The Lincoln Navigator has made its mark for large body-on-frame SUVs in the luxury segment. It looks as if Ford/Lincoln will continue to keep its pride and joy relevant with a welcomed refresh for the 2022 model year to better compete with current competition and newcomers to the highly coveted segment.
The new 2022 Lincoln Navigator receives many updates for its model year refresh, including updated exterior styling and new tech upgrades throughout, which includes a new ActiveGlide Hands-Free BlueCruise system. The ActiveGlide system is Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free highway driver-assist system much like Cadillac’s Super Cruise, which utilizes a camera to monitor the driver’s attention to allow them to take their hands off the steering wheel on certain system-mapped highway and Interstate roads. The new ActiveGlide system will come with a three-year free trial and after that, the customer is asked to pay a subscription for the service.
The exterior updates for the 2022 Lincoln Navigator include a new grille and pixel projector LED headlights, both like what we find in the new Aviator. Additionally, the rear LED taillights are updated and sculpted to somewhat resemble what we find on the Aviator, which looks way better than what is currently on the Navigator in my opinion. The rear lighting elements also have an animation sequence that fades out from the center upon walking up to the vehicle and fades from the outside in when exiting. Lastly, for the exterior, there’s a new Black Label-exclusive color called Manhattan Green.
The interior of the 2023 Lincoln Navigator gets updated with the brand’s latest Sync 4 infotainment unit and is fed through a larger 13.2-inch touchscreen. There’s the addition of wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and the infotainment system gets the take advantage of over-the-air updates. The 12.3-inch gauge cluster also gets newly updated graphics.
Second-row seating for the 2023 Navigator now receives a massage feature along with heating and cooling. The second row also benefits from an optional 5.8-inch rear audio and climate control touchscreen display, as well as a pair of 10.1-inch rear-seat entertainment touchscreens with Amazon Fire TV integration. The Black Label model gets two new interior themes, Central Park and Invitation, which have unique design and color elements throughout. Other themes remain, except for the Destination theme, which gets the ax.
Probably a puzzling update for most is the 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 engine is updated but gets 10-less horsepower for a total of 440 ponies but keeps the 510 lb-ft of torque all sent through the same 10-speed automatic transmission. The update is due to a revised compression ratio, from 10.0:1 to 10.5:1, for extra efficiency. EPA fuel consumption figures have not been released for the 2022 Navigator, but with the power and compression change, we could very well see an improvement over its outgoing 16 mpg city, 22 mpg highway, and 18 mpg combined figures. We expect the 0-60 mph time to remain at 5.9 seconds, which is quite good for a vehicle this size.
Pricing for the updated 2022 Lincoln Navigator has not been set but we expect the outgoing model’s $78,000 base price to increase only slightly when it goes on sale in early 2022.
