For 2022, Lincoln’s full-size Navigator SUV gets dressed up with new styling and a significant technology update, including hands-free driving.
The update is a mid-cycle refresh, not a redesign from the ground up. Lincoln has not yet announced pricing. The 2021 Navigator starts at $76,705, plus a destination fee of $1,295. But Lincoln sells very few Navigators at base price. The company says the average price paid for a 2021 edition was $91,983, with the high-end Black Label editions making up a high percentage of sales.
Lower on Power for Better Mileage
Mechanically, little has changed. But reviewers have always been happy with the Navigator’s twin-turbo V6 and unobtrusive 10-speed automatic transmission. Lincoln has retuned the engine, robbing it of a bit of horsepower (it still gets a healthy 440) to get an unspecified improvement in fuel economy.
A new adaptive suspension uses front-facing digital cameras to read the road ahead and adjust suspension damping to meet changing road conditions.
New Design Themes
Outside, thin new pixel projector headlights frame a grille with new chrome accents. The light bar across the liftgate is narrower, as are new taillights.
The top-of-the-line Black Label package now comes in four themes. Chalet and Yacht Club carry over from last year. Central Park is new. It features Manhattan Green paint and open-pore dark walnut with laser-etched maps of Manhattan’s famous park cut into the trim. Invitation features rare Khaya wood with geometric laser etchings that Lincoln says “imparts a welcome feel to an intimate celebration.”
Hands-Free Driving and Alexa
But the show-stopper is the technology update.
The Navigator is the first vehicle to offer ActiveGlide – Lincoln’s version of Ford’s hands-free Blue Cruise driving tech. It allows drivers to take their hands from the wheel on 130,000 miles of pre-mapped highway. The vehicle will stay in its lane and keep an appropriate distance from the car ahead without driver intervention. Cameras monitor the driver’s attention, prompting them to take the wheel as needed.
Lincoln Enhance over-the-air software updates, the automaker says, will “bring the latest system and modem technologies and improvements to the new Navigator. The updates install new features and conduct preventative maintenance to reduce repair trips and improve performance, allowing Navigator to get even better over time.”
Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant comes built into the fourth-generation Sync infotainment system. Drivers can use Alexa voice commands to play music, get directions, check traffic, manage smart home devices, find parking, pay for gas, and more for up to three years before monthly fees kick in.
Class of 2022: All the New and Redesigned Cars, Trucks, and SUVs
