2020 Lincoln Aviator

So, whether it is carrying the family to the countryside or driving around the city while having business meetings on the rear seat, the new Lincoln Aviator has a package that could fit and fulfill everybody’s needs. Plus, it comes with an extremely competitive price tag and undercuts most of its rivals, starting at MSRP $52,195. In this in-depth review, we discuss the 2020 Lincoln Aviator inside out and see why all its rivals should be wary of it.

The Lincoln Aviator is offered in 5 different trim levels with prices starting from $52,195 and climbing all the way up to $88,895. Three trims of the Aviator are offered with a regular powertrain while two trims of the SUV are offered with a hybrid electric powertrain. We’ve listed down a few standout features of all the trims of the Aviator in the table below.

Which Trim should you buy?

If you’re looking for a luxury SUV to carry your family along then the Reserve trim should just suffice. It comes with plenty of features and equipment and is just enough for daily driving and long highway hauls with 7 passengers. It comes with all the bells and whistles minus the powerful hybrid electric powertrain.

The 2020 Lincoln Aviator as standard comes equipped with a 3 liter, twin-turbo, V6 engine that is mated to a 10-speed automatic gearbox. The engine churns out a whopping 400 and 415 lb-ft of torque and these numbers are just crazy for a vehicle in this segment. All this power and torque is sent to the rear wheels as standard while you can always pay extra and avail the all-wheel-drive configuration. The Grand Touring and the Black Label Grand Touring trim of the Aviator gets a hybrid powertrain that consists of the same twin-turbo V6 unit along with a 100 hp electric motor. The hybrid powertrain churns out a combined 494 horses and 630 lb-ft of torque which is absolutely insane for an SUV like this one.

In its standard guise, the Aviator does a 0-60 mph in about 5.4 seconds and hits the quarter-mile mark in about 14.1 seconds. The SUV’s top speed is electronically limited to 145 mph and it has the capacity to go even faster. And if you think that these numbers aren’t good enough for an almost 5000 lbs., 7-seater SUV, then you can opt for the higher Grand Touring trims that get you the more powerful hybrid engine. The Aviator, when equipped with a hybrid powertrain, does a 0-60 mph run in 5 seconds flat and covers the quarter-mile mark in just 13.6 seconds which is pretty quick for a vehicle of its size and shape. The engine, power, and performance are the best aspects of the Aviator and no other SUV in the segment comes quite close to it.

The Aviator has the best performance numbers in the competition. The SUV that comes closest to it is the Cadillac XT6. The XT6 produces 310 horses and 271 lb-ft of torque and does a 0-60 mph in 6.9 seconds and a quarter-mile run in about 15.1 seconds which is much slower than the Aviator. The XT6 is also pricier than the Aviator by about $1000 and so, the Lincoln offers you much more power and performance for less money. The Volvo XC90 is the cheapest around here but it also gets much lower power and performance numbers. For a few thousand dollars more, the Aviator has a way superior performance package to offer.

How well does the 2020 Lincoln Aviator handle?

The Lincoln Navigator is a large SUV and it drives like a large SUV. Yes, it is pretty quick off the straight line thanks to its punchy engine and slick-shifting gearbox, but when it comes to the handling and driving department, it still has the old-school, large SUV behavior. The first thing that you’ll notice after getting behind the wheel is how light it is, but there is not much feedback on offer. Well, this is a fast SUV but then driving it is not as enjoyable as you want it to be. 

Ride quality on the other hand is plush like it should be in a luxury SUV. The suspension setup is on the softer side and it absorbs all the bumps and potholes and hardly any travel up to your spine. However, there is a good amount of body roll and the body of the SUV does roll a bit too much when you throw it around the corners. We would have expected the Aviator to do better in terms of body control and driving dynamics and this is one area that plays spoilsport for the SUV that has a very lively and punchy engine otherwise.

2020 Lincoln Aviator Braking Performance

Braking performance and stats are often ignored but buyers need to understand that it’s the strong brakes that impart you the confidence of exploiting everything that the engine has got on offer. And the Aviator isn’t all that great in this area and poor braking performance is yet another factor that dents the SUV’s whole driving experience. The Aviator has a large set of brakes at the front and the back but they just lack the bite. This SUV stops after traveling 124 feet when brakes are hit at 60 mph. The Lincoln has the poorest braking performance in the competition and even its rivals that are heavier than it performs better.

The Volvo XC90 has the strongest set of brakes in the competition. The Volvo travels about 113 feet before coming to a complete stop from 60 mph. The Cadillac XT6 has the next best set of brakes and has a stopping distance of 120 feet. The Lexus GX 460 weighs over 5000 lbs. and yet delivers better braking performance than the Aviator and stops at a distance of 121 feet when brakes are stomped at 60 mph.

If you’re looking for a fuel-efficient SUV, then the luxury SUV segment is not the segment you should be looking at because all the vehicles here are proper gas guzzlers. The Lincoln Aviator delivers 18 MPG in the city and while on the highway it can return up to about 26 miles on a single gallon. It delivers a combined fuel economy of 21 MPG which clearly isn’t all that economical but still pretty decent compared to some other SUVs in the segment.

The Lexus GX 460 is the biggest gas guzzler in the competition. The Lexus chugs a gallon for traveling about 15 miles in the city and goes for about just 19 miles on the highway. The Volvo on the other hand has the best fuel economy numbers in the competition and delivers 25 MPG combined and it is the one to go for if you do not wish to spend much on fuel. The Aviator claims slightly better fuel economy numbers than the XT6 and the Lexus despite being the most powerful SUV in the competition.

Lincoln has upped its game in terms of quality of materials and levels of fit and finish over the years and that is pretty evident from the way the interior is built. Most of the time you will be looking at and touching bits and equipment made out of quality materials and Lincoln has taken good efforts to make the SUV offer an upmarket feel like its German rivals.

At the front, you have a nice, multi-contoured dashboard. The dashboard has a very unique design and is made of soft-touch plastic. The infotainment system sits right up in the middle of the dash while the controls are stacked up on the center console. There are also a few storage cubbies in the center console and the leather-wrapped armrest that add up to the practicality quotient of the car.

The head, shoulder, and legroom are ample and people of all shapes and sizes can comfortably fit on them. The seats are pretty snug and cushy and they just feel nice. The Aviator is offered in 7 and 6 seat configurations. With an ample amount of room for passengers, the Aviator also has a good amount of room for carrying luggage. Behind the third row, there are 18.3 cubic feet of cargo space while you can always fold the third row down to open up to about 41.8 cubic feet. The second row also goes down and then you have 83.4 cubic feet of the cargo area and you can load in even more.

The Lincoln is the biggest SUV in the competition and hence has the largest interior in the competition. In terms of quality of interiors and the overall plushness of the cabin, the Volvo just has a slight edge over all the cars in the segment. However, in terms of practicality and creature comfort, the Lincoln is still the best among all the cars in the segment. The list of features on offer with Aviator is pretty long and in fact, is the longest in the competition. We’ve listed down a few features offered on the inside of the Aviator below.

• 10-way power-adjustable Lincoln soft-touch heated front seats
• Leather-wrapped seats
• 35-30-35 split-folding second-row seats
• 50-50 split-folding third-row seats
• Leather-wrapped heated steering wheel
• Voice-activated dual-zone automatic climate control
• Leatherette door trim insert

What’s there to keep you entertained?

The 2020 Lincoln Aviator’s standard infotainment system is pretty decent and gets a good number of features. There is a large 10.1-inch touchscreen infotainment display that sits in the center of the dash and it is pretty easy and intuitive to use. The SUV as standard gets a 10-speaker audio system that delivers crisp audio. However, the higher trims of the Aviator get a Revel Ultima 3D audio system that has 28 speakers and that just takes the whole in-car entertainment experience to the next level. We’ve listed a few standard infotainment features offered with the SUV below:

• 10.1 touchscreen infotainment display
• 10-speaker audio system with subwoofer
• SiriusXM radio
• AM/FM radio
• Bluetooth smartphone integration
• Apple CarPlay
• Android Auto
• Steering mounted audio controls

The 2020 Lincoln Aviator shares its platform with the Ford Explorer but there’s no resemblance between the two cars. The Aviator just has a more grand and strong presence than the Explorer even though both the cars are similar in size and shape. The best part of the Aviator is that it doesn’t look overdone. Upfront, the Aviator has a large rectangular chrome-clad grille that looks rich and gives the car an upscale fascia. Then there are those striking swept-back headlights with DRLs that look cool and there's also a nice LED turn-indicator stripe that sits a couple of inches below the headlight.

The Aviator is the largest SUV in the competition. It simply is longer and wider than all the other SUVs in the segment. What SUV looks best is ultimately a matter of taste and we’ll let you decide that. But then there’s the Volvo XC90 that has an exotic and futuristic charm to it and that might just win more hearts and grab more eyeballs than the other SUVs on the block. The Lincoln Aviator also comes with a few interesting features on the outside. We’ve listed some of them below-

• 19-inch bright machined aluminum wheels
• Black power heated outside mirrors with auto-dimming, power-folding, and turn signal indicator
• Speed sensitive rain detecting variable intermittent wipers
• Front lip spoiler
• Powered liftgate
• LED brake lights
• Auto on/off aero-composite LED headlights with LED daytime running lights

The Lincoln Aviator does extremely well when it comes to safety features and ratings. The SUV gets a 5-star overall safety rating from the NHTSA which is pretty impressive. Also, it gets a ‘Good’ rating in almost all the safety tests conducted by the IIHS. Moreover, it is also the IIHS’ ‘2020 Top Safety Pick’ which is enough to prove that this SUV will keep its passengers safe and protected. To boost the safety quotient even further, the Aviator comes equipped with a list of safety features, a few of which have been mentioned below-

• Side-impact beams
• Blind-spot monitoring system
• Automatic emergency braking
• Cross-traffic alert
• Lane-keep assist
• Lane departure warning

2020 Lincoln Aviator Standard vs. 2020 Volvo XC90 T5 Momentum

The Volvo XC90 looks a bit dull when pitched up against the Aviator. The Volvo gets a bland 2 liter, 250 hp engine and is a pretty slow vehicle. Moreover, Aviator also beats the Volvo in terms of passenger space and cargo volume. For just $3000 more, the Aviator has got much more to offer. Yes, the Volvo has better fuel economy to offer and employs a better quality of materials on the inside but that’s just that. If you’re fine with spending more on fuel, the Lincoln Aviator is just the better vehicle of the two.

2020 Lincoln Aviator Standard vs. 2020 Cadillac XT6 Premium Luxury

The Cadillac XT6 is the homegrown rival of the Aviator. The XT6 competes closest to the Aviator in terms of power and performance but then it falls short to it by a good 90 horses and by a whole 1 second in terms of straight-line acceleration. The Aviator is also the bigger car of the two and hence has more passenger space and cargo area to offer. Plus, the Aviator is priced lower than the XT6, which makes the Aviator the most sensible vehicle between the two.

2020 Lincoln Aviator Standard vs. 2020 Lexus GX 460

The Lexus GX 460 is yet another potent 7-seater luxury SUV. But then, it is no match to the Lincoln Aviator. The Aviator just outclasses the Lexus and has everything much better to offer than what the Lexus has on board. Power, performance, fuel economy, luxury, presence, and even safety; the Lincoln beats the Lexus in all these areas. On top of this, the Aviator costs about $2000 less than the GX 460. Clearly, if you ever have to choose between the two, the Lincoln is certainly the one you should go for.

The new Lincoln Aviator pretty much ticks all the boxes right for what one would want from a 7-seater luxury SUV. It has the best power and performance in the segment, it has the highest amount of passenger and cargo space, it comes with a list of safety features and it is also priced lower than some of its arch-rivals. Yes, it does have a few downsides like not having the best handling package and not quite having the best fuel economy numbers but those factors can be ignored and sacrificed for everything else that the SUV has got on board. If you’re hunting for a vehicle in this segment, then the 2020 Aviator should certainly be on top of your list.