If the $80,000 Navigator is Lincoln's flagship — an SUV that's massive, powerful, a force of the road — then the lineage to its smaller sibling, the $51,000 Aviator, is clear. .
The Aviator is now in its second generation.
The Aviator is a step down in size and price from the Navigator, a step up in size and price from the $41,000, two-row Lincoln Nautilus, and classified as a midsize luxury SUV. .
The Aviator loaner that Lincoln dropped off for me was painted in a shade of Magnetic Gray Metallic and had Ebony-colored leather seats.
It was in the Grand Touring AWD trim, which sits in between the $56,000 Reserve Aviator trim and the top-tier, $88,000 Black Label Grand Touring trim.
The base price of the Aviator Grand Touring AWD comes to $68,800, but Lincoln included a $14,950 package called the "Equipment Group 302A," which consisted of the Luxury Package, a trailer tow package, the Dynamic Handling Package, and 21-inch premium painted aluminum wheels.
The Aviator wears the same studded grille as the rest of Lincoln's models — a relief from the hated waterfall grille that dominated Lincoln's corporate fascia in the 2000s.
If you get the Aviator in either of the Grand Touring trims, you'll also have a plug-in hybrid powertrain: An electric motor, on its own making a claimed 75 kilowatts, paired with a twin-turbocharged, 3.0-liter V6.
The standard twin-turbocharged V6 on all of the other Aviator trims offers considerably less: a claimed 400 horsepower and 415 pound-feet of torque.
The Aviator is no pixie, either.
It's big — big to fit on large American highways, sweeping American avenues, and grand American boulevards.
In Grand Touring AWD trim, it weighs 5,673 pounds — roughly two Honda Civics. .
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration awarded the Aviator an overall five-star rating, the highest it offers.
The first thing you notice after climbing into the Aviator and shutting the door is how quiet it is inside.
The doors close with a rich but muffled thump and then — nothing.
The optional Adaptive Suspension system, which my loaner came with, uses 12 different sensors to monitor its own motion, body movement, steering, acceleration, and braking.
Lincoln says the sensors can read the road 500 times per second and will adjust the settings up to 100 times per second.
But too soon you'll learn your right foot is the key to flipping the switch between calm and docile to bullish, heavyweight power.
The second will fire the coiled and flexed muscles lurking just beneath the conservative skin.
I have yet to find an electronically assisted power steering system that I actually like.
Almost all modern cars use assisted steering — or power steering — a term here that means that the car has a system that cuts down on the effort required to turn the steering wheel, thus making it easier to steer. .
There are three kinds of power steering: hydraulically assisted, electro-hydraulic, or electronically assisted.
Electronically assisted power steering systems use an electric motor to help with the steering, rather than a hydraulic system
Most of them, like Lincoln, calibrate low-speed steering feel with far too little resistance to feel natural — they wind up feeling very artificial.
Several times, I, misjudging the resistance of the wheel, jerked it too hard in one direction, overshot how much steering input was needed, and had to correct it
The Lincoln Aviator is a luxury SUV, which means there is no shortage of competition.
I sat in all six seats my Aviator loaner had to offer
The best seats by far are the front and middle-row seats
I've already gone on at length about how great the car drives, so my final thought here will be one of relief — relief that Lincoln finally had the sense to switch its lineup from tacky and confusing alphanumeric names — MKZ, MKX, MKT, MKC — to regular, identifiable names.
Committing to one singular idea — in this case, unquestionable luxury and quality — is key
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