Lincoln Nautilus charts a widescreen course into drivers' garages

By Jim Bray
September 12, 2024

Ford's upmarket brand, Lincoln, has an idea it thinks will appeal to the video generation, which may indicate they're going for customers who may not have been the marque's traditional market.

Indeed, this modern vehicle simply bristles with high tech – for good or for not so good – with a unique dashboard-wide video setup that's quite the thing to see.

Alas, I found it redundant, obtrusive, and kind of silly, since most of what you can display on this massive display (actually a few displays side by side) can and/or is displayed already on the more conventional large screen atop the centre stack.

Still, it looks really cool, is somewhat customizable, and certainly starts conversations among onlookers and passengers.

Nautilus is a two row, five-passenger beastie that's meant to compete with such other beasties as the Genesis GV80, Porsche Cayenne, or BMW X5. The only ones of those competitors I've driven is the Cayenne and X5, and not for at least 10 years, so I'm totally unqualified to compare them.

Ford Canada sent me the conventional (non-hybrid) version of the "new for 2024" Nautilus and though Captain Nemo was nowhere to be found, I found myself enjoying it quite a bit. It drives well, is comfortable, and you can even set it to minimize the wallowing.

Non-hybrid Nautiluses (or is it Nautili?) are powered by a 250-hp turbocharged two-liter inline-four-cylinder engine. I wanted a six, but the four works just fine. And, rather than being shackled to one of those 10-speed transmissions that are becoming so popular because they keep the revs down to save gas and, therefore, Parent Earth as well, it gets an eight-speed automatic, and it works just fine, too.

You also get all-wheel drive.

Power is good once the turbo kicks in (which doesn't take long, fortunately), and I enjoyed driving the Nautilus quite a bit, though I kept it in "Engage" mode (which in non-Lincoln speak means "sport") all the time once I'd assured myself that Lincoln had, indeed, built in a healthy amount of wallow in the more "standard" modes. Yeah, it wallows just like a Lincoln of old, nodding agreeably over frost heaves and the like, but "Engage" really does take most (not all, dammit) of it out, which makes for a far more interesting driving experience.

The other drive modes are "Conserve" (I think that translates to "eco"), "Slippery" and "Deep Conditions."

It's a handsome vehicle inside and out, and looks to be built very well.

I had some issues with getting the Nautilus to lock without using the key fob. The vehicle features Ford's longtime numeric code on the B pillar feature, with a lock/unlock icon displayed there as well. Usually, there's a touch thingy on the door handle (the Nautilus has really cool door handles outside, btw, though the inner ones are a tad off-putting), but here I had to use the lock/unlock icon on the pillar, and it didn't work a lot of the time, forcing me to use the key fob.

I asked a Ford guy about this (at a dealership) and he told me it's immature technology, which I knew was a crock because Ford has been using such a keypad system forever.

That said, from the 24-way power-adjustable driver's seat you have a great greenhouse to see the world around you, and I found the oval-ish steering wheel very comfortable in the hands and kind of reminiscent of an airplane's yoke. It's quite cool.

Alas, the all-digital, vehicle spanning instrument panel is also cool, but I'd rather not have screens vying for my attention all the time I'm driving. Besides, most of the stuff on the wall of screens (which is somewhat customizable) is also represented on the centre stack LCD and the stuff that isn't, such as weather info (which can be nice when the car actually notices correctly where you are, which it didn't always on a trip we took to Banff) is merely gilding the lily anyway – you can see the weather via the regular greenhouse and the lovely panoramic sunroof.

Too much stuff (such as HVAC, audio controls etc.) is controlled by the LCD screen in the middle, which I found to be finicky and hard to use safely when driving. I was left wanting more buttons and switches, things you can actually operate without much thought. Stabbing at touch screens in a moving vehicle can be counterproductive (hit a bump and you may activate a feature other than what you wanted) and/or dangerous. This isn't just a Lincoln thing, alas.

Paddle shifters would be nice, too. The car drives well and I liked the transmission, but a decent set of paddles gives the driver more control in situations such as going downhills.

The 28-speaker Revel Ultima 3D audio system sounds great and I was a big fan of it! It wasn't without issue, however, because once – after turning the Nautilus off at a mall and firing it up again afterward, it refused to work on any input. Voice control wasn't any help, either. I ended up having to let the Nautilus seethe for a while (well, we both seethed) until it deigned to behave again.

And then, of course, it worked fine.

You can option the Nautilus with something called Lincoln Rejuvenate, which is kind of a "lifestyle feature" that changes the interior lighting, seat position, screen visuals, and massaging-seat settings to help the occupants relax. We liked the massaging.

If you really want to raise a stink about something, there's also a feature that uses a scent cartridge mounted in the center armrest to emit aromas that fill the interior with, well, we thought it was horrible-smelling stuff and one of the first things we did was take the damn thing out so it couldn't assault our nostrils any more.

Lincoln's website says this about the stinky stuff:

"With a tap of the display, choose from three introductory scents for your cabin – Mystic Forest, an earthy blend of cedarwood and patchouli; Ozonic Azure for a cool, arctic-inspired fragrance; or imagine hanging fresh linens in the countryside with the crisp and floral smell of Violet Cashmere. Four additional scents are available to order."

Yeah, I think we'll pass. But at least they tried something new, eh?

All "Nautili" feature Lincoln's Co-Pilot360 suite of driver-assistance features as standard, which means you have to pay for them even if you're just going to shut them off. There's also Lincoln's "BlueCruise" hands-free highway driver-assist technology.

Nannies include automated emergency braking with pedestrian detection, lane-keeping assist with lane-departure warning, adaptive cruise control with a hands-free driving mode, etc.

The Lincoln Nautilus' prices start at $60,195 and you can option it up – quite a bit! – from there.

There's a lot to like with the new Lincoln Nautilus. While I think they went overboard with the screens, etc., all this tech could, I suppose, bring some younger folk into Lincoln showrooms, and that's probably not a bad thing. Whether or not they like how all this tech was actually done, is another matter.