2022 Lincoln Navigator

2022 is the fourth generation's mid-cycle refresh year and the year Lincoln restated output at 440 hp, down 10 hp from the 450 hp quoted for 2018–2021 after the twin-turbo 3.5L V6 was slightly detuned for emissions/fuel economy. Every trim — Standard, Reserve and Black Label — gets the same engine; there is no optional powertrain, so the volume Reserve and the range max are the same number.

Torque was untouched by the 2022 refresh — 510 lb-ft at just 3,000 rpm is at the top of the full-size SUV field and is what makes a near-6,000-lb Lincoln feel effortless from rest and while towing.

Three independent instrumented runs on 2022 cars bracket the figure: MotorTrend 5.8 s and MotorWeek 5.9 s on 4x4 Black Labels, with a quicker 5.3 s attributed to Car and Driver. Edmunds later recorded 5.6 s on the mechanically identical 2023. The 5.3 s outlier is close to Car and Driver's 5.2 s for the more powerful 450-hp 2021 car and looks optimistic for a 440-hp 2022, so ≈5.7 s is used as the representative figure for the volume Reserve rather than any single test.

The twin-turbo V6 is quiet, essentially lag-free off the line and pulls hard through the midrange — reviewers repeatedly call the thrust surprising for a vehicle of this mass. What keeps it out of the top band is character rather than capability: it lacks the effortless sound and delivery of the Escalade's 6.2L V8, and the 10 hp given up for 2022 does nothing to help that comparison.

The 10-speed automatic is better sorted here than in lighter Ford applications — professional reviews describe smooth shifts and sensible ratio selection, without the gear-hunting the same unit can show elsewhere. Owner reports on refresh-year cars are more mixed, citing abrupt engagement into gear and a whine in reverse, and the dash-button shifter offers no manual mode worth using; both hold it just below the 2023 car's rating.

Properly equipped with the Heavy-Duty Trailer Tow Package — optional on Reserve and Black Label, adding enhanced cooling, an integrated trailer brake controller and trailer sway control — the standard-wheelbase 4x2 is rated 8,700 lbs, near the top of the full-size luxury SUV class. The 4x4 most buyers order drops to 8,300 lbs, the long-wheelbase L to 8,400/8,100 lbs, and an unequipped car to the 6,200 lbs most base spec sheets quote.

4x4 is a genuine two-speed system — a BorgWarner 4417 transfer case with a 2.64:1 low range plus selectable Lincoln Drive Modes including Slippery, Deep Conditions and Slow Climb — and it is standard on Black Label and Black Label L. It is still only a $2,700–$3,000 option on Standard and Reserve, however, where full-size luxury rivals (X7, GLS, LX, QX80) make all-wheel drive standard, and rear-wheel drive remains the base configuration.

Roughly 9.7 in of ground clearance, a low-range transfer case and a Deep Conditions terrain mode give real light-duty ability on snow, sand and unimproved roads, and the geometry (22.8° approach / 20.7° departure / 20° breakover) is respectable for a road SUV. But there is no locking differential, no skid plating and no off-road trim in the 2022 range, the volume car rides on 22-inch wheels with street tires, and the Slow Climb mode that engages 4x4 Low requires both 4x4 and the Heavy-Duty Trailer Tow Package — a snow-and-gravel SUV, not a trail vehicle.

One engine, one transmission, no electrification anywhere in the 2022 range: every Navigator is the 440 hp 3.5L twin-turbo V6 with the 10-speed automatic, and the only drivetrain decision is 4x2 versus 4x4. The 2022 refresh added BlueCruise and a 13.2-inch screen but changed nothing about what is available under the hood, while contemporary rivals offered V8s, a diesel (Escalade), hybrids or full-EV siblings.

2022 is the fourth generation's mid-cycle refresh year, but the refresh was screens and driver assistance — a 13.2-inch center display and BlueCruise — not powertrain: the 3.5L twin-turbo V6 and 10-speed automatic carry over and EPA rates the 2022 car identically to 2021 and 2023. Eighteen combined sits near the floor of the SUV band, which is what a body-on-frame full-size luxury SUV costs even with aluminum bodywork.

Auto stop-start and direct injection hold city economy at 16 MPG, a point behind the mechanically related Ford Expedition on the same 4x4 drivetrain — the Navigator carries more weight and a higher-output tune.

Twenty-two highway is the Navigator's best case and still sits near the bottom of the SUV band — the aluminum body helps, but frontal area and a 10-speed geared for an 8,700-lb tow rating cap it.

The large 23.6-gallon tank partly offsets the thirst, giving a mid-pack cruising range despite class-worst economy; the long-wheelbase Navigator L's 27.8-gallon tank stretches it past 500 miles.

At EPA's standard 15,000 mi/yr the Navigator burns roughly 830 gallons, putting annual fuel spend near the top of the SUV cost band — one of the most expensive vehicles in the catalog to feed, even on regular.

EPA classifies the 2022 Navigator as a regular-gasoline vehicle, so 87 octane is permitted and premium is not required — but the refresh-year 440 hp / 510 lb-ft rating is quoted on premium, and the engine pulls timing on 87, so owners chasing full output pay a premium-fuel penalty on an already large annual fuel bill. That is squarely the 'recommended but not required' band. It sits below the mechanically related Ford Expedition deliberately: Ford quotes the Expedition's lower-output tune of the same 3.5L on regular, so its rated power costs nothing extra at the pump.

NHTSA did not run a frontal test on the Navigator for 2022, the facelift year, so the 2022 carries no overall star rating despite being fully side-tested at 5 stars. The 2022 refresh was a styling, screen and driver-assist update to the unchanged fourth-generation U554 body (2018–2024), which earned 5 stars overall in every year it was fully tested, 2018 through 2021.

IIHS has never rated the fourth-generation Navigator — no ratings page exists for 2022 or any other year of it — and its structural twin the Ford Expedition, which shares the T3 platform, aluminum body, cabin and doors, posts Marginal in both small-overlap front tests and in the updated moderate-overlap test. Untested with well-documented structural concerns lands in the bottom band, held a notch above the Expedition only because the Navigator's own results are unconfirmed rather than confirmed poor, and because the shared body's side and NHTSA frontal results are strong.

The 2022 refresh made Lincoln Co-Pilot360 2.0 and Co-Pilot360 2.0 Vision standard on all three trims including the base Standard, bundling pre-collision assist with AEB and pedestrian detection, BLIS with cross-traffic alert, lane-keeping, full-speed intelligent adaptive cruise with stop-and-go and lane centering, speed sign recognition, intersection assist, evasive steering assist and a 360-degree camera. Nothing in the core suite is locked behind a trim walk, which is unusually generous for the full-size luxury class — only the hands-free layer is a paid upgrade.

The Navigator has no IIHS front crash prevention rating for 2022; the mechanically identical Expedition, running the same Ford camera/radar AEB stack, rates only Marginal on the tougher vehicle-to-vehicle evaluation while rating Good for pedestrian detection. Adequate real-world capability with a weak result on the current vehicle-to-vehicle protocol, helped slightly by the standard intersection assist and evasive steering assist the 2022 refresh made fleet-wide.

BLIS with cross-traffic alert is standard on every 2022 trim rather than optional, and trailer-aware blind-spot coverage is available with the Co-Pilot360 2.0 Towing package — appropriate for an 8,000+ lb tow rating. Coverage is alert-based rather than steering-intervening, and there is no safe-exit alert for rear passengers, which keeps it at the bottom of the top band.

Lane-keeping is standard and lane centering arrives standard bundled with the intelligent adaptive cruise, so even the base Standard buyer gets full functionality — but the 2022 calibration is the weak one. Without an HD GPS receiver the system cannot pin the car to a specific lane when flanked by traffic, producing visible steering oscillation on straight highway, and reviewers testing this model year found it cutting in and out and struggling in curves, traffic transitions and construction zones. Later years fixed this behavior on the same hardware.

Full-speed-range intelligent adaptive cruise with stop-and-go, lane centering and speed sign recognition is standard on every 2022 trim including the base — unusual generosity in the full-size luxury class, and the main reason this scores well. It sits below the top band because road tests of this model year found rough brake and throttle modulation in stop-and-go traffic and an unsettled combined highway-assist stack, both of which improved in later years.

2022 is the year ActiveGlide arrived, but as a paid upgrade — the Co-Pilot360 2.0 Drive package on the Reserve and Black Label trims only, with no path to it on the base Standard, where later years made it an option. It covers ~130,000 miles of prequalified divided highway with a driver-facing attention camera, but this first release could not change lanes, ran a notably strict four-second attention window, and shut off in construction zones, in tunnels, above 80 mph and while towing. Reviewers placed it clearly second to Super Cruise.

No IIHS headlight rating exists for any Navigator of this generation. The hardware is good on paper — adaptive pixel projector LED lamps with speed-dependent illumination and auto high beam listed from the base trim — but nothing independent verifies it, the Marginal-rated Expedition lamp is the closest proxy, and this specific model year was recalled for headlight control module software that could kill the side marker and daytime running lamps and required the headlights to be recalibrated. Mid-band on unverified-but-decent equipment, with a real 2022-specific defect against it.

Tall seating position, deep side glass and a large greenhouse give genuinely good sightlines for a vehicle this size, and the 360-degree camera made standard across the range with the 2022 refresh compensates well in tight spaces. Thick windshield pillars create a real forward blind zone, and the sheer length still demands the cameras when parking.

Cars.com's car-seat check graded the 2022 Navigator A for LATCH access in both the second and third rows and A for third-row access, with anchors easy to find and use throughout and power running boards easing the step-in height for children. Two real limits keep it out of the top of the band: the captain's-chair layout cannot take three car seats across, and fixed third-row head restraints interfere with high-back booster fit back there.

The volume 2022 Reserve trim arrives with second-row captain's chairs — for 2022 newly available as wide heated/ventilated massaging buckets — for seven-passenger seating; the 40/20/40 second-row bench is the alternate configuration and takes it to eight.

First-row headroom of 41.8 in on the standard-wheelbase 2022 Navigator — near the top of the SUV band, a product of the boxy T3-platform roofline carried through the 4th generation.

43.9 in of first-row legroom sits high in the SUV band though short of the Escalade's 45.2 in; unchanged by the 2022 refresh, which altered electronics and trim rather than the body.

Second-row headroom of 40.0 in reaches the top of the SUV normalization band — the upright greenhouse of the aluminum-bodied 4th-generation car pays off here.

The power tilt-and-slide second row yields well over 42 in of legroom, above the top of the SUV band and clear of both the Escalade's 41.7 in and its own Expedition platform-mate's 41.5 in.

Corrected on re-score: the 40.9 in of third-row legroom previously cited here is the long-wheelbase Navigator L's figure — the standard-wheelbase car scored as the volume configuration has 36.1 in, alongside 37.3 in of headroom. That is still among the best third rows in the full-size luxury class (the Escalade SWB manages 34.9 in) and is genuinely adult-usable with standard power recline, power fold-flat and a power tilt/slide second row for access, but 36.1 in is medium-trip room for a six-footer rather than the all-day space the older figure implied, and the high load floor still leaves knees raised.

57.5 cu ft behind the second row with the third row folded on the standard wheelbase is the weakest measured dimension in this category — the Escalade SWB manages 72.9 cu ft — and reflects space traded to the class-leading third row scored above.

103.4 cu ft with the PowerFold second and third rows dropped clears the top of the SUV band and leaves a near-flat floor.

Strong conventional storage — large floating console with underfloor bins and a standard wireless charging pad, illuminated cupholders, six USB ports and a 110V/150W household outlet, deep door pockets, and a tiered cargo management system with a four-way configurable partition — but nothing genuinely inventive: the split gate and Cargo Tailgate Manager only arrive with the 2025 redesign.

24-way Perfect Position front seats standard on the volume Reserve (30-way with new-for-2022 massage patterns on Black Label), plus heated and ventilated second-row seating with massaging captain's chairs available — among the best long-haul seating in the class. Docked for the fiddly adjustment process reviewers repeatedly flag, and because the base Standard trim's seats are a real step down.

The adaptive suspension with camera-based Road Preview reads the pavement 50 ft ahead 500 times a second and dispatches sharp impacts better than most rivals, but reviewers consistently report excessive body motion over long undulations and extra impact harshness from the volume trim's 22-inch wheels — plush in a straight line, loosely tied down over swells, and still without the air springs the Escalade offers.

Active Noise Control, acoustic-laminated glass and heavy sound deadening make this one of the quieter full-size SUVs at highway speed; scored on reviewer consensus rather than instrumented dBA data, which is why it is not rated higher.

Comfort equipment on the volume Reserve is close to fully standard: heated and ventilated front and second-row seats, a second-row 5.8-in touchscreen for those seats' own climate controls (new for 2022), heated steering wheel, tri-zone climate with rear controls and vents, panoramic power sunroof with powered shade, illuminated power-retractable running boards and remote start. Held just short of the top of the band because the 30-way massaging front seats remain a Black Label item and second-row massage is an extra-cost captain's-chair upgrade.

The 2022 Navigator's entry Standard trim lists at $77,635 in rear-drive, and Lincoln's $1,695 destination charge brings the delivered entry price to $79,330 — far beyond the $25,000–$65,000 SUV band ceiling, so this reference item bottoms out.

Reserve is the volume 2022 Navigator trim, and in the four-wheel-drive configuration most full-size luxury SUV buyers choose it lists at $92,525 plus $1,695 destination = $94,220 — roughly $26,000 past the top of the $27,000–$68,000 SUV band.

A blend of the published estimates, which disagree by a factor of three: CarEdge's $4,380 prices scheduled service only, while Edmunds' True Cost to Own split adds real repair spend for a 6,000-lb SUV on 22-inch tires with air-assisted adaptive suspension and a twin-turbo V6, and the truth sits between them. Same figure as the mechanically identical 2023 car — the 2022 refresh changed screens and driver assists, not the service-cost drivers.

The Navigator is one of the fastest-depreciating full-size luxury SUVs and 2022 cars now have four years of real market data behind them: a 2022 Reserve averaging ≈$47,900 against a $94,220 delivered MSRP is ≈51% at four years, and the class's year-4-to-year-5 decay lands the five-year figure in the mid-40s — a touch above the 2023 car's 42% because 2022 stock sold into a stronger used market and is one year further from the fifth-generation redesign's shadow.

Lincoln's New Vehicle Limited Warranty runs 4 years or 50,000 miles — a year longer than mainstream Ford coverage and squarely mid-pack among luxury rivals, landing at the midpoint of the 3–5 year band.

Powertrain coverage on the 440-hp 3.5L twin-turbo V6 and 10-speed automatic is 6 years or 70,000 miles — near the bottom of the 5–10 year band, and the 70,000-mile cap will expire well before the sixth year for most full-size SUV owners.

Lincoln includes no complimentary scheduled maintenance on the Standard or Reserve volume trims — no free oil changes at any point — which caps this below the top band, but what is included is substantive: Lincoln Pickup & Delivery with a complimentary Lincoln loaner for the whole 4-year/50,000-mile warranty period, and 24/7 roadside assistance. Scored two points under the otherwise-identical 2023 car because ActiveGlide and its three-year connected-service plan were an option package on the 2022 Reserve (requiring built-in navigation) rather than standard equipment on the volume trim.

$94,220 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (44% retained, or about $41,457) leaves about $52,763 in depreciation. Add the projected $8,200 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $60,963 in total.

Mid-pack at best: 2022 is the fourth generation's refresh year — new 13.2-inch SYNC-based screen, 12-inch cluster and first-year ActiveGlide — and owner complaints on it cluster squarely in the electronics that changed, at three times the volume the settled 2023 car generated. The dependability study that actually surveys this model year puts Lincoln below the industry average.

Lincoln sits below the industry dependability average across study cycles and has done so for years, though it was improving faster than nearly any other brand around this model year and was above average on 90-day initial quality — mid-pack with an upward trend, not bottom-third.

Fourteen NHTSA recalls, twelve of them substantive, and the pattern is worse than the count alone: three separate campaigns exist only because an earlier remedy did not work, and the defects reach engine stalling, brake-line damage, seat belts that will not retract, and loss of the rearview camera together with pre-collision and lane-keeping assist. This is the heaviest recall load of any fourth-generation Navigator year.

The 3.5L twin-turbo EcoBoost V6 and 10R80 ten-speed are a very high-volume Ford family shared with the F-150 and Expedition, so expertise and parts are everywhere, but the combination has documented weak points rather than a clean high-mileage record — and 2022 adds a fuel-delivery stall recall of its own on top of the family's transmission history.

One of the strongest cabins in the full-size luxury class for the money, and the 2022 refresh improved it — open-pore wood across the instrument panel, real leather, satin-nickel switchgear, 30-way front seats with new massage patterns, and two new Black Label themes. It stops short of class-leading only where reviewers say it does not quite reach the European benchmarks.

Physical assembly is solid and Lincoln beat the industry on 90-day initial quality for this exact model year, but the refresh's new electronics are where owners get bitten — the complaint file for 2022 is dominated by screens, modules and first-year ActiveGlide behavior rather than by panel gaps or rattles.

Coverage in this model year was still reasonably broad — the deep consolidation had begun but had not yet cut the network in half — and most Lincoln stores share service operations with a Ford dealer, while complimentary Pickup & Delivery with a loaner removes the trip entirely for in-warranty owners.

Mechanically it is an Expedition/F-150 underneath, so hard parts and independent-shop expertise are abundant and cheap by luxury standards — but the Lincoln-specific content (air suspension, power running boards, 30-way seats, 22-inch tires, the large displays) is dealer-priced, and measured annual repair spend lands in the expensive tier with an above-average chance that a repair is a severe one.

The 13.2-inch center display is the headline of the 2022 mid-cycle refresh and, unusually, is standard on all three trims rather than a trim-walk item — there is no larger option, so the volume Reserve and the range-topping Black Label get the same screen.

SYNC 4 on the 13.2-inch panel is a substantial step up from the 2021 car's SYNC 3 — quick, cleanly laid out, with a persistent split-screen card structure and cloud-connected search, and reviewers single out its graphics and responsiveness. It sits below the class best because deeper vehicle and climate settings live inside the screen with few hard shortcuts, and the piano-key transmission buttons and touch-sensitive surrounds take acclimatization.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto are both standard on every 2022 trim including the base Standard — no wired-only tier, no upper-trim gate — which is exactly the top of this band. Held marginally below 100 only because the projection window does not fill the very wide 13.2-inch panel.

SYNC 4's conversational voice recognition handles natural phrasing far better than the SYNC 3 system it replaced, and cloud-connected navigation with live traffic and over-the-air map updates is standard on the volume Reserve. It stops short of the top band because it is a command-and-response assistant rather than a true natural-language agent, and most reviewers still default to phone projection for routing.

The floor is a 14-speaker Revel system standard on every trim — a branded premium setup where most rivals start with a generic one — and the ceiling is the 28-speaker, 20-channel Revel Ultima 3D with QuantumLogic surround, standard on Black Label and orderable on the Reserve. That spread of a strong base and a genuinely reference-grade upgrade is top-band territory.

A 12-inch fully digital, reconfigurable instrument cluster is standard on all three 2022 trims, with drive-mode-specific themes and navigation/ADAS repeats. Crisp and standard rather than trim-gated, but the graphics are a Ford-corporate set rather than the bespoke displays of the German rivals, which keeps it inside rather than at the top of the band.

The 2022 refresh brought Ford Power-Up over-the-air updating to the Navigator, delivered over the embedded modem with no dealer visit — that is genuine whole-vehicle update infrastructure rather than maps-only. It lands mid-upper band rather than at the top because in this first year the delivered updates were predominantly SYNC/infotainment and map payloads, without the regular feature-adding cadence Tesla and Rivian owners see.

The Lincoln Way app covers remote start with climate pre-conditioning, lock/unlock, vehicle locate, fuel and status readouts and scheduling, and Phone As A Key is included rather than a paid add-on — with the useful detail that it works over Bluetooth LE, so it still opens the car in a parking structure with no cell signal. Docked for connected-services subscription renewal after the complimentary term and for the app-reliability complaints Navigator owners of this era post.

Six USB ports spread across all three rows, a standard wireless charging pad in the front console and a 110V/150W household outlet at the rear of the console cover every passenger — genuinely competitive provisioning. It falls short of the top band because the port mix is still part USB-A rather than fast USB-C throughout, and 150W is a phone-and-laptop outlet, not the multi-kilowatt onboard power the leaders now offer.

About as complete as keyless convenience got in 2022: proximity intelligent access with push-button start, remote start from fob and app, the Lincoln door-edge keypad, a hands-free power liftgate, power-deployable running boards that greet on approach, and Phone As A Key as standard equipment — phone-as-key availability is precisely what the top band asks for.

Lincoln Co-Pilot360 2.0 Vision is standard on every 2022 trim, so the 360-degree camera with front/side/rear views and a washer, front and rear parking sensors, and Active Park Assist all arrive on the base car rather than the top one — a strong showing for a 210-inch vehicle where the cameras are not a luxury but a necessity. Reviewers rate the system genuinely useful; image resolution is good rather than the class best.

The 2022 refresh brought a redesigned head-up display, standard on the volume Reserve and on Black Label — so the trim most buyers actually order has it, which is what separates this from a top-trim-only offering. It is held below the top band because the base Standard trim cannot get it at all, and it is a conventional windshield HUD rather than the large augmented-reality units the segment leaders were fielding.

Cars.com's car-seat check graded the 2022 Navigator A for LATCH in both the second and third rows and A for third-row access, with the captain's chairs tilting and sliding to open a large pathway and the standard power running boards cutting the step-in height for small children. Two real limits keep it out of the top band: the seven-seat captain's-chair layout cannot take three car seats across, and fixed third-row head restraints interfere with high-back booster fit.

The equipment side is excellent and genuinely trim-blind — the 2022 refresh made Lincoln Co-Pilot360 2.0 and 360-degree Vision standard on all three trims, so AEB with pedestrian detection, blind-spot with cross-traffic, lane centering and full-speed adaptive cruise come on the cheapest Navigator. The crash-test side is what pulls it to mid-band: IIHS has never rated this generation, and its structural twin the Expedition posts Marginal in both small-overlap tests and the updated moderate-overlap test, so families are buying strong driver assistance on an unverified structure.

Close to the best case in the catalog for hauling a family a long way: 24-way front seats, heated and ventilated second-row seating with its own 5.8-inch touchscreen for climate and audio, tri-zone climate with rear vents, dual 10.1-inch rear entertainment screens with streaming apps, a very quiet cabin, and 57.5 cu ft behind the second row with the third folded. The only meaningful compromise is that with all seven seats occupied there are just 20.9 cu ft behind the third row — enough for a week's groceries, not a week's luggage, which is what the Navigator L exists to fix.

In its own lane the Navigator is genuinely restful — 510 lb-ft at 3,000 rpm means it never has to work, the cabin is quiet, the seats are the best in the class, and full-speed adaptive cruise with stop-and-go plus lane centering is standard on every trim. What holds it to the middle of the band is that the qualities helping it on the interstate work against it in a commute: the mass shows in stop-and-go brake and throttle modulation reviewers criticized on this model year, and threading 210 inches through daily traffic is never effortless.

One of the most expensive vehicles in the catalog to commute in: 18 MPG combined on the 4x4 most buyers order, roughly $3,400 a year in fuel at EPA's 15,000-mile assumption, and consumables sized to match — the volume Reserve rides on 22-inch wheels whose tires are a multi-hundred-dollar-per-corner item. Regular gasoline is permitted, which is the one thing keeping this off the floor, but the 440 hp rating is quoted on premium.

210 inches long, 79.9 wide, 76.4 tall and 5,700–6,000 lb, with a 41-foot curb-to-curb turning circle that near enough fills the SUV band — this is a vehicle that does not fit a standard urban parking space comfortably and needs a three-point turn where most SUVs need one arc. The standard 360-degree camera, front and rear sensors and Active Park Assist are exactly the right countermeasures and are why this is not lower, but they mitigate the footprint rather than shrink it.

Properly equipped with the Heavy-Duty Trailer Tow Package the standard-wheelbase Navigator pulls 8,700 lb (4x2) / 8,300 lb (4x4) — near the top of the full-size luxury field and enough for a real boat or a two-horse trailer — and the 510 lb-ft V6 and 10-speed handle load without strain. But an unequipped car drops to 6,200 lb, there is no bed, payload is ordinary for the mass, and the load space is carpeted and trimmed rather than built for abuse. Capable of towing work, not of being a work vehicle.

The bones are fleet-proven: a body-on-frame T3 chassis shared with the Ford Expedition, the 3.5L EcoBoost and 10R80 10-speed that run in millions of F-150s, and a corrosion-resistant aluminum body. What it lacks is any work-oriented specification — no vinyl floor, no cloth or rubberized trim option, 22-inch wheels with low-profile street tires, and an interior finished in leather and open-pore wood that punishes muddy boots. Tough underneath, precious on top.

The work-oriented provisions are thin: one 110V/150W household outlet, cargo tie-downs and a tiered cargo management system with a configurable partition, a hitch receiver with the tow package, and roof rails. There is no bed, no onboard generator, no washable surface, and essentially no upfit ecosystem — nobody builds ladder racks or shelving for a Navigator. Everything a trade would actually need is either absent or belongs to the Expedition/F-150 catalog instead.

This is the mission the Navigator was built for: 24-way Perfect Position front seats with massage, a cabin reviewers call 'super quiet,' the camera-based Road Preview suspension smoothing sharp impacts, roughly 425–448 miles of range on the 23.6-gallon tank, and ActiveGlide hands-free driving over 130,000 miles of mapped divided highway on the volume Reserve. Kept out of the very top by that first-year ActiveGlide calibration — visible steering oscillation without HD GPS, an unusually strict driver-attention window, and no automatic lane change — and by the body float over long undulations.

Real light-duty ability — an optional two-speed BorgWarner transfer case with a 2.64:1 low range, ~9.7 in of ground clearance, Deep Conditions and Slow Climb drive modes, an 8,700-lb tow rating for boats and toy haulers, roof rails and a 110V outlet for camp. Held to the middle because four-wheel drive is a $2,700–$3,000 option rather than standard on the volume Reserve, there are no skid plates, no locking differential and no off-road trim in the 2022 range, and the standard 22-inch street tires are the wrong equipment the moment the pavement ends.

103.4 cu ft with the PowerFold second and third rows dropped at the touch of a button, onto a near-flat floor, with roof rails overhead, a hitch available for a bike or cargo tray, underfloor bins behind the third row and a four-way configurable cargo partition to stop things sliding around — very few vehicles swallow bulky gear this easily. The one real caveat is that with all three rows up the 20.9 cu ft behind row three is a squeeze, so a full load of people and a full load of gear is a Navigator L proposition.

Secure and predictable rather than capable: MotorWeek's instrumented handling course produced heavy body roll, sustained understeer and a car that had to be driven patiently, and Edmunds found body motions that border on unsettling over undulating surfaces. Stability control intervenes early and cleanly, and for 5,700-plus pounds on a body-on-frame chassis the composure is respectable — but nothing here is agile, and the camera-fed adaptive dampers are tuned for isolation rather than control.

The weakest single element of the way this car drives. Two independent tests of the 2022 model describe the same faults — a slow rack with very little feedback, resistance tuned so light that the Navigator's mass arrives at the driver's hands as a surprise mid-corner, and a rim too thin for a vehicle this size. Effortless at parking speeds, which is the intent, but vague where it matters.

The standout dynamic result: 125 feet from 60 mph on a near-three-ton SUV is a genuinely strong stop, and the electronic brake booster new to this generation gives a firm, progressive pedal that makes smooth low-speed stops easy — an area many large SUVs get wrong. It sits at the bottom of the top band rather than higher because no repeated-stop fade data exists for the 2022 car and the pedal's assistance is electronically mediated rather than naturally weighted.

The 440 hp twin-turbo V6 is essentially lag-free off idle and the 10-speed is better calibrated here than in lighter Ford applications — professional reviews report smooth shifts and sensible ratio choices with no gear-hunting, and 5.9 seconds to 60 mph in a 5,700-lb SUV takes real drivability to deliver. Held below the top band by owner reports on refresh-year cars of abrupt engagement into gear and by the stop-and-go throttle and brake modulation reviewers flagged on this model year.

Active noise control, acoustic glass and thorough isolation keep the EcoBoost distant and vibration-free at cruise, and it never drones — inoffensive is exactly the right word. What keeps it out of the top band is character rather than noise: under hard throttle a turbocharged V6 in a car this size sounds anonymous where the Escalade's 6.2L V8 sounds like the money the buyer spent.

A 41-foot curb-to-curb circle on a 122.5-inch wheelbase sits near the top of the SUV band, where lower is better — this is a vehicle that needs a three-point turn in places most SUVs manage in one arc. Sources spread from 40.0 to 41.0 ft for the standard-wheelbase car; the higher, more commonly published figure is used, and the long-wheelbase L is worse again at roughly 43.3 ft.

Adjustability is close to unmatched: 24-way Perfect Position front seats with memory on the volume Reserve, power-adjustable pedals, a power tilt/telescoping column and power-retractable running boards for ingress, under a commanding sightline and a 12-inch digital cluster. The piano-key transmission buttons free the console but take acclimatization, thick windshield pillars create a real forward blind zone, and reviewers consistently note that finding a good seat setting among that many axes takes a while.

The Navigator's appeal is serenity, not engagement, and it makes no pretence otherwise: the 510 lb-ft shove is genuinely satisfying in a straight line, but slow numb steering, heavy roll and abundant understeer mean nobody takes the long way home in one. Enthusiast outlets rate it for its cabin and its refinement, never for the drive.

The $77,635 base Standard trim carries essentially all of the 2022 refresh's headline content: the new 13.2-inch Sync 4 touchscreen with built-in navigation and wireless CarPlay/Android Auto, a 14-speaker Revel audio system, wireless charging, a 12-inch digital cluster, newly standard heated and ventilated second-row seats, adaptive pixel-projector LED headlamps, and the full Lincoln Co-Pilot360 2.0 suite (adaptive cruise with stop-and-go and lane centering, 360-degree camera, blind-spot monitor, pre-collision assist with pedestrian detection, intersection assist, evasive steering assist). German rivals at the same money charge extra for navigation, premium audio and most of that driver-assist content. It sits a point under the 2023 car only because ActiveGlide hands-free driving was an extra-cost Co-Pilot360 2.0 Drive package in 2022 rather than a standard trial.

At Escalade and X7 money the Navigator delivers 440 hp, 510 lb-ft, a 6.1-second 0–60, up to eight seats and a cabin reviewers rate above the Escalade's, and U.S. News ranked it the top full-size luxury SUV of 2022 largely on that content-for-price basis. Working against it are 16–17 MPG city, the Escalade's substantially larger cargo hold for the same footprint, and depreciation that is among the worst in the class — so a large share of the sticker advantage is handed back at trade-in, and 2022 buyers frequently paid over sticker on top.

2022 is the broadest year of this generation's back half: three trims from $77,635 to $106,635, rear- or four-wheel drive on Standard and Reserve, and both wheelbases available all the way down to the base Standard L — the entry-level long-wheelbase car that Lincoln deleted for 2023. Black Label also gained two new themes (Central Park and Invitation) alongside Chalet and Yacht Club. It is still a single-powertrain lineup with no engine choice, where the Escalade offers roughly double the trim count plus a diesel.

Calendar 2022 was the weakest year of this generation: 13,206 units, down about 16% from 2021's 15,631 and the lowest Navigator total since the 2018 redesign, with Q1 off 56% and Q2 off 11%. Segment share slipped to 19% in Q2 from 23% a year earlier, and the Navigator fell to third behind the Escalade and the newly launched Grand Wagoneer. Much of the shortfall was supply rather than demand — Lincoln stopped stocking dealer lots and made the 2022 Navigator custom-order-only because of the chip shortage — which keeps this in the steady-seller band rather than the bottom one, but it is still a sharply declining number.

2022 was a high-water mark for Lincoln's image: the brand finished second among premium marques in the J.D. Power U.S. APEAL Study with 876 points, behind only Porsche, and the Navigator is the brand's halo — a repeat Large Premium SUV APEAL segment winner earlier in this generation and the vehicle that won Lincoln its first North American Truck of the Year in 2018. It still lacks the badge pull of the Escalade or the German marques, which shows up directly in class-worst depreciation and in the Escalade outselling it three to one.

The worst year of the cycle to be a Navigator buyer. The microchip shortage pushed Lincoln to stop building dealer stock entirely in April 2022 and sell the Navigator by custom order only, and with no lot inventory dealers had no reason to discount — additional dealer markup was openly posted on 2022 Navigator listings, and factory rebates were thin. Scored low because this item measures the buyer's benefit, not the manufacturer's strength: buyers routinely paid at or above MSRP and waited months.

2022 is the refresh year, and a substantial one: unveiled August 18, 2021, it brought restyled front and rear ends, the 13.2-inch Sync 4 screen with twice the compute of the old system, ActiveGlide hands-free highway driving, over-the-air updates, Amazon Alexa and Fire TV rear entertainment, and Adaptive Suspension with Road Preview. Buyers in 2022 got the newest tech this generation would ever carry with no redesign risk on the horizon — the fifth generation was still two and a half years from reveal. Short of a full 80-100 because the underlying fourth-generation T3 platform and its 3.5L V6 date to 2018.

The 2022 car was the best-reviewed Navigator of the generation: U.S. News made it the top-ranked full-size luxury SUV of 2022 and Kelley Blue Book named it the best luxury full-size SUV of 2022 with a 4.6/5 expert rating, praising the upgraded adaptive suspension, infotainment and driver assists. It stops short of the top band because the new hands-free system drew pointed criticism in first tests and Edmunds' verdict on the refresh was explicitly qualified.