I rode around in a white 2005 (?) Lincoln Navigator last night…here are my quick thoughts:
- The leather was soft and comfortable without being too rubbery or too sticky. My friend has a Lexus RX and the leather always sticks to my skin when I exit the seat on a hot day. These seats didn’t do that. Plus, the style was medium-size ribs vertically down the center of the seat…which I think facilitates cooling.
- The suspension and road feel, considering I was stuck in the 3rd row, were excellent…very cushy. Normally I like a healthy spring-damp to my suspension but in a gigantic SUV, that’s not necessary or expected.
- The sound system was excellent. We listened to some heavy dance beats that would have daunted a weaker system with crappy bass.
- The design on the inside of the 2003-2006 Navigator was decidedly modern and rounded, which I like better than the ‘updated’ Navigator out now, that has a bunch of ugly retro touches. The one I was in last night had the silver-satin dash trim and all of the dash lights and gauges were bright-white backlit rather than the dreaded green.
- I would say my only gripe, aside from philosophical misgivings about oversized SUVs and having to buy gas twice a week, is that Ford corporate parts-bin sharing is very thinly veiled in almost all Ford products, even in the most expensive Lincolns. From the door switches to the odometer readout and the steering-wheel buttons and everything in between…there is so much going into new Ford vehicles that has been around since I was learning to drive on my mom’s 1999 Ford Explorer.
That isn’t to say that nothing they make now is truly new, but it just seems like Lincoln and Cadillac and Buick are all trying to play against BMW and Acura and Lexus, what with the endless stream of mediocre executive sedans and luxury crossovers…in the end, it’s the details that are such obvious giveaways to corporate governance and a not quite 100% committment to building a superior product.
I will say that I’ve yet to spend much time in a Cadillac product, so I shouldn’t bash too hard. And, my confidence in the traditional stalwarts of the aformentioned categories (like BMW, Mercedes, Audi) is waning as well, so maybe all car companies, American and other, are slowly moving toward a standard of build that just happens to be less-than-amazing. I guess time will tell.
In any case, the Navigator was a novelty for the evening and I enjoyed being driven around in it for a couple of hours. If only I didn’t care so much about poisoning the earth…I could probably afford a used one.
Thanks for reading 🙂
Photo: Lincoln
