The Lincoln Nautilus takes the age-old driving experience and reimagines much of it. It presents the driver and passengers with new ways and technologies to communicate with the vehicle and to navigate the road ahead. It offers sophisticated and modern advances in cabin comfort. And it does this all in a fresh, state-of-the-art package with a rewarding powertrain.
Review and photos by Tom Sedens. There are always more photos at the end of my reviews.
Pricing: 2024 Lincoln Nautilus
Base price (Reserve trim): $61,900
Options: $12,750 Equipment Group 203A (no clarity provided as to what this includes); $950 Diamond Red Metallic paint; $3,500 2L hybrid powertrain; $650 painted wheels
Freight: $2,395
A/C tax: $100
Price as tested: $82,245
Exterior
When it comes to the exterior styling, Lincoln married clean elegant lines with an athletic and agile look. High-gloss black accents add to the sleek appearance and massive 22-inch wheels shod with 255/50-sized tires complete the package.
LED lighting is found everywhere, front and back, including the full-width tail light bar and Lincoln Embrace which projects a welcome mat of lighting on the ground when you approach the car.
Interior/Tech/Convenience
Lincoln’s approach to the Nautilus advances the notion of connectivity and sanctuary. The vehicle’s driver and passengers are treated to a wholly modern and clean cabin. Thoughtfully crafted from world-class materials, the interior’s design is balanced and uses horizontal lines to a calming effect. The minimalist approach, devoid of any unnecessary buttons and switches, allows for focus on the things that matter including nifty touches like the illuminated faceted crystal volume power knob. There are a few hard plastics here and there, but not really at any touch points where your hand may fall.
The first thing I (and everyone else who got into the vehicle) noticed is the digital experience which is delivered primarily by the panoramic wraparound display. Reaching from one side of the dash to the other, it is the largest in its class. Its gorgeous screens present a seamless and fairly engaging interface. The right half is comprised of three sections, each fully customizable and showing personalized content chosen by the driver.
I loved that you can turn that all off and put up one of a number of themed backgrounds as well, which is far more calming on some days where you just don’t want all the information. Working in concert with the Google-based 11-inch Centre Stack Touchscreen, this massive display brings all of the Nautilus’ technology and connectivity to the forefront, including the staggering 28-speaker Revel Ultima audio system.
As a minor side note, the left side of the big display (in front of the driver) shows a very spare speedometer, gas gauge and map. After much hunting around, I could not find any way to customize any of this, which is a bit odd.
Comfort is also reconceptualized here. The front seats are heated, ventilated and have ActiveMotion massaging which melts away stress and physical strain during the drive, whether it is a short commute or a long road trip. Upholstered in premium perforated leather, the Perfect Position seats offer the first row 24 ways to adjust everything, right down to the thigh bolsters. Infinite adjustability still doesn’t mean comfort in some vehicles, but these thrones were extremely comfortable.
We enjoyed the ambient lighting in the Nautilus too. It shows up around the cabin in hidden areas, casting a glow everywhere, and is highlighted in glossy black panels at front edge of the top of the door panels where the ambient colour you’ve chosen shines through what look like digital brush strokes. It’s very cool.
Rear Seats
Second-row passengers are not just an afterthought – the rear seats are heated and there are plenty of device charging connections readily available, conveniently located on the back of the front seats. There is also a household plug at the back of the centre console. The middle seatback folds down to become an armrest with two cupholders and a very shallow carpeted tray.
Passengers enjoy top-notch surroundings from seats that are among the most spacious in this category – at 5’10”, I found a tremendous amount of leg and head-room. The Vista panoramic roof overhead welcomes light in, making the space seem even more airy.
The console has adjustable air vents but strangely, especially at this price level, there is no separate rear climate control panel – something you’ll often find at vehicles that cost substantially less.
Storage
The centre console has a deep carpeted bin under the armrest – you’ll find two USB plugs, a 12V port and a storage tray in there. The middle of the console has a nice scrolling lid allowing you to clean it up visually – scrolled back, it reveals two cupholders, a small tray with USB-A and USB-C plugs and a slanted wireless charging station, which is fantastic.
Massive door pockets hold a ton of stuff, but are hard plastic, so anything in there will rattle around.
Accessed with a power liftgate, the Nautilus’s 997L trunk is large with a 12V plug and some bag hooks. The rear seats, which split 60/40, can be folded using the power folding buttons in the trunk. With the rear seats down, the trunk size grows to 1498L.
Under the Hood
The upgraded hybrid powertrain combines a 2L turbocharged 4-cylinder engine with electric motors for a combined 310 HP and 295 lb.ft of torque. Sending the power through a CVT and to an all-wheel drive system, the Nautilus FHEV (their designation for the hybrid) gets a fuel economy rating of 7.9/7.6 L/100 km (city/highway). We averaged 8.0L/100 km – not bad for a big two-row SUV where we made absolutely no effort to drive efficiently.
The Drive
Gears are selected using a piano-key style button system.
The drive in the Nautilus is always comfortable, serene and quiet, but with plenty of efficient power on tap. When you step on the go pedal, the acceleration will surprise you in terms of how quick this vehicle feels but also how smoothly that power is delivered. Transitions between the gas engine and electric power are completely seamless.
The driver can select from a number of drive modes, each tailored to a different driving scenario and adjusting everything from throttle and steering response to the adaptive suspension. The modes get Lincoln-style names – Normal, Excite, Conserve, Slippery and Deep Conditions.
The focus here is obviously on comfort and the ride quality is really nice. That said, when you start hustling the vehicle around curves and corners, it certainly holds its own with terrific grip and highly predictable road manners.
Let’s talk about the brakes. They are not good. Of course a hybrid vehicle has regenerative braking, and these feel different than conventional brakes. But over the years, manufacturers have improved these to the point where I’ve driven hybrids whose brakes feel pretty much conventional. Not these. They are mushy and grabby and honestly feel like hybrid brakes from 10 years ago. That said, they are still powerful and will get the job done, but they never feel good.
A highly advanced system called BlueCruise 1.2 allows the driver to operate the Nautilus hands-free while keeping their eyes on the road on over 200,000 kilometres of mapped North American roads. The technology includes Lane Change Assist and In-Lane Positioning to ensure everyone’s safety.
Visibility out of the vehicle is generally excellent except out of the rear, where all three headrests impede your vision a bit.
The overall driving experience is very quiet. The low profile tires get a bit slappy over highly irregular road surfaces, adding a bit of noise. Of note, we found it shocking that when the vehicle is parked on the driveway and people are inside talking, you can not hear anything from the outside. Lincoln has done a great job in insulating the vehicle in terms of sound.
Details
The experience is further enhanced by Lincoln’s Digital Scents. With a quick tap of the display, you can choose from a variety of unique curated cabin fragrances, evoking a number of different environments. You can then decide how strong you want the scent to be, and how often you want the Nautilus to diffuse the scent into the cabin – once when you start the vehicle, at certain intervals or constantly. The cartridges holding the scents are stored in three slots under the armrest lid. It all feels very space-age – everyone had fun with this and we loved this feature! Of note however – replacement cartridges are $40!!!
For the record, we were provided with three scents – the maximum the vehicle can hold. They were Violet Cashmere, Ozonic Azure and Mystic Forest. Mystic Forest was the overwhelming favourite of these three in our family – apparently there are other scents available as well.
Nitpicks
This is just a small detail, but it drove me absolutely crazy. The buckles of the rear seatbelts are positioned such that they rattle against hard plastic panels when they are not in use. And unless you move them, the make a rattling sound with every single vibration of the vehicle while you’re driving – it is an incessant source of noise and I often found myself pulling over, getting out of the vehicle and moving the seatbelts. How this small but incredibly aggravating detail passed inspection is beyond me.
The steering wheel is a rectangular shape with rounded corners. It’s obviously that way so the driver can see the massive screen behind it. It feels odd in the hands, particularly because you can not hold it at the 9 and 3 positions properly where you wrap your fingers around the wheel – there are touchpad panels there. I simply do not like this steering wheel and I never got used to the feel of it during my week with the vehicle – although I’m sure one would get used to it after a while.
Opening the doors from the outside takes a moment to get used to – the handles don’t move, so you just squeeze the electronic actuator inside the handle and it opens. Not a big deal. The latches from the inside are a different story. It seems like an answer to a question nobody was asking. The latches are squared off open loops that you need to pull back to open the door. Again, it’s not a big deal, but I don’t understand the need to do this differently. There appears to be no value in the “innovation”. It just felt weird to everyone who rode in the Nautilus.
And finally, all six dash-mounted air vents are not adjustable. At all. We couldn’t figure out a way to tilt them, move them from side to side or even turn the air flow down or off. Until we found it, hidden in the screen menus. And that is not great. It is once again surprising to think that a vehicle manufacturer thought it was a good idea to make driver and passengers sort through numerous menus to control the air vents, when it has worked perfectly using sliding knobs for decades. Not to mention that this is just another powered thing that can break down in the future. Seemed silly to me.
The Verdict
WAF (Wife Approval Factor) was quite high. She thought the vehicle looked great inside and out, and loved how it drove.
I can’t overstate how cool the massive wrap-around screen is in the Nautilus – especially in the dark.
Lincoln has made the Nautilus a revitalizing sanctuary of comfort, technology and efficient performance. There are features in this vehicle that feel like they break new ground and yet, it remains familiar and comfortable.
Disclosure: Vehicle was provided by Lincoln Canada.
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