The 2025 Lincoln Navigator is not a Cadillac Escalade, but it’s an still enormous, over-the-top, three-ton $130,000 luxo-mobile with “digital scents” and a four-foot wide screen. I’m sure you have some curiosities about it.
Jason Torchinsky is on his final leg of an absolutely ridiculous cross-country trip in a 375,000 mile beat-to-heck former New York City taxi cab, and I wanted to surprise him with a car he can relax in upon his arrival. Three-thousand miles in an $800 heap that was really designed for city driving and not long freeway runs is no joke, after all. So I chose something ridiculously bougie, but not only that — it’s a car I’m legitimately curious about, because it looks…kinda good!
It’s basically a swanked-up Ford Expedition (in much the same way that an Escalade is a swanked-up Suburban), but it’s coming from a brand that’s putting some real dollars behind a push towards a much-needed renaissance. I drove the baby-Navigator, the Nautilus, last year, and I thought it was great. Surely the ‘gator will be even better?
We’ll find out.
If you have any questions about the new 2025 Lincoln Navigator, throw them into the comments below!
How base level can you get the base model? Will it Moab? Does it do any annoying chimes, can you permanently disable electronic aids?
Spare tire, full size as God intended?
Not very, not happily the ground clearance sucks but it does have a locking rear, it’s not the ford bong but a pleasant orchestral chime, probably by pulling the ABS fuses, yes full-size spare.
Honestly these are better answers than I expected from a new luxury suv in 2025. I would get a good laugh about seeing one of these out on a rough road.
Given that its on a modified F150 frame you could retrofit Raptor suspension bits too it. People have with the U553 Expedition, and this U718 is a modified and updated platform.
How easy is it to do a hood slide and how does it absorb damage from a shopping cart?
How easy do spaghetti stains come out of the carpet?
How many Alanises fit in the back?
There is only one and she’s probably busy.
Nah… there are at least two… Alanis Morrisette and the other Alanis…
They are both babes too…
-Garth Algar 1992
Not much. . .I can’t afford it.
I hope it makes Lincoln a bunch of money though. . .I am routing for them. Because we have lost too many auto brands.
I mean, I’m more concerned about losing the companies on the whole than individual marques. Ford consolidating their strengths would hopefully not be the beginning of the end, or something.
It’d be the parent companies getting acquired by others that would be upsetting to me.
Ford selling regular non mustang cars would be exciting.
Brands can come back.
See Hummer.
Let’s bring back Mercury while we’re at it! I don’t have Lincoln money (yet), but I definitely have Mercury money.
How hard is it to unsee the seam between the two screens right in the center of the dash?
Sooo Ford. My Focus has a jazzy blue led entertainment center display. Or so I thought…viewed from the right angle, you can see that Ford affixed a piece of translucent blue tape to the inside of the display.
Haha that’s hilarious. But, at least it’s not a $130k vehicle.
I’m sure the Navigator is a very nice vehicle. But if I’m paying that much, I expect no seams or a better way to break things up/draw attention away.
That’s nice.
Makes it fairly easy to change the color to something other than that obnoxious blue that messed up my vision. The ergonomnics of blue light suck. If blue lights are outlawed somewhere, the tape makes localization easier.
I have a guitar stomp box with a blue LED that makes it so I can’t see any of the knobe, it’s awful.
When those screens bite the dust at 20k miles are they an easy replacement or does the whole dash have to come off first. Chinese electronics built by the lowest bidder. They look nice tho.
Car electronics have to stand up to the worst environmental conditions of anything short of field-use military equipment and are thoroughly tested. That said even well designed and tested electronics do fail, so hopefully replacement does not require a 20 book hour job.
A price comparison with the Escalade would be helpful.
For somebody. Not me.
How many zip codes can it occupy at one time?
How deep of a mud pit can it drive through.
Where do they locate the hood switch to turn on the AC?
What does it do better than the expedition? Also, if you were in charge of Lincoln, how would you distinguish it from the competition?
My guess is neither is better than a Suburban/Yukon XL?
Neither has the 5.3 or 6.2 that gm is having so many problems with, so the FoMoCo ones are superior right off the bat.
Is there a cooled compartment capable of holding my jumbo pack of adult diapers? I like em cold when they go on.
I’m gonna be mad if this question is not answered and properly demonstrated.
I’m still coming to grips with $130k retail prices for relatively mainstream rigs.
Being retired for many years really changes your perspective of what things should cost.
Oh, you don’t have to be retired. I’m 46 and my retirement portfolio grows by this amount in a really good year, but my “value system” will never accept paying that for a car just because I could afford it on paper. That’s a big part of what got us into so much trouble in 08-09.
That’s like 15 pretty decent vacations overseas (for a family of 4-5). A car can get me where I’m going for 1/4 as much in similar comfort, brand nee. That said, I’ll never balk at $50k for a nice minivan ever again. This is a weird flex that I’ll never get because they just blend into the crowd. The Escalade stands out a bit, but it’s still just a big GM SUV. I respect them a lot, but I don’t see the allure.
Most useless piece of ‘tech’, like how frivolous are we talking? And handling… it looks wallowy.
I can’t wait for the ‘so much screen’ phase to pass. Unless we’re going to be allowed to watch three separate streaming videos while we drive, that is simply more real estate than necessary.
Describe how delusional you would need to be to pay twice the price of the Ford version. It would be a lot more interesting than a limp justification of $70,000 worth of options on a $65,000 truck with Ford’s “quality.”
The Ford version is approaching $100k with some option boxes ticked.
The same question applies.
I was about to be shocked but I went and compared and pretty much no matter what a full size SUV starts at about $67k.
I went and built the Expedition with all the options I wanted (4×4) and it came out under 70k.
The Suburban is basically the same and so is the Toyota Sequoia.
Delusional enough to believe their sketchy accountant that they should just “write it off as a business expense”.
Does anybody pay taxes anymore?
Only the poors.
I would refine that by saying only the poors who don’t tithe to the dictator.
I guess that’s why I pay taxes! 🙂
You just need to start your own business and invest all your income in it, regardless of its purpose, and fail to make a profit. Meanwhile, you get all the benefits of writing off just about everything you do. Just take your hobby and turn it into a money-losing business. Or if you need to remodel your house, start an interior design business, and then do your home as a showcase. Rinse and repeat.
Actually, that’s great advice! My wife just started an online jewelry business. I’ll instruct her to lose as much as possible.
I’ll start playing live music again and write off all my drum gear.
There’s hope for us yet!
I’ve worked for myself for six years and have never paid a dime in federal taxes while Orange Hitler is in office. I recommend getting a good tax accountant. They may seem a bit pricey, but they more than pay for themselves.
Can it Navigate on its own or does it need GPS or a separate app? I mean shouldn’t a navigator self navigating?
I don’t want something that large and heavy navigating itself.
Step away from that A380.
Ha! It’s a big sky, as they say.
It could only wish it was built as well.
It should probably have A̶c̶t̶i̶v̶G̶l̶i̶d̶e̶ BlueCruise, so kinda?
You’ll need a subscription to the navigating to have it navigate.
Can a Navigator tell an armada where to go?
How about a corvette?
In unfamiliar or tight quarters, does a Navigator need a Pilot to steer it?
Can you plug a TRS80 into it?
Sure hope it has Netflix… I mean, for $130k…
For that much money it should come with an Escort.
Is the specific unit a Galpin demo or is Ford still letting you guys have press cars?
Why would one buy this over its competitors? Namely, Cadillac Escalade, and Range Rover
Escalades have explodey engines and they still can’t figure out the transmission tuning. They’re also commonly targeted for theft.
Range Rover are nice but more expensive, not the same size, not body-on-frame, and come with European maintenance and repair bills. Whereas a Navigator shares a lot of its expensive parts with the most-popular vehicle in the world, the Ford F-Series.
Ford has terrible quality as well (possibly worse), and nobody who buys one cares about maintenance costs since they never own them past the warranty.
In this crowd of vehicles, “buy” is the wrong word. You mean Lease.
The brand cachet is gone when the new model rolls in.
I think that goes without saying.
Suburban is the answer. Yukon XL if you want it to be a little nicer/look cooler.
Is It nicer than a Range Rover phev?
Wait, what happened to its butt? It looks like something got slapped onto the back of it in that top photo.
Maybe room for its split tailgate?
Would Matthew McConaughey/a bison approve?
Why not a luxury minivan? This clearly isn’t going anywhere off-road. Most people will probably sit in it as a taxi or uber. Interior packaging, comfort would be far better in a minivan chassis.
Lincoln tried that with the MkT.
It was seemingly perfect for exactly the role you describe (it was rumored the T secretly stood for Towncar), but nobody liked it.
The Market…er…MKT looked good on paper. It just doesn’t help that the design police went Full Stop & Frisk on it with the ugly baton.
It was also ugly. Very ugly.
The rear was awkward. The front was OK. I wouldn’t call it ugly, just unconventional.
The new vehicles coming from gm, Subaru, and certain toyota/Lexus I would categorize as definitively ugly.
The MkT was not a minivan.
MkT was a rebadged Ford Flex. The Ford Flex was classified as an SUV, but it reality it was a de facto minivan. It fills the space vacated by the Ford Freestar (nee Windstar) in 2007.
No sliding doors, no minivan.
Nothing really de facto about it, the Flex was no more a minivan than the Freestyle/Taurus X it was rebodied from was, virtually the same dimensions all around.
That would make more sense and this isn’t aimed at the makes sense crowd. It’s for the poseurs who think it’s a flex or what an actual well off person would leave at their boat house for the kids to use over the summer.
I mean, good question, but one answered many times–it’s not that minivans ever stopped being practical or the right choice for many people, but simply that they aren’t “cool” and don’t have the “presence” of these kinds of vehicles.
And as an ex-van owner, I can attest to that “feeling like you can do just about anything with it” sort of vibe that makes them so appealing. Sure, this hypothetical Navigator buyer/lessee might not plan to tow or go off-road (for example), but presumably it will be better at those tasks than a given minivan, if the opportunities arose.
That’s a good friend, right there.
Have fun this evening!
Perhaps a Pontiac Aztent might surprise him.
“Uh yeah, we lost those little OEM plastic covers for the pointy backseat spring releases, so the air mattress isn’t so airy anymore…sorry.”