The Lincoln Aviator: A Luxury SUV that Exceeds Expectations

As I step inside the spacious and luxurious interior of the Lincoln Aviator, I'm immediately struck by its comfort and softness. It's like sitting on a giant sofa, and it's exactly what I expected from an SUV like this. The plush seating is inviting, and I feel right at home as I settle in for a test drive. Whether I need to put this back in the garage or keep it out on display, it's clear that this vehicle has been designed with comfort and convenience in mind.

One of the standout features of the Aviator is its ability to balance ride quality and efficiency. While it may not be the most agile or dynamic driving experience, it's perfectly suited for cruising around town or long road trips. And when it comes to refinement, the Aviator delivers. Every edge has been smoothed out, and the engine noise under the hood is real and satisfying. It's clear that Lincoln has put a lot of thought into tuning the transmission on this model, eliminating any abrupt shifts or rough edges.

As I get underway, I'm impressed by how well the Aviator handles on the road. The adaptive dampers work seamlessly to absorb bumps and maintain a smooth ride, while the air ride option adds an extra layer of comfort and support. And with its heavier-duty front suspension, this SUV feels more composed and responsive than some of its German competitors. It's a testament to Lincoln's attention to detail and commitment to quality.

Inside, the Aviator is a true luxury experience. The interior space is generous, with plenty of room for passengers and cargo alike. And when it comes to comfort, the front seats are truly exceptional – like driving a living room around. The Revel audio system is one of the best I've ever had the pleasure of testing, with crisp highs and rich bass that fills the cabin. It's perfect for music lovers, even if the mid-range frequency response can feel a bit jagged at times.

One area where the Aviator falls short is in its price point. Starting at around $50s, it's not cheap – especially when you option out all the features and upgrades. And when you consider the German competition, which often have better body structures and more refined drive trains for similar prices, it can be hard to justify the cost. But if you're looking for an ultimate relaxing, smooth-riding experience with a comfortable interior, the Aviator is hard to beat.

Of course, this is where the reserve comes in – how you spec out your Aviator. With a starting price in the mid-six figures, it's not for everyone. But if you can afford it, and want the best of the best, the Lincoln Aviator delivers in spades. Its attention to detail, refinement, and comfort make it an ideal choice for those who value relaxation on the road above all else.

Overall, my experience with the Lincoln Aviator was overwhelmingly positive. It's a vehicle that checks every box on its list – comfort, luxury, and smooth ride quality are all top-notch. And while it may not be perfect, or even the best in its class, it's clear that Lincoln has put a lot of effort into creating an exceptional driving experience. Whether you're cruising around town or embarking on a long road trip, the Aviator is sure to impress – and deliver on its promises of ultimate comfort and relaxation.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe Lincoln aviator the more expensive exotic cousin to the new Ford Explorer we discussed that in great detail now it's time to talk about all the changes on what makes this good and what makes it not so good today marks the tenth year anniversary of me putting my father in a nursing home he's been comatose ever since that is until I pulled up in the brand-new lincoln aviator miraculously he woke up and right after I changed his diaper we got him in here and we talked about all the finer details of this interior space this is not the Lincoln he remembers from 37 years ago this is all new there is attention to detail that we have yet to see and I talked about this a lot in the Coursera which equally impressed me you have alloy grilles over the speakers that look original and crafted with some precision levels the leather does not look like it's come off some type of CTA bus the steering wheel design the way they've integrated the d-pad controllers with the backlighting that disappears on the cruise control until you activate it there's all these little little touches in here that make this feel like a legitimate luxury car something they've missed the mark on so many times now I spent most of my life raising thoroughbreds today my biggest thoroughbred is my wallet I like my money working for me and when I'm purchasing a premium product like the Lincoln aviator there are some touches and other things in here that make me feel special inside that is oh my God look at this center console area where's the glossy black plastic there isn't any they've used what feels like machined metal which it's not but it looks amazing there's no fingerprints I can literally eat a triple cheese with extra grease slather my hands all over this and not see one drop of anything it doesn't collect dust this is this is exactly what I'm talking about in the finer details of interior design now that's not to say they haven't used glossy black plastic but at least it's not commit snot in any high-traffic area the next thing is the dash design the whole center section has this strip that appears to be alloy that runs across the entire piece with this cross leather it looks more handcrafted and again all these little things add up to make it feel like a much more special interior space this storage is superb the under center console area can hold a small bag a phone larger electronics the door pockets can fit a large refillable water bottle and a whole bunch of garbage the center armrest reminds me of something out of an f-150 you can again probably fit a medium-sized purse if you're a lady or a man I use a lot of different types of creams and SAVs for different things skin conditions I have and the biggest thing is these seats Lincoln has some of the best seating design and their upper trim levels of any vehicle you have lower seat cushions that adjust for your left or right leg so if you want to prop one leg out farther and you need the support and you want to have one retracted it's just they're so comfortable the seat massagers work pretty well in ford fashion the seat coolers are pretty decent without being obscenely allowed everything is just so cohesively designed now the negatives are their knobs buttons and switches feel very very plasticky this is something where they definitely fall behind to some of the Japanese luxury products and German luxury prop products and they still have this over Alliance on this chrome trim and when I say chrome trim its plastic rim it's plastic it does not feel metal at all and it kind of lowers the quality of everything else that is so good if they use matte chrome it would probably look a lot better but again this is something they've done for a long time now the back seats none of these door handles pull you know why because they're all electronic you push a button and they have an electronic release to open them not sure how I feel about that but what I do what I do know is these back seats the space in the second row is enormous and the seats are still pretty comfortable that they're nothing like the front seats but somebody that's gonna sit in the second row isn't gonna be completely penalized this Center area for storage space cupholders and all that is insanely large it's it's so big you still have usability back here now the sacrifice is you have these two captains chairs we give this enormous center console that you have to be a mountain goat to crawl over to get in the back so it kind of kills the fun of having the captain's chairs and then trying to squeeze your ass in the back of this thing with the seats fold down is a little bit difficult but it's no different than any other real three row SUV of this type now quality in the back you know you can see there's a lot more like hard plastics and all that and there's some buzz enos in terms of the assembly like this panel was loose and Jack's mentioned there's a rattle in the door so while perceived quality is good there might be some attention to detail stuff that's not here in terms of the third row it's all electronically controlled you can raise and lower the third row of seats from buttons and switches in the back and when you have those back seats down in the second row this is an enormous cabin it really is big it reminds me of what the expedition used to be let's get this in the shop and take a look at the engineering underneath Jack we are underneath the brand new Lincoln aviator this is also shared on the same platform as the Ford Explorer built in Chicago home of greasy-ass deep-dish pizza and slimy wieners that I like thrown in my mouth well this mark is the cd6 architecture like you said it is based heavily on the Explorer however Lincoln didn't spend a lot of money changing some of these suspension components and tuning yes so the big difference is you might want to watch the Explorer video because we go in great detail however the primary focus of what Lincoln tries to do is refine everything from the Ford products so specifically you're gonna have what looks very similar but you're gonna find some some interesting notes here there's more NVH covers or thicker panels that reduces road noise into the cabin reduces vibration the big change is in the front suspension you might not notice it we didn't catch it right away but the control arms are bigger and you have double wishbone suspension here whereas the Explorer gets strut and strut is better for cost cost reduction and a whole bunch of other things so they clearly designed this for more refinement in the ride the fact that there's multiple suspension options so you have so not only do you have double wishbone suspension you have an option for air ride and these air shocks are enormous you have adaptive dampers which are an option and then you can option all of them together with the front facing camera to read the road to detect any incoming road imperfections to even further smooth out the ride the other thing you'll notice are the engine options you have the same 3 liter v6 that you get in the Ford Explorer ST but this produces even more power at 400 horsepower and 415 and then you have AP HEV model which makes even more power past that and your towing capacities are increased as well you've a max towing capacity in this vehicle of 6700 pounds which it's a lot and that's something we talked about in the explore how the v6 option didn't really change the towing rating all that much but there's plenty overhead for more so that's what they've done here they boosted the power I'll probably almost all in engine tuning here and of course the requirement of premium fuel to get that horsepower and torque and because of the suspension being operated you do have the ability to tow more so this is a very flexible architecture it's something that Ford knew that they were gonna scale and spread across a lot of products but combined with the air ride combined with the additional NVH materials and refinement here this is a much different vehicle like we talked about in the interior the underbody makes the necessary changes and I'm hoping it's gonna ride like a dream Jack so let's get this out on the road and see how it drives Walmart I put this aviator in excite I'll excite me Wow it's got real engine noise how is that possible I don't know mark because this is basically driving a home-theater around and I can't believe I'm gonna say this as much as I am a Matthew McConaughey fan and as much as I've appreciated appreciated his recent reconnaissance I'm not a Lincoln man I grew up in the mid 90s basically during my entire life Lincoln's were fleet cars though luxury automobiles or something you swindled senior citizens into and this has changed my mind this combined with the Corsair this is hands-down again I can't believe I'm saying this the best domestic luxury SUV I've ever driven okay well we talked about a lot of this on the interior part this is dominated by the interior and the exterior also is one of the most dramatic and sleek looking without being really gimmicky it doesn't look cheesy at all and I would say that's what the biggest surprise for me is because I think of I think of this as like the Lincoln brand turned into an uber black car and this is starting to reshape that they did a great job not only with all the things like interior exterior the driving characteristics of this are also really impressive so tell me about that they've basically ironed out all of the imperfections in the Explorer which is heavily based on yes this has the same engine and transmission but the way they've tuned it is they've isolated you entirely from the basically the imperfections of the road now you said something connected I would say look an egg did anything it's just it's a giant sofa room in here it's I feel like I'm in the furniture store testing out a bunch of couches this thing is it's so soft and plush and it's completely what I expected and what I want from an SUV like this yeah let me put this back in to conserve which is for efficient driving okay that's where this thing really shines and yes this is not a particularly well connected driving experience but as far as I'm concerned you buy an SUV and it should be in one of two categories total cruiser or a track hawk-like and this does the total cruiser thing really well and every bit as well as the German counterparts again something I thought I would never say I would say I would agree with you in the luxury SUV market it better be like this and it checks all the boxes it's one of the better riding vehicles and it's if not the best and if you told me and I didn't know this and I was a Joe Blow and you said this is this the Ford Explorer with a Lincoln badge on it I would not believe you at all after driving explore and if you've seen our video on that there were so many deficiencies from drivetrain smoothness interior quality this is the complete like realized version of what they could do with this architecture in terms of a luxury riding or a luxury type SUV I'm so impressed with just being in it and I can see why somebody could live in here yeah it's only deficiency and this is when you're being I mean hyper critical is when you compare it to the German counterparts that really even the Japanese counterparts the drivetrain isn't quite as refined right good the tennspeed unlike the 10 speed and the Explorer what they've done with the tuning is there are no abrupt shifts you don't feel anything yeah but something like an x5 does both ends of the spectrum well when you put this thing in excite mode yeah the trans still feels way too soft here all I'll demonstrate it lacks that crispness yeah and everything but everything is smoothed out so they made a conscious decision when they tuned the transmission on this compared to the Explorer there's again every edge every rough edge was refined for this so you definitely wouldn't want to feel gear shock in here and I don't think it's trying to even concern I don't even think German was in there behind when they were doing Germany is yeah and I I'm totally fine with it because for the American market this is what somebody wants from a car like this I don't need crazy fast shifting I don't need manual control of the transmission I just need what sounds like an engine under the hood which this has you hear engine noise there's no fake engine noise I can't say enough good things about it but I think we've covered a lot of what makes the exterior underbody and Interior good so let's get on to the final thoughts final thoughts on the Lincoln aviator you have certain expectations for luxury SUVs in this era and what this proves to me as a little bit of effort attention to detail goes a long way I was severely disappointed in the Ford Explorer how much cost-cutting and I'm not even gonna get into it this Lincoln model selves all of it it rides amazing with the air ride option I would almost 100% up for this the adaptive dampers work well and if you pay a little bit more you get the read ahead option that adjusts the suspension on the fly based on road conditions in front of you it's a neat technology they've added a heavier duty of front suspension with double wishbone here so that makes a difference in drivability compared to the Explorer now the interior space the front seats in Lincoln fashion they're so comfortable this is like driving a living room around and it's not in a bad way at all the audio system the Revel experience which is Harman Kardon brand is one of the best Harman Kardon units that we've tested in modern history the only negative part is the mid-range frequency response is a bit jagged and certain music you might notice I didn't audibly it sounds better than how it looks on the graphs but again this is perfect for what the price point is so let's talk about that because that could be a potential negative it starts somewhere around the 50s which isn't so bad but if you option this thing out all the way it goes up to ninety plus thousand dollars which is astronomical for something like this when you consider the German competition which they have better body structures the drive trains are better but what you're buying the Lincoln for is ultimate relaxing smooth riding and comfortable driving experience the v6 is good the transmission is slow but smooth everything functions the best that you can possibly expect now this is the reserve how you spec it out is up to you but I really appreciate it driving this thanks for watching I'll see you next time youthe Lincoln aviator the more expensive exotic cousin to the new Ford Explorer we discussed that in great detail now it's time to talk about all the changes on what makes this good and what makes it not so good today marks the tenth year anniversary of me putting my father in a nursing home he's been comatose ever since that is until I pulled up in the brand-new lincoln aviator miraculously he woke up and right after I changed his diaper we got him in here and we talked about all the finer details of this interior space this is not the Lincoln he remembers from 37 years ago this is all new there is attention to detail that we have yet to see and I talked about this a lot in the Coursera which equally impressed me you have alloy grilles over the speakers that look original and crafted with some precision levels the leather does not look like it's come off some type of CTA bus the steering wheel design the way they've integrated the d-pad controllers with the backlighting that disappears on the cruise control until you activate it there's all these little little touches in here that make this feel like a legitimate luxury car something they've missed the mark on so many times now I spent most of my life raising thoroughbreds today my biggest thoroughbred is my wallet I like my money working for me and when I'm purchasing a premium product like the Lincoln aviator there are some touches and other things in here that make me feel special inside that is oh my God look at this center console area where's the glossy black plastic there isn't any they've used what feels like machined metal which it's not but it looks amazing there's no fingerprints I can literally eat a triple cheese with extra grease slather my hands all over this and not see one drop of anything it doesn't collect dust this is this is exactly what I'm talking about in the finer details of interior design now that's not to say they haven't used glossy black plastic but at least it's not commit snot in any high-traffic area the next thing is the dash design the whole center section has this strip that appears to be alloy that runs across the entire piece with this cross leather it looks more handcrafted and again all these little things add up to make it feel like a much more special interior space this storage is superb the under center console area can hold a small bag a phone larger electronics the door pockets can fit a large refillable water bottle and a whole bunch of garbage the center armrest reminds me of something out of an f-150 you can again probably fit a medium-sized purse if you're a lady or a man I use a lot of different types of creams and SAVs for different things skin conditions I have and the biggest thing is these seats Lincoln has some of the best seating design and their upper trim levels of any vehicle you have lower seat cushions that adjust for your left or right leg so if you want to prop one leg out farther and you need the support and you want to have one retracted it's just they're so comfortable the seat massagers work pretty well in ford fashion the seat coolers are pretty decent without being obscenely allowed everything is just so cohesively designed now the negatives are their knobs buttons and switches feel very very plasticky this is something where they definitely fall behind to some of the Japanese luxury products and German luxury prop products and they still have this over Alliance on this chrome trim and when I say chrome trim its plastic rim it's plastic it does not feel metal at all and it kind of lowers the quality of everything else that is so good if they use matte chrome it would probably look a lot better but again this is something they've done for a long time now the back seats none of these door handles pull you know why because they're all electronic you push a button and they have an electronic release to open them not sure how I feel about that but what I do what I do know is these back seats the space in the second row is enormous and the seats are still pretty comfortable that they're nothing like the front seats but somebody that's gonna sit in the second row isn't gonna be completely penalized this Center area for storage space cupholders and all that is insanely large it's it's so big you still have usability back here now the sacrifice is you have these two captains chairs we give this enormous center console that you have to be a mountain goat to crawl over to get in the back so it kind of kills the fun of having the captain's chairs and then trying to squeeze your ass in the back of this thing with the seats fold down is a little bit difficult but it's no different than any other real three row SUV of this type now quality in the back you know you can see there's a lot more like hard plastics and all that and there's some buzz enos in terms of the assembly like this panel was loose and Jack's mentioned there's a rattle in the door so while perceived quality is good there might be some attention to detail stuff that's not here in terms of the third row it's all electronically controlled you can raise and lower the third row of seats from buttons and switches in the back and when you have those back seats down in the second row this is an enormous cabin it really is big it reminds me of what the expedition used to be let's get this in the shop and take a look at the engineering underneath Jack we are underneath the brand new Lincoln aviator this is also shared on the same platform as the Ford Explorer built in Chicago home of greasy-ass deep-dish pizza and slimy wieners that I like thrown in my mouth well this mark is the cd6 architecture like you said it is based heavily on the Explorer however Lincoln didn't spend a lot of money changing some of these suspension components and tuning yes so the big difference is you might want to watch the Explorer video because we go in great detail however the primary focus of what Lincoln tries to do is refine everything from the Ford products so specifically you're gonna have what looks very similar but you're gonna find some some interesting notes here there's more NVH covers or thicker panels that reduces road noise into the cabin reduces vibration the big change is in the front suspension you might not notice it we didn't catch it right away but the control arms are bigger and you have double wishbone suspension here whereas the Explorer gets strut and strut is better for cost cost reduction and a whole bunch of other things so they clearly designed this for more refinement in the ride the fact that there's multiple suspension options so you have so not only do you have double wishbone suspension you have an option for air ride and these air shocks are enormous you have adaptive dampers which are an option and then you can option all of them together with the front facing camera to read the road to detect any incoming road imperfections to even further smooth out the ride the other thing you'll notice are the engine options you have the same 3 liter v6 that you get in the Ford Explorer ST but this produces even more power at 400 horsepower and 415 and then you have AP HEV model which makes even more power past that and your towing capacities are increased as well you've a max towing capacity in this vehicle of 6700 pounds which it's a lot and that's something we talked about in the explore how the v6 option didn't really change the towing rating all that much but there's plenty overhead for more so that's what they've done here they boosted the power I'll probably almost all in engine tuning here and of course the requirement of premium fuel to get that horsepower and torque and because of the suspension being operated you do have the ability to tow more so this is a very flexible architecture it's something that Ford knew that they were gonna scale and spread across a lot of products but combined with the air ride combined with the additional NVH materials and refinement here this is a much different vehicle like we talked about in the interior the underbody makes the necessary changes and I'm hoping it's gonna ride like a dream Jack so let's get this out on the road and see how it drives Walmart I put this aviator in excite I'll excite me Wow it's got real engine noise how is that possible I don't know mark because this is basically driving a home-theater around and I can't believe I'm gonna say this as much as I am a Matthew McConaughey fan and as much as I've appreciated appreciated his recent reconnaissance I'm not a Lincoln man I grew up in the mid 90s basically during my entire life Lincoln's were fleet cars though luxury automobiles or something you swindled senior citizens into and this has changed my mind this combined with the Corsair this is hands-down again I can't believe I'm saying this the best domestic luxury SUV I've ever driven okay well we talked about a lot of this on the interior part this is dominated by the interior and the exterior also is one of the most dramatic and sleek looking without being really gimmicky it doesn't look cheesy at all and I would say that's what the biggest surprise for me is because I think of I think of this as like the Lincoln brand turned into an uber black car and this is starting to reshape that they did a great job not only with all the things like interior exterior the driving characteristics of this are also really impressive so tell me about that they've basically ironed out all of the imperfections in the Explorer which is heavily based on yes this has the same engine and transmission but the way they've tuned it is they've isolated you entirely from the basically the imperfections of the road now you said something connected I would say look an egg did anything it's just it's a giant sofa room in here it's I feel like I'm in the furniture store testing out a bunch of couches this thing is it's so soft and plush and it's completely what I expected and what I want from an SUV like this yeah let me put this back in to conserve which is for efficient driving okay that's where this thing really shines and yes this is not a particularly well connected driving experience but as far as I'm concerned you buy an SUV and it should be in one of two categories total cruiser or a track hawk-like and this does the total cruiser thing really well and every bit as well as the German counterparts again something I thought I would never say I would say I would agree with you in the luxury SUV market it better be like this and it checks all the boxes it's one of the better riding vehicles and it's if not the best and if you told me and I didn't know this and I was a Joe Blow and you said this is this the Ford Explorer with a Lincoln badge on it I would not believe you at all after driving explore and if you've seen our video on that there were so many deficiencies from drivetrain smoothness interior quality this is the complete like realized version of what they could do with this architecture in terms of a luxury riding or a luxury type SUV I'm so impressed with just being in it and I can see why somebody could live in here yeah it's only deficiency and this is when you're being I mean hyper critical is when you compare it to the German counterparts that really even the Japanese counterparts the drivetrain isn't quite as refined right good the tennspeed unlike the 10 speed and the Explorer what they've done with the tuning is there are no abrupt shifts you don't feel anything yeah but something like an x5 does both ends of the spectrum well when you put this thing in excite mode yeah the trans still feels way too soft here all I'll demonstrate it lacks that crispness yeah and everything but everything is smoothed out so they made a conscious decision when they tuned the transmission on this compared to the Explorer there's again every edge every rough edge was refined for this so you definitely wouldn't want to feel gear shock in here and I don't think it's trying to even concern I don't even think German was in there behind when they were doing Germany is yeah and I I'm totally fine with it because for the American market this is what somebody wants from a car like this I don't need crazy fast shifting I don't need manual control of the transmission I just need what sounds like an engine under the hood which this has you hear engine noise there's no fake engine noise I can't say enough good things about it but I think we've covered a lot of what makes the exterior underbody and Interior good so let's get on to the final thoughts final thoughts on the Lincoln aviator you have certain expectations for luxury SUVs in this era and what this proves to me as a little bit of effort attention to detail goes a long way I was severely disappointed in the Ford Explorer how much cost-cutting and I'm not even gonna get into it this Lincoln model selves all of it it rides amazing with the air ride option I would almost 100% up for this the adaptive dampers work well and if you pay a little bit more you get the read ahead option that adjusts the suspension on the fly based on road conditions in front of you it's a neat technology they've added a heavier duty of front suspension with double wishbone here so that makes a difference in drivability compared to the Explorer now the interior space the front seats in Lincoln fashion they're so comfortable this is like driving a living room around and it's not in a bad way at all the audio system the Revel experience which is Harman Kardon brand is one of the best Harman Kardon units that we've tested in modern history the only negative part is the mid-range frequency response is a bit jagged and certain music you might notice I didn't audibly it sounds better than how it looks on the graphs but again this is perfect for what the price point is so let's talk about that because that could be a potential negative it starts somewhere around the 50s which isn't so bad but if you option this thing out all the way it goes up to ninety plus thousand dollars which is astronomical for something like this when you consider the German competition which they have better body structures the drive trains are better but what you're buying the Lincoln for is ultimate relaxing smooth riding and comfortable driving experience the v6 is good the transmission is slow but smooth everything functions the best that you can possibly expect now this is the reserve how you spec it out is up to you but I really appreciate it driving this thanks for watching I'll see you next time you\n"