Car Gazing
New Navigator: Excess at its finest
By Derek Price
Already one of the world's most excessive vehicles in terms of size and
luxury, Lincoln decided its Navigator wasn't quite good enough after
dominating the luxury-SUV market for four years. It trounced Cadillac,
smashed Land Rover, embarrassed Mercedes-Benz and spit in the face of Lexus
and Infinity on route to winning the hearts – and, more importantly, money
– of image-conscious suburbanites across America.
But that wasn't good enough.
So, Lincoln engineers hung up their "more of everything" banner as they set
out to completely redesign this poster child of conspicuous consumption for
2003. The result is a vehicle so big and luxurious it could be called the
Taj Mahal of American trucks, the crown jewel of SUVs, or simply the king of
the road.
While the Navigator's body appears very similar to last year's with its
beefy "I'm gonna run you over" stance, the interior is where the changes are
most obvious. It is – and I'm not exaggerating – the most stylish, highest
quality and most comfortable interior of any SUV available, including those
highly refined machines from Europe and Japan.
That's a bold statement, but it's true. Lincoln tripled its investment in
interior design in the past few years to better compete in a worldwide
market, and this all-new Navigator is the first result of that shift toward
soft colors, tasteful chrome and wood trim, stylish gauge faces and a
convenient dashboard layout.
A large display used to operate the climate control, entertainment and
navigation systems is the centerpiece of the Navigator's incredible cabin.
It isn't as easy to use as similar systems from Mercedes-Benz and other
high-end car makers, but it gets the job done with a bright, clear screen
that can be viewed from nearly any angle.
Fancy, power-adjustable leather seats can be heated and cooled for the
ultimate in roadgoing comfort, and an optional DVD player makes long trips a
joy for lucky back-seat passengers.
Other gee-whiz options include power-deployable running boards,
power-folding seats in the third row and a power liftgate. None of them are
really necessary, and truthfully, after a week of using all those doo-dads
in a loaded four-wheel-drive version, they were more useful for impressing
people than for their intended purpose. If that's what you're aiming for,
then buy them – but I can lift my own gate, thank you very much.
Little changed under the hood, as the 2003 Navigator uses the same 5.4-liter
V8 as last year to make 300 horsepower, way more than anybody needs. Still,
in a world where more is always better, it must be pointed out that
Cadillac's Escalade employs a 6.0-liter V8 to make a ridiculously huge 345
horses.
Other than the Caddy's horsepower trump card, the new Navigator wins in
virtually every way. It has a buttery smooth four-wheel independent
suspension, a new frame that's 70-percent stiffer than before, a
near-perfect automatic transmission, and a rack-and-pinion steering system
designed to feel like the one in the Lincoln LS sports sedan.
With all these great changes, why not plop $60,000 on the nearest dealer¹s
counter for a loaded Navigator?
Well, the most obvious problem is selfish gluttony, as it slurps an obscene
amount of gas (around 11 miles per gallon around town, 16 on the highway)
and its nearly three-ton weight that creates serious danger for lighter
vehicles in a wreck. It also doesn't stand out – at least on the outside –
as much as Cadillac's flashy Escalade, instead appearing like a gussied-up
version of the plebeian Ford Expedition.
If you can look past those drawbacks, it's hard not to like this study in
automotive excess. It's big, it's comfortable, it's exclusive, and it's
better than ever.
What more could you want?
(Derek Price is a newspaper editor and freelance writer living in Texas.
Contact him at dprice@cargazingonline.com)
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