2003 Lincoln Navigator Leather Moonroof All Power 4x4 on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2023 Lincoln Aviator gets a few small changes, small price bumps

The 2023 Lincoln Aviator Lincoln makes a few small changes to its offer, as related by Ford Authority. On the feature side, the 12-way Comfort Front Seats for driver and passenger are gone. The bottom three trims, Standard, Reserve and Grand Touring all come with a 10-way Comfort Front Seat for the driver and an eight-way throne for the passenger. The Black Label and Grand Touring continue with their 30-way Perfect Position front seats. Outside, the Bronze Smoke Metallic and Burgundy Velvet Metallic colors depart the exterior palette, replaced by Diamond Red Metallic Tinted Clearcoat and Jewel Sandstone. The Jet Package expands availability to the base Reserve trim, no longer requiring the Reserve I package, and to the Black Label, which didn't offer it before. The package full of black trim pieces and wheels hasn't changed from when Lincoln introduced it a year ago, including bits like a solid black grille and surround, black door spears and mirror caps, and 22-inch black aluminum wheels. A similar package exclusively for the Black Label trims is called the Black Label Special Edition Package. It makes the same changes as the Jet Package while also painting the roof black. Finally, the Illumination Package for the Grand Touring PHEV adds fog lights for 2023. Prices for the 2023 model year after the $1,195 destination charge are up a little over the sums we noted when the 2022 model year debuted. Remember, however, that 2022 pricing went down on all but one trim by anywhere from $5 to $1,085. The new MSRPs are in line with model year premiums we're used to seeing from a time before industrial upheaval. The figures and their differences from 2022 are: Standard: $54,535 ($1,875) Reserve: $59,700 ($1,150) Grand Touring: $70,385 ($830) Black Label: $81,920 ($1,375) Black Label Grand Touring: $90,475 ($1,375) Engine choices don't change, those being the twin-turbo 3.0-liter EcoBoost V6 with 400 horsepower and 415 pound-feet of torque for all trims but the Grand Touring PHEV. The plug-in hybrid electrifies that engine to make a combined 494 hp and 630 lb-ft. Every Aviator shifts through a ten-speed automatic. The Aviator has sold 20,324 units so far this year. Based on figures for the past three years, we anticipate it will finish above last year's 20,324 sales and 2020's tally of 23,080 sales. A refresh expected in 2024 should bring more substantial updates and improvements.  Related video: This content is hosted by a third party.

Ford's J Mays feels vindicated by Fusion reception

It's hard to think back now, but the same man overseeing the design of the 2013 Ford Fusion also presided over a rather lackluster period in Ford design, highlighted by vehicles like the Five Hundred and Freestyle. With the redesigned Fusion receiving high praise, J Mays tells Automotive News that he feels vindicated from criticisms suggesting he's not a daring enough designer.
When Mays took over as lead of design in 1997, he admits to having quite an ego ("My head would barely fit through the door some days. I've long since gotten over myself") and the workload to match. With the Blue Oval's portfolio full of premium brands like Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo at that point, along with the bread-and-butter Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models, Mays certainly had quite the challenge.
It was in the mid-2000s that Mays took over just the premium brands, and took on the new title of Chief Creative Officer. At the time, Mays endured some criticism for looking backwards to retro styling, rather than setting a new standard for American car design - criticism that Mays says he is free from with the all-new Fusion.

Junkyard Gem: 1979 Lincoln Continental Town Car

Ford built Continentals from the 1940 through 2020 model years (with a couple of pauses during that period), and the biggest and arguably most extreme Continentals of all were the 1977-1979 models. That's what we've got for today's Junkyard Gem: a 1979 Continental Town Car with Cream paint outside and plenty of Light Gold Jubilee velour inside, found in a self-service boneyard in Sparks, Nevada. Thanks to the big 5 mph crash bumpers, the overall length of the 1977-1979 Continental sedan stretched to an astounding 233 inches. That's more than a foot longer than the 2024 Lincoln Navigator, though the Navigator scales in at more than a half-ton heavier than the '79 Continental sedan. For the 1980 model year, the Continental went onto the Panther platform and shed 10 inches of wheelbase, more than 13 inches of length and 500 pounds of curb weight. Considering the geopolitical events of 1979 and their effect on fuel prices, this turned out to be good timing … but the downsized '80 Continental didn't look as imposing (or as white-powder-dusted) when it pulled up to the valet parking stand at the disco. When your sedan weighs 4,649 pounds, you want serious power under its hood Â… and that was a rare commodity among 1979 automobiles sold in the United States. This is a 400-cubic-inch (6.6-liter) pushrod V8, essentially a stroked 351 Cleveland, rated at 159 horsepower and 315 pound-feet. That means that each of this car's horses had to drag 29.2 pounds, a ratio that's quite a bit worse than that of the much-maligned-for-slowness 2024 Mitsubishi Mirage (though the respectable torque made driving these cars tolerable enough in most situations). The interior was all about cushy seats and space to stretch out. The silver-faced gauges were very classy. Opera lights? You bet! This would have been an excellent, if thirsty, long-distance highway cruiser for its day. There were some 1999 coupons inside, suggesting that the car had been parked for a quarter-century before coming to this place. The high-elevation desert sun is murder on vinyl roofs. On January 10, 1981, people associated with this fine luxury automobile played golf at Willow Glen in San Diego. On the same day, Richard Boone died and Jared Kushner was born. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. A standard by which luxury cars are judged.