2005 Lincoln Navigator Test Drive

Refining a Behemoth

Still comfortable and classy, Lincoln's pioneering luxury SUV is showing its age--and the future doesn't promise much change.

Writing about a car near the end of its cycle is a little bit like describing a baseball team entering the free agency period: It's all going to change soon anyway so why not wait until the team takes the field?

For one reason, as any baseball fan knows, a team is more than the sum of its parts. It is a continuum that is constantly trying to find the sweet spot between blending the best of the past with that of the future -- and to hopefully avoid repeating the more egregious mistakes. So it is with the Lincoln Navigator. By next July, Lincoln will be rolling out a new model for 2003  that is substantively different from the one now in showrooms. But it is instructive to consider the many advantages -- and some of the disadvantages -- of the 2002 Navigator before making a roughly $50,000 commitment on either model.

To begin with, ever since it was rolled out in 1998, the Navigator did something that few other American cars have ever done before, let alone successfully: It took a brand that was known for one thing -- in this case big luxury cars -- and translated it into something  significantly different -- big luxury SUVs. Imagine, for example, if Jeep announced tomorrow that it was going to produce a top-of-the-line sports car and you get the idea.

Of course, these days every car company outside the former Eastern bloc is offering, or rushing to offer, an SUV. And it's easy to see why: SUVs have proven to be the most profitable new source of revenue for the automotive industry since the introduction of the V-8 engine. And Lincoln managed to pull it off with almost paradoxical -- given the elephantine size of the Navigator -- grace and finesse.

To long-time fans of Lincoln, this should have come as no surprise, as the company has been making some of the best big cars in the world since 1920. What was such a surprise, though, was that they would have the vision to realize that by grafting their badge onto a SUV they would be able to redefine how consumers viewed the once-staid carmaker and imbue it with a new sense of sex appeal and cool that most of their rivals could only dream about.

Still, the Navigator now has more competition, most recently from long-time rival Cadillac in the form of the newer Escalade, as well as from Japanese and European luxury carmakers such as Range Rover, Mercedes Benz and Lexus. Also, in some ways, the bloom is off the rose: When any radically new car comes, customers rush to buy because of novelty value and bragging rights. Now that the Navigator has been around for a few years, it's on the threshold of maturing from enjoying the status that comes with originality to becoming an established brand that can stand up on its merits.

To that end, Lincoln must continue to evolve the Navigator -- and that's why the success of the 2003 redesign is so crucial. They are already blazing new trails by rolling out the $52,500 Blackwood pickup truck (and although they recently decided to mothball the Continental, expect a new version of this venerable car by 2004). By giving a last, hard look at the 2002 model, prospective buyers can determine whether for the 2003 Navigator past is prelude, or just passed by.