Lincoln Shows Navigator Concept in New York

Gecko

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The Lincoln Navigator's demise has been greatly exaggerated, and nearly 20 years after it first revolutionized the luxury segment, a new generation of the iconic sport-utility vehicle will again point the way forward for the brand.

Previewed by a concept at the New York Auto Show, the new Navigator will hit showrooms next year joining the much-anticipated Continental sedan as Lincoln's twin flagships. The concept is "a very strong" hint of what the production Navigator will look like, Lincoln president Kumar Galhotra said.

He's referring to the general appearance of the tall concept, which is confident, creased, and a bit reminiscent of a Range Rover. There are huge wheels, lots of chrome, and "Navigator" spelled out in blocked capital letters over the fender vents. It runs a 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 making 400 horsepower and will ride on a new chassis, though Galhotra wouldn't offer more details.

Oh, and it has gullwing doors. The crowd audibly oohed and aahed when that feature was demonstrated at a preview event in New York, but those are purely for show. They won't be on the production model, Galhotra said, and they're meant to demonstrate the spacious cabin. "The nature of the vehicle is very important ... and it's a great way to showcase that interior," he said.

The inside of the concept is an interesting place. It has a rear cargo area that doubles as a closet, complete with shelves that make up a wardrobe management system, and there's a rail running down the middle of the passenger area. A multi-level running board cascades forward when the gullwing doors open, and the six seats are adjustable 30 ways. There are also wifi-equipped touchscreen monitors mounted in the seat backs.

Inside and out, the Navigator carries a nautical vibe. It's covered in a soft shade of blue paint, while the interior has blue leather and teak accents.

The Navigator concept features some of Ford's semi-autonomous technology, including pre-collision assist with pedestrian detection. The radar-and-camera-based system will look for obstacles in the vehicle's path, warn the driver, and then brake if needed. It also has a 360-degree camera and lane-keeping assist. Look for all of this on the production model.

Launched in 1997, the Navigator is one of the original all-American large luxury SUVs – the Cadillac Escalade didn't arrive until 1999. The Navigator received a refresh for the 2015 model year, but has largely languished as Lincoln refreshed and expanded the rest of its lineup. Lincoln sales are up 19 percent this year, but the Navigator has slipped 6.8 percent. Now Lincoln has decided it's time to remake one of its icons. "It is our most-recognized nameplate," Galhotra said. With gullwing doors, dramatic styling, and an elegant interior, the Navigator will also likely be one of the most talked-about vehicles at the New York show.

Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2016/03/23/lincoln-navigator-concept-new-york-official/#slide-3839567

Definitely got a bit of an Range Rover shape to it, but I'll be interested to see how this comes to production.
 

mikeavelli

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Cray to think Lincoln really was first with this segment and DOMINATED early only to let Caddy take it away and blow them away. This is long needed and to me would easily do well.
 

mmcartalk

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Cray to think Lincoln really was first with this segment and DOMINATED early only to let Caddy take it away and blow them away. This is long needed and to me would easily do well.


Not only that, but it is also interesting that, given that the Escalade was done off the full-size Chevy Silverado chassis, and the Navigator off of the Ford F-150 chassis, Chrysler never saw fit to do a competing full-size luxury SUV off of the Dodge Ram's chassis. For a luxury vehicle of this type, the Ram is already well ahead of its Ford and Chevy competition by giving a smooth, sedan-like ride.

Back to the Navigator concept, it looks like they used the Continental's new grille-theme, just like on the next version of the MKZ mid-size sedan.

Even though gull-wing doors are nice for getting in and out of the vehicle in tight spaces, I can understand not using them on the production version. Though not all of them have had problems, in general, gull-wings have had their share of quality-control glitches on the assembly-line......it is a difficult design to do correctly, for number of reasons.
 

CIF

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The styling is fairly generic inside and out. It's big, I'll give it that. Otherwise I don't really care for it much, although the 30-way seats sound amazing. They're trying to aim for LS or S-Class level luxury in an SUV. Commendable, but the key part is how much of this will make it to production. History so far has shown that Lincoln production models end up disappointing compared to concepts. The latest example being the disappointing Continental production car, versus the concept Continental.
 

IS-SV

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^ Lol, that will fix everything for Lincoln as it barely stays afloat...

Slightly OT, I predict "Lincoln" might end up being maybe just 2 (hopefully) premium models, not a marginal money-bleeding wannabe premium division in the future.
 
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Rydo

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The latest example being the disappointing Continental production car, versus the concept Continental.

Wow, what on earth can you have found disappointing about that? The production looked almost exactly like the concept.
 

Rydo

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^ Lol, that will fix everything for Lincoln as it barely stays afloat...

Slightly OT, I predict "Lincoln" might end up being maybe just 2 (hopefully) premium models, not a marginal money-bleeding wannabe premium division in the future.

Sorry to say your hopes have been dashed then, with incredible sales over in China and good sales in the US since their lineup actually looks good now.

I sense that there is a really big negative sentiment towards Lincoln over in the states - probably due to them clinging onto the ageing Town Car for so long to serve the geriatrics. But coming from a European perspective, these things look epic! I'd love one!
 

Ian Schmidt

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I sense that there is a really big negative sentiment towards Lincoln over in the states - probably due to them clinging onto the ageing Town Car for so long to serve the geriatrics. But coming from a European perspective, these things look epic! I'd love one!

In the US, people are down on Lincoln because it's been a low effort badge-engineering label for 50 years. It's not that the Town Car was what it was, it's that there was nothing to make it different from a vanilla Crown Vic. Even the Mercury Marauder version at least had some of the go-fast parts from the legendary Crown Vic Police Interceptor.
 

Rydo

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In the US, people are down on Lincoln because it's been a low effort badge-engineering label for 50 years. It's not that the Town Car was what it was, it's that there was nothing to make it different from a vanilla Crown Vic. Even the Mercury Marauder version at least had some of the go-fast parts from the legendary Crown Vic Police Interceptor.

I can understand that their image would be tarnished badly through that. But their vehicles now seem to be doing more than enough to make up for image.
 

Ian Schmidt

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They're making the effort on the visual design, especially the interiors. But the Aviator, arguably their most important model for the US market, had well-publicized quality issues for most of last fall (as did the Ford Explorer made on the same line).