I normally like to own a product for a while before I write about it, but some products are so exciting I can't wait. Like cell phones, and new cars. Forgive me.
After extensive research (see
SUV Sizes spreadsheet), we decided to purchase a 2018
Lincoln Navigator -- regular length, white exterior, black interior, premium front seats, 2nd row captains chairs with pass-thru, premium audio, and the Reserve trim (aka real wood).
Special thanks to Val Beigelman at
Dana Ford Lincoln in Staten Island for making a cross-country sale easy so I didn't have to special order and wait two to four months.
(update: we've owned the 2018 Navigator for six months now, and it's even better than we expected. We love it.)
Why the Lincoln Navigator?
TL; DR. The 2018 Navigator offers a combination of features, interior room, snow performance, luxury, and styling that isn't available in any competitor, at any price. The only similar or smaller AWD option with comparable interior room and 3rd row is the Toyota Sienna AWD. One of the most luxury rivals is the MB GLS, which falls short on interior room and a number of other areas.
Stylish Family Trips to Snow. This year both our kids (4 and 6) are old enough to ski, and we bought a Lake Tahoe vacation house, so we are regularly making the trip, to the tune of 200 miles each way. However, our former family hauler was a 2WD Honda Odyssey. While I love the functionality and roominess of the minivan, we need AWD for the snow and potential chain-control conditions. We considered the Toyota Sienna AWD, and while that is a great car, my wife is tired of the noisy ride and the stigma of minivans. Subjectively, the Sienna is even uglier than the Odyssey. The Navigator, on the other hand, is quiet and downright handsome. We both like its modern, beefy, and classy styling. My wife also really likes the higher and dominant view of the road. Our Navigator will probably log 70% of it's miles on these longer trips, and the other 30% in short suburban family activities, including carrying bikes, scooters, and extra kids.
2nd Row Pass-Thru and Large 3rd row. We have two kids, and we're expecting a new puppy shortly. I love a minivan's roomy interior, and the ability for passengers to move between the second and third rows without folding or flipping any seats. We also want our dog to be able to move around and lie on the floor. The only other SUV with a usable 2nd row walk-thru and a 3rd row comfortable enough for 3-5 hours is the massive long-wheelbase Escelade ESV (or Yukon XL, Suburban), and that car is fourteen inches longer than the regular size Navigator / Expedition.
That last point warrants a little explanation. In the GM full size SUVs, the regular (smaller) version is the same 204 inches as a minivan. However, the car has a huge hood and full size spare tire, so something has to give, and that something is the 3rd row. It has no leg height and is crunched against the 2nd row. If you want a roomy third row, you have to opt for the Escelade ESV, Yukon XL, or Suburban, all of which are a whopping 224 inches long. That's too long to fit in our suburban garage.
However, the Ford platform skins this cat differently, smartly. They made the regular size Navigator (and Expedition) seven inches longer than the regular Escalade, 210 inches instead of 204. That gave them enough room to give it the exact same roomy third row as their "long" version, comparable to the Escalade ESV's 3rd row. The only differences between the regular and long versions of the Ford / Lincoln design are the amount of room *behind* the third row and the size of the fuel tank. This may seem like a subtle point, but the practicality is huge. Ford customers get the larger third row in a car 14 inches shorter than the Escalade ESV. That is more than a foot, and makes the car much easier to fit into typical garages and people's lives.
Of course, for some even 210 inches is too long. I've included my thoughts on many other smaller SUVs down below.
Full Size Spare Tire. Most SUVs these days are using compact spares. Some, like the Q7and X5 (and Odyssey and Sienna), have no spare at all and rely on run-flats. They do it because flat tires are not very common (the last one I had was 15 years ago), and because most miles are driven in urban areas where a tow-truck, repair shop, new tire, and warm bed are all within 15 miles. However, more than half the miles we will put on our family hauler will be in the 200 mile trip between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, sometimes at night, sometimes in snowstorms. This isn't remote like Death Valley or the Gobe desert, but it does go through Donner Pass, and we know how that worked out for the
Donner Party.
Chances are we will never have a flat in this car. However, *IF* we have a blowout or flat with 2 adults, 2 kids, a dog, and stuff, in a snowstorm, I'm responsible for making sure it doesn't turn into a nightmare. I don't want the whole family to wait on the side of the road for 30-90 minutes for a tow or ride. I don't want to have to shove them in the back of a tow truck to get out of there, and I don't want to deal with the complications of having to wait on a compatible run-flat replacement tire in an area where the nearest new car dealer, Target, or Wall-Mart is 40 miles away. Even with a compact spare, one is only supposed to drive 50 miles on them, and I don't want the trouble of having to replace a regular tire while we're in the middle of a weekend of ski fun. We are not the Griswolds. I'm going to pop the full size spare tire on and deal with it when I'm back in an urban area.
Reasonably Luxury Interior. I'm not delusional, there are more "luxury feeling" SUVs which can be had, and at least one for less money than the Navigator. I'm referring to the Audi Q7, which drives like a dream and has interior finishes that are unrivaled until you spend $300k on the
Bentley Bentayga (which BTW is also based on the Q7 platform) . However, the Q7 also has no 2nd row walk through option, no spare tire, a tiny third row, and room for not two, not one, but
ZERO full-size suitcases behind the third row. (you can
fit two carry-on size suitcases back there) Add this all up, and it means the Navigator is the roomiest, quietest, smoothest ride for a vehicle with this kind of interior room.. and that's exactly what we need.
Very Quiet, Relaxed Ride. As far as ride quality, I find the Navigator (and Expedition) shut out exterior noise very well, and ride well for a car this big. On highway imperfections, the Lincoln seems to stay fairly upright, jostling more straight up and down and minimizing the bobble-head diagonal rocking that sometimes happens in these massive cars. However, in around town driving, there is no hiding the fact that, like the Escalade, this car is big and heavy. The Navigator comes in at 6000 lbs (Escalade 5800 lbs), so this car is not for spirited driving. If you want more zippy cornering, look at a smaller SUV with a lower stance, a minivan, or a
Volkswagon GTI.
Modern Smartphone Integration. For us, Android Auto and Apple Carplay are game changers. Built in navigation in most cars completely sucks compared to smartphones. Even if that isn't true for your car today, every year smartphones advance, while the nav installed in your car stays the same. The best experience we've had with this new smartphone integration is with touch-screen use in Ford and GM cars. Google voice recognition is so amazing, that Android Auto voice control of maps and text messaging is not only functional, it's fantastic. This is especially nice when driving solo. (CarPlay is also awesome, but Siri is not)
As far as I know, the only other 3rd row SUVs with touch-screen Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are the Honda Pilot and Acura MDX. Other brands are using wheels, joysticks, and other control gizmos. Toyota and Lexus models don't have it at all in 2018, because Toyota thought they were being smart by "defending their valuable dashboard real-estate" from smartphone companies. They have since caved and will put them in, but they are now several years behind.
Other Features. ■ We really like panoramic sunroofs. The Navigator has one, but it's certainly not alone in the segment. ■ I'm tall, so leg extenders really make seats more comfortable, and the premium front seats have them. ■ We like the new
'tip and slide' 2nd row seat design, making it quicker and easier for a big person to get into the 3rd row. ■ We like the classy monochromatic UI styling on the Sync-3 infotainment better than the gaudy colored Ford version of the same software. ■ For long trips, we like the fact that both the 2nd and 3rd row seats both recline. ■ It may seem small, but we really like that below the center console is a large open storage area for purses and bags, not just a closed box. ■ We really like the 360 degree top-down parking camera system, which makes parking such a large car less daunting. ■ We like that the car allows *four* key fobs to be programmed. Most other cars only allow two.
Worth mentioning, we intentionally did
NOT get the rear-seat entertainment. I don't see the sense in small screens in the seats that are quickly out of date, clunky to operate, and get in the way. Our kids love their iPads, and we can buy four or five more of them for the price of the rear-seat entertainment system (more if you use Android tablets).
What is Missing? No car is perfect. There are a few things that would make the Navigator a better car. Maybe someone at Ford/Lincoln will read this and take note.
(a) I wish the key was smaller, or they had an optional smaller design with no buttons. I know the car is big, but that doesn't mean my pockets are big, and the Navigator key-fob is ridiculously big. Plus, I probably will never use any of the buttons on the fob, because the car has proximity auto lock and unlock. Plus, the Lincoln Way app allows one to do do all the functions on the fob buttons with a smartphone.
(b) Of course the best size key would be no key. I wish they supported using a Bluetooth Smartphone as a car-key, as is done in the
Tesla 3, and will be done in the upcoming
Lincoln Aviator. In this day and age, there is just no reason we have to carry around car keys. You could even choose to require biometic login on the phone, making it more secure than a key. This might also work better with
driver profiles, as we constantly switch around who has which key, but we always have our own cellphones. In the event the phone is dead, the Navigator already has key-code door access you could use to get inside and either start the car by code, or charge your phone. Tesla provides a credit-card sized NFC-contact-fob you keep in your wallet as a backup if your phone dies.
(c) I wish they would make interior surfaces have the luxury feel and appearance of a European car like Audi and BMW. I think the design elements and shapes in the Navigator are great. However, I don't care for the shiny surfaces, and I'd opt for different color combos. I'd especially like to replace the
shiny and supposedly easily scratched black plastic around the heating controls (I'll probably apply some kind of matte black wrap if mine scratches up). I think making 60% of the shiny silver surfaces matte black, and turning the rest into matte aluminum would help. Also, use more soft touch textured black matte plastic. The Ebony leather should come with more subtle grey wood like in the Dark Slate trim, instead of the natural brown which is nicely finished but looks a bit dated for my taste. Maybe you could get this if special ordering. I think the Capuccino interior is the classiest, but my wife doesn't like brown and insists kids will ruin anything but black really fast.
Dark Slate (grey leather with grey wood)...
Ebony (black leather with natural wood)...
(d) GM SUVs have a convenience button on the driver armrest to control the rear-seat child locks, making it so convenient they are the only child locks I have ever used. The Ford child locks use the classic and inconvenient enables in the door jam.
(e) It seems like there should be a "Black Label" quality leather style which is actually black. Right now, Black Label is only available in powder blue, sand, and a red/brown. Ironic.
(f) I wish operating physical controls like volume and heat didn't show an overlay that covers the entire 11" infotainment for a few seconds. A little top-banner would have been fine.
(g) I wish all the vehicle settings available in the driver instrument config menus were also available in the 11" sync system, with some additional explanation. It's a bit confusing having to remember not only which settings category a setting is in, but also which system the setting is configured on. Tesla did a really good job here, by making their settings pages much more visual, and packing more settings onto fewer pages.
(h) I wish homelink garage buttons were operated through sync3, with a list of "named buttons" and not limited to 3. Tesla also did a really good job here.
For some excellent video presentations of the car, check out:
Notes About Other Cars
2018 Ford Expedition. Before I was able to see a Navigator, I was pretty close to buying an Expedition. In fact, the Expedition PLATINUM has the same features as the base level Navigator for $4000 less, and most of what I've written above applies to the Expedition as well. The things that sold us on the Navigator are the better exterior styling, better premium front seats with extending thigh support and massaging, storage under the center console, and a more classy UI theme on the SYNC infotainment. If you don't need premium features and you want to save a boatload of money, there are even Expedition XLT models without the SYNC 3 infotainment and navigation, which is not as big a loss as you might think, because unless you're in a Tesla or the new XC90, you are going to use your smartphone for navigation anyway. Buy a
Kenu Airframe+ to hold it.
GM Lambda platform (Traverse, Acadia, Enclave). Another decent choice is one of the Lambda platform cars. They have available 2nd row captains chair with a pass thru, and despite being a full eight inches shorter than the Navigator, 202 vs 210 inches, they actually have
more room behind the third row (24 vs 19 cu ft). However, this isn't magic, they have a less roomy 3rd row, and a compact spare tire. I think the GMC Acadia is the most attractive, followed by the Traverse, and the ugly-duckling Buick Enclave, though the latter offers the best luxury trim. None of them have a panoramic sunroof.
Toyota Sienna AWD. For a 3rd row AWD family hauler, this is a fantastic value. It has essentially the same interior room as the Navigator -- and it's 7 inches shorter, and 35-50% less money. The sliding side doors are both kid and parking lot friendly, and the lower center of gravity makes it ride a little more planted. The interior is not Luxury, but it's on par with the Ford Expedition interior, which is also more expensive. The main downsides are that it looks minivan ugly, uses run-flat tires with no spare, has notably more road noise, and has no Android Auto or Apple Carplay in 2018 (because Toyota was royally stupid). My wife objected to a minivan being able to handle snow, but the reality is the Sienna has 6 inches of ground clearance, which is only 2 inches less the Navigator's 8 inches. It has no panorama sunroof, but it does have a rear sunroof option in 2018.
Acura MDX. Is a pretty compelling option in a smaller footprint. It has reasonable levels of styling and luxury. It has available captains chairs, though the pass-through is quite small. It at least has a compact spare. And it has Android Auto and Apple Carplay. We find the ride a little stiff compared to the big domestics and the Europeans, but it's workable.
Lexus 450h L. Sometime mid-2018, Lexus is releasing a new 3rd row version of the excellent 450h. We love that car, because it's quiet and efficient, and the AWD version powers the rear wheels with electric motors, eliminating the compromises of a driveshaft running down the middle of the floor. In fact, it's downright perfect, except Toyota is dumb and tried to stay off the Android Auto and Apple Carplay bandwagons. They have caved now, but it'll take another few years before the tech shows up in their cars.
Audi Q7. We love love love driving this car, and we have several friends who own and love them. The ride is great. The interior is the best in the segment. The technology is great. I formerly had an Audi S4 and I love the brand. My wife loves the car. The exterior front styling is bland for my taste, but it's not bad. We could probably put up with the tiny 3rd row. However, it doesn't have available captains chairs with pass-thru, which is a deal breaker for our new dog. And it doesn't have a spare tire, which is a deal breaker for me. Sad face.
MB GLS. Before captains chairs became a must-have feature, I expected to buy this car based on the specs and reviews. However, I don't love it. My biggest issue is the front passenger side floorboard is very high and comes in at a funny angle that makes me, at 6'2", feel like I'm sitting in a leg-cramped kid seat. It doesn't help that the infotainment and dash controls look like they came out of a time-machine from the 1990s. However, the ride quality is one of the best, and with the off-road package the snow performance is matched only by Range Rover. There is no question this is a super solid luxury family hauler, as long as you're not a taller front seat passenger.
Note: If ground clearance is your thing, off-road air-suspension versions of the GLS and Range Rover can raise up to get around 12 inches of clearance. They are pretty hard to find on dealer lots, so you'll either need to be flexible on everything else, or special order.
Range Rover. (Sport, Velar, Discovery) Everyone agrees they are some of the sexiest SUVs out there (though the new Navigator has it's own burly huge stylishness). The interiors are "real luxury". They recently updated their infotainment, and it's possible they have the best snow and mud performance with or without the impressive off-road package. However, the third row only fits kids 8 and under for long trips, they don't have Android Auto or Apple Carplay, and they are by far the most expensive SUVs in the "regular" luxury market, coming in around 20% more than the Navigator. My wife wanted one, I didn't.
BMW X5. It is up there with Range Rover for curb appeal, and the interior luxury is every bit as good as Audi and RR. However, it has no spare tire, and we hate the ride on those horribly stiff run-flats. It fills every moment with vibration and makes any road blemish feel like a sizable hole. X5 lovers, that is not the tight road feel of a sports car, it's just bad tires! They also are playing the Apple-only game by offering only Carplay, not Android Auto. Android Auto voice recognition is light year ahead of everything else, and I'm an Android Guy. The third row is also so tiny I don't understand why they offer it. If you want this car, you should just go all the way and buy the X5M, which has neither a spare or run flats, and never drive it outside an urban area.
There are also a bunch of other 3rd row SUVs we didn't look too hard at, mostly because I would rather have a Sienna AWD or a Navigator... mid-size:
Toyota Highlander,
Ford Explorer,
Honda Pilot,
Hyundai Santa Fe .. and large size:
Toyota Sequoia,
Toyota Land Cruiser,
Cadallac Escalade.
