Lincoln seeks to claw back share with redesigned Navigator SUV

Lincoln is giving its flagship Navigator SUV a more luxurious, high-tech cabin featuring a large, panoramic display plus exterior design upgrades in a bid to claw back share in the competitive large utility segment.

The redesigned 2025 Navigator, scheduled to go on sale next spring, features a 48-inch panoramic display, in-vehicle scents and a rear split gate for tailgating or more easily storing cargo. The display, extending nearly pillar to pillar and flanked by two speakers, can be used while driving to show speed, navigation, weather and music. With the vehicle parked, customers can activate an optional "rejuvenate" mode that projects relaxing images — such as a waterfall or the northern lights — and combines with massaging seats, ambient lighting and the in-car scents to create a spa-like environment.

Although Lincoln debuted the feature in the 2024 Nautilus, the Navigator is the first to get unique rejuvenate themes in a new partnership with wellness app Calm.

"Our goal is that when you get into a Lincoln you just don't want to get out of it," Lincoln President Dianne Craig told Automotive News ahead of the redesigned flagship's Aug. 15 reveal at Monterey Car Week.

The Navigator was among the industry's first premium full-size SUVs and helped Lincoln capture the U.S. luxury sales crown in 1998, prompting rivals to introduce their own big family-haulers. U.S. sales last year were less than half of the nameplate's 1998 peak of 43,859, and in the first half of 2024 the Navigator has been outpaced by new entrants such as the Jeep Grand Wagoneer.

While the large utility segment represents a relatively small portion of overall luxury sales, Craig said it is "really important" that the brand maintain a competitive flagship product.

"It's an important segment we're going to continue to invest in," she said.

For years, the Navigator's appeal has centered around the cabin.

"People buy it because it's big and they buy it because of the interior," said Earl Lucas, the Navigator's exterior designer.

To that end, designers overhauled the interior with the 48-inch screen and changed the steering wheel shape to help customers see the panoramic display better.

The center screen has been downsized to 11.1 inches and sits below the horizontal dashboard line. The SUV retains its horizontal, "piano key" shift buttons and adds a crystal-like volume knob. Heated, ventilated and massaging front-row seats are a standard offering.

Lincoln intends to use the panoramic display as the centerpiece of what Craig refers to as "warm, human" experiences, including the rejuvenate modes. "It's something that Lincoln can uniquely own," she said.

The changes extend to the second row, where Lincoln offers optional powered captain's chairs that also are heated and ventilated and massage-capable. Black Label trim levels offer an optional wireless charging pad on the second-row console.

The third row is what Lincoln calls a 40/20/40 folding bench that enables customers to store large objects while still allowing for two passengers.

The Navigator features a new grille with a horizontal light bar, a feature the brand has added as it redesigns nameplates. The exterior has satin aluminum accents instead of chrome, Lucas said.

The design is meant to continue the pattern found on Lincoln's recent generations that focuses on understated elegance as opposed to the more aggressive looks used by some rivals.

"We are not bold and flashy," Craig said. "We're more about 'when you know, you know.' And that is true luxury."

The main draw could be at the rear with the new split gate. Three-quarters of it lifts up like usual, but the bottom section acts like a pickup tailgate. Customers can open one without the other to help keep stored items from rolling out, or open both to use the rear as a seating area.

The Navigator comes with standard four-wheel drive and is powered by a twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6 engine that generates 440 hp and 510 pound-feet of torque.

Lincoln is cutting the entry-level Premiere trim level for 2025, whittling the Navigator lineup down to Reserve and Black Label, as well as extended-length L variants of each. The redesigned model offers two new Black Label themes — Atmospheric and Enlighten.

Lincoln officials said they would disclose pricing details closer to when order banks open in October but that the SUV would start at less than $100,000.