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Deliberately retrogressive styling touches outside the Lincoln Navigator carry through inside, only more so. Presumably the thinking goes something like this: re-create the charm and romance of a simpler time, and the glory of Lincoln Continentals and Zephyrs past, updated with the convenience and function of a new millennium.The Navigator interior may do that for some. For others, it may simply inspire memories of sitting in their parents' (or grandparents') behemoth sedan in the early-to-mid 1960s. Either way, if you like the retro design you won't be disappointed with the finish. Particularly with the lighter Anigre wood trim, the square-ish shapes and flat switch clusters inside the Navigator generate a kind of post-modern, Scandinavian feel (furniture, not cars). The leather is thick and soft. The plastics, with some retro-looking graining, are nice to the touch. There's a mix of satin-nickel and chrome peppered throughout the cabin, and nothing looks overtly cheap, as it does in some other recent products from Lincoln's parent Ford Motor Co. The only real gripe in our test vehicle was the seam where the wood panel for the center stack blended down into the wood on the center console. It felt more like a bump. One of the Navigator's obvious strengths is space, seemingly acres of it, in all directions. The front seats are large and thickly padded, yet they adjust to accommodate all sizes, from NBA forwards to those who must sit up close to the wheel to peer over the tall dash. Power adjustable pedals are standard, and they can be moved forward or back with a button on the dash. These pedals have their advantages, but they would be more valuable if the power-adjustable steering column telescoped in addition to moving up and down. Without a telescoping wheel, the pedals don't really add anything to the adjustment mix. If we had to choose one or the other, we'd choose the telescoping wheel. One minor annoyance with the Navigator's driver's seat is the speed at which it automatically moves backward or forward when the key is removed or inserted. In most cases, this is a welcome feature that makes it easier to climb in and out of a tall vehicle, and the Navigator's slow-moving seat may or may not have been related to sub-zero temperatures during our test drive. Yet at times the driver's seat moved so slowly that you could literally be backed out of a parking space and going forward before it had returned to its set position. Once the driver gets comfortable, however, it's hard to beat the commanding view ahead. A Greyhound bus or tractor-trailer rig are about the only vehicles on the road that can obstruct the driver's forward vision in a Navigator. The gauge package is the weak link in the Navigator's interior. The dials look like they're straight out of the 1960s, with black script on a white background and white lighting. They're not as crisp as some other, more contemporary schemes. The speedometer and tachometer are fine, but the four auxiliary gauges across the top (fuel level and coolant temperature among them) aren't. They're small to begin with and essentially covered by the steering wheel rim if a driver likes to keep the wheel low in its travel range. Switches and control buttons are generally well placed, concentrated in the center stack or on stalks on both sides of the wheel. Most are big enough to hit with gloved fingers, and they have a nice, positive operating action. The gripe here is a row of switches near the bottom of the stack controlling the fans and seat heating and cooling, among other things. The buttons are on the small side, but the illuminated pictographs on them are tiny, so they seem even smaller than they really are in the dark. The navigation system works very well. The video screen is small, but the system is easy to figure out without studying the owner's manual. We found it easy to prog
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