Lincoln Nautilus review

Lincoln mentioned to us that the Nautilus should drive like a yacht cutting through the waves and while we didn’t necessarily feel like we were at the command of a luxury vessel, the proverbial waters were quite calm. Hybrid or no, the Lincoln’s throttle was pleasantly surprising, giving the SUV some go without the sensation that we were dragging as much car as we were.

Due to the sound baffling and active noise cancellation, the shifts from electric to gas in the hybrid were nearly seamless, though we could sometimes sense some hesitation in the powertrain underfoot as it tried to decide which unit to go with in a particular situation.

The Nautilus’ adaptive suspension is quick to mitigate much of the choppier parts of the cruise. Body roll is certainly still present but it’s quite even-keeled. Driving it on some well-known twisties in the Californian desert of Palm Springs was more enjoyable than it had any right to be. While the car rightfully chafes at being pushed around, the roads were not wasted on us despite the SUV’s lack of confidence around sweeping bends.

We were fully prepared to be the ones pulling off in the turnouts for sportier drivers, but ended up putting on the pressure to others. To go home after getting passed by a Lincoln? That was someone’s afternoon ruined.

Is there a big difference between the standard and the hybrid?

Apart from that aforementioned throttle hesitancy, the differences are minimal. In the gas-only Nautilus, the pedal is punchier and quicker to respond. Lincoln says the different versions also have their suspension and steering calibrated to each powertrain, so they might feel ever so slightly different.

As expected, despite the sound deadening, we heard much more of the engine in that version. In short, the extra 20hp didn’t make a huge difference in our drive experience, though it was nice to cruise in slow traffic on electric power, plus the hybrid netted a solid 25.5mpg after a day of driving it in a very un-Lincoln-like way.