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!
Ideally an in depth comparison of the 3.5TT vs the competitors engines. There’s actually a decent amount of variation in the segment compared to most (NA V8 or I6 diesel from GM, V6 turbo from Ford and Nissan, V6 turbo hybrid from Toyota). What are the strengths and weaknesses of each?
Also objectivity and open-mindedness in the comment section is probably hopeless, as is the case with anything expensive and/or large in size, but for those of us who like/find uses for large, expensive vehicles, how well does it fulfill its mission as defined by those buyers? How does it tow? How well does it fit adults in the back? How easy is it to add multiple child seats, and how much space is there? How is the cargo room with different combinations of seats up and down?
I kid, but for what this is I actually like it. It doesn’t fit my vehicular needs or budget in any way, but if it did I’d go with this over an Escalade or Range Rover. It’s got real presence.
A comparison between this, an Escalade/Denali, and an LX600 would be very informative for me.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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?
Is there a cooled compartment capable of holding my jumbo pack of adult diapers? I like em cold when they go on.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.”