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Lincoln's got a score to settle.
You see 20 years ago, in 1997, they invented the category of the giant luxury SUV with the Navigator.
Two years later, the Cadillac Escalade came along.
But a thousand music videos and a few million Uber black rides later and everyone thinks Escalade in this category.
Hence the all new, rather tasty, 2018 Navigator.
It's a stand out.
Let's get a first look.
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The 18 navigator bears an unusually strong resemblance to the concept version, minus the gull wing doors of course.
It comes in standard and long versions, the latter adding a full foot in length, and all of it goes to the cargo bay in the way back.
Either length is hauled around by either rear or all wheel drive.
Now if you checked out the new Lincoln Continental with me recently, you see a lot of the same queues here in the new Navigator.
You got a lot of the same switch gear, the finely [UNKNOWN] knobs.
I like this nice clean laid back console, less claustrophobia, less being encapsulated in tech.
But there is plenty of it.
Right in front of you, the 12-inch LCD instrument panel.
But notice, it is kind of spartan.
It does not jam you up with tons of read-outs, and information and numerals.
It is kind of quiet; it tells you just what you need to know, to an extreme actually.
Now this big boy gets your attention.
It does not move or pop up, though it looks like it does.
But there is your center head stack unit, and that is going to be another large display with great touch response.
It's running SYNC 3, skinned a little differently for Lincoln, but what I also like is if you notice the touch response is right time the first time.
It seems to be really nicely calibrated.
Now, if you don't want to use SYNC 3 for all the different apps it does, you can just plug in your phone and you're going to have Android auto or car play.
And Android auto and car play standard across every trim level of this new navigator.
Now of course you could use your voice button here on the wheel to drive either and/or a daughter or into SYNC3 but the thing you'll be able to do soon is drive Amazon Alexa.
This will tie into your Alexa account by late 2017.
Maybe by the time you see this video and you'll be able to use that to pull up media in the car or to control smart devices in your home.
Starting to stitch the home and the car together and Ford was one of the first companies to announce that, this Navigator one of the first cars to get it.
Now, to run this thing, you've obviously got push button start and then you go to the gears.
They're right down here in what Lincoln calls the piano keys, and they're piano keys.
They're real simple.
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And it's just park, reverse, neutral, and drive.
Everything else beyond that is over here in this drive mode controller.
And we've seen these before in other vehicles.
But this one does an unusual job of giving you these sort of animations and almost photo/video descriptions of the mode you're about to enter.
And one last thing borrowed from Continental are these guys.
Thirty way power adjustable seats.
You could sit there half the afternoon one weekend and get them set up right and once you do, don't loose the settings, right?
So they've got these profiles.
Profiles that are attached to the key that you use.
Up to three drivers can have a complete dossier, if you will, of their seat settings, pedals, where the wheel is for tilt and such, the music that they like, the climate control settings, you name it.
The second and third rows go flat with the push of a couple of buttons in the way back.
But that second row island console isn't going anywhere.
So no plywood for you.
Like the posh people who buy one these would even know what to do with a sheet of plywood.
Now you guys may know that I normally hate rear seat entertainment systems cuz they're normally based on dumb stuff like DVDs.
But not this one, you've got USB and HDMI of course.
But look at this, a couple of choices for casting from your mobile device, now that's smart.
And built-in Sling player software, in case you've got a Sling box at home.
And if you just wanna use this thing as a charger, you've got the ability to do a nice, fast charge off it's USB port.
Thank you.
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Okay, under way, Lincoln promised me I was gonna be delighted on how this car feels lighter than it looks, cuz they know I'm really in to that.
And they held their promise.
It is basically a lighter feeling vehicle than you expect getting into it for the first time.
One engine choice that's the corporate three and a half liter twin turbo V6 here doing 450 horse and 510 pound feet of torque, always going out to a 10 speed automatic to move nearly 5900 pounds of Navigator.
While burning a gallon of gas every 18 miles or so in all-wheel drive.
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I love this one called Excite.
It's their sport mode, but it really brings the vehicle to life but doesn't turn the vehicle into a Jack Russel Terrier.
A couple fo things I don't like, whenever you turn the fan knob, or the volume knob, it announces it with an onscreen takeover.
Don't do that.
I know I turned them.
And my ears or my face can tell me if I've got them set right.
The Navigator has a good complement of today's modern driver assist and they all seemed well calibrated.
But it's not a showcase of what's next in partial autonomy.
In summit does feel distinctive in here from other big luxury SUVs.
There's a certain link in this to it, I think the cabin trim is working on me to be honest but.
It feels like it's got some real refinement and you never think truck.
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In sum, the Navigator is a definitely now as flossy as the Escalade.
It gets its power from a smarter place and borrows interior guts from the Continental I want more time with one though, to decide if the standard driving mode you'll typically use is smooth or a little numb, and to try out the coming Alexa integration.
Pricing starts at 73, but a black label 4x4 equipped like ours pushes a 100.
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