vehicle featured the Black Label package–22-inch ebony wheels plus lots of towing equipment–and four-wheel drive. Interior: Yacht Club Theme.
While the Navigator starts at $72,055, ours specced out at $98,320 after factoring in delivery and destination.
I had a simple request: I just needed something to carry three bikes to an old-school BMX reunion. We arrived in style.
Remember when 500 lb.-ft. of torque was something reserved for Vipers and ’60s-era Hemis? Yeah, guess not any more. Ford’s 3.5-liter turbo is an impressive engine. In fact, I’d love to see more of them produced this state of tune. (Also, how about this engine in a Mustang?)
According to Lincoln our test truck weighs some 5855 pounds, but it was no pig. Power was everywhere and all the time. The 10-speed auto always seemed to be in the right gear. It’s proof that the traditional gearbox can be refined to hang with today’s twin-clutch units.
Downsides? It grows as soon as it enters a parking lot. A few of the switches didn’t quite feel German-grade. I’m still not a fan of pushbutton transmissions–unless we’re talking vintage Dodges, of course.
The masses, though, will likely love the Navigator.
Bells and whistles? Yep, all of them. Massaging seats? Exactly where and how intense?
Fold-out running boards? Of course.
Power-operated everything, including the second and third row seats? Just press the button, please, and the seats fold away.
Cup holders? All of them.
Presence? Yup.
King of the road? Totally.
But it doesn’t quite feel like the AMG 63 that we recently sampled. And that’s kind of the difference. Both are six-figure vehicles, but there’s still a difference. The Benz coupe felt as if of that goodness came from the initial kernel. At the end of the day, the Navigator, while plush and deluxe, does start out as a full-size truck. It’s a pretty sweet truck for hauling around some BMX bikes, but it’s still a truck.
As cheesy as the name is, the Yacht Club Theme interior is quite impressive in person!
I like that someone at Ford decided Lincolns should actually look good again. Been a while...
John Welsh said:A cheesy as the name is, the Yacht Club Theme interior is quite impressive in person!
It is. And the day we left, our press car people pinged me: Please be super-careful with the Lincoln as it's heading to a photo shoot next week. So I tied everything down. (This is before we fit another bike, plus the rest of our gear, in there. )
And impressive stats on the engine. So, what would you swap one into?
Please, please, please keep buying them. Next March, I will me really happy. :)
As for the new engine, having PFI and DI opens up a lot of power opportunity for cheap (relative to DI only and that kind of power).
Is the Aviator supposed to slot in above or below this? That is a handsome looking truck.
Almost a hundred grand??!!
I can't - in a million years - imagine spending that much money on that. I'm completely stunned. And I thought that $50K for a F250 King Ranch was silly.
Alfadriver, you'd know: Is the Navigator powered by EcoBoost? I noticed that the site doesn't mention that word. Or is EcoBoost reserved for Ford-branded cars? Either way, heck of a drivetrain, especially in that tune.
Pretty truck. That's a LOT of scratch.
If past models are any indicator, these will be under $10k in about 10 years and a couple hundred thousand miles. The old ones seem to depreciate faster than the same year Expeditions.
USERNAMETAKEN said:Almost a hundred grand??!!
I can't - in a million years - imagine spending that much money on that. I'm completely stunned. And I thought that $50K for a F250 King Ranch was silly.
I just specced out a similarly loaded GMC Yukon XL and reached about the same figure.
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