The 2007 Lincoln Navigator has been substantially redesigned in an effort to re-establish itself at the top of a category it more or less invented. It remains a big, heavy, luxurious sport-utility vehicle, with most of the advantages and disadvantages that go with big sport-utility vehicles.The Navigator is now offered in two versions: the standard size, and an even larger, longer, Navigator L. With the exception of its 300-hp, 5.4-liter V8 engine and six-speed automatic transmission, everything inside and out has been thoroughly revised. It's still available with rear-wheel drive or four-wheel drive.
We'd call the 2007 Navigator an across-the-board improvement, except perhaps in the very subjective area of styling. Yet it's an incremental improvement, and it doesn't restore the clear edge Lincoln once had among full-size luxury SUVs. While Navigator hits the basic targets set for such vehicles, it's not loaded with emotional appeal.
The Navigator is essentially a truck, with a ladder-type box frame and separate body. As such, it's not as responsive, certainly not as sedan-like, as the unit-body sport-utilities proliferating at the high end of the market. But it's a smooth, quiet truck, with lots of noise- and vibration-mitigating technology and a fully independent rear suspension.