2021 Lincoln Nautilus Road Test and Review

2021 Lincoln Nautilius ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Many luxury vehicles are marvelous machines, engineered with incredible performance capabilities and cutting-edge technologies. And that’s great for driving enthusiasts or other connoisseurs. But sometimes, you just want to relax. 

That’s where Lincoln comes in. The brand is perhaps best known for its iconic Town Car sedan, an old-school sofa cushion on wheels that’s been out of production for a decade. These days, Lincoln sells only luxury SUVs and crossovers — including the freshly updated mid-size 2021 Lincoln Nautilus. The Nautilus boasts plenty of space for five passengers, a quiet ride, an upscale design, and no shortage of luxury features. And with a starting price of $42,500, it costs less than some compact European models. Let’s go over the details.

Gentle Exterior

Soft but not saggy, restrained but not dull — that’s how the Nautilus comes across to us. Its exterior design instantly telegraphs this gentle crossover’s focus on comfort and quiet. 

Yet especially from the front, it also has presence. High-mounted headlights sit astride an upright chromed grille, with the vertical Lincoln logo running down the center. The front end arrived with the Nautilus name for the 2019 model year; the rest of the vehicle largely carries over from the Lincoln MKX model sold from 2016 to 2018. To some eyes, that leaves the gently curved body looking anonymous, especially when it’s sharing a showroom with sharper-edged models like the newer, larger Lincoln Aviator. To others, it’s a welcome show of design restraint in a market segment where many SUVs are styled for aggressive performance. Our test vehicle’s flashy 21-inch wheels don’t match the overall design to our tastes, though; this is a case where the base 18-inch wheels may actually fit the vehicle better than the expensive upgrades. 

Photo by Brady Holt

All-New Interior

This year brought an all-new interior to the Nautilus, and it’s a stunner. Lincoln dramatically upgraded the design, technology, and materials. The result is the elusive balance between style and functionality. 

Last year’s Nautilus had a fairly anonymous dashboard that would have looked right at home in the Ford Edge, the vehicle’s mechanical cousin. The new design is borrowed from other Lincoln models. The horizontal, rectangular-themed dashboard recalls American cars of the 1980s — only with far better materials and smoothly integrated technology. The centerpiece is a huge 13.2-inch infotainment touchscreen, replacing last year’s modest 8-inch unit. It’s standard equipment on every Nautilus, and its big fonts and muted graphics make it both elegant and easy to use. You can also use your phone apps on the screen through Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, which now connect wirelessly as well. Most trim levels include wireless phone chargers, too, so you’d never need to clutter the cabin with cables. And you can handle most common functions through well-arranged buttons and knobs. A few lower-grade plastics hide around the cabin that you wouldn’t find in an Audi, but Lincoln sweated most details to make a stellar interior overall.

Photo by Brady Holt

'Ultra Comfort' Seats

Every Nautilus has cushy seats and ample space to spread out. This mid-size five-seat crossover offers generous rear legroom, and it’s wide enough for three adults to sit across the back (albeit with a hard backrest in the center-rear position). We did find that while the thick front seatbacks are shaped to make extra space for passengers’ knees, their bulk leaves less room to install a rear-facing child safety seat; we had to slide the front seats uncomfortably forward to make room. 

You can also opt for Lincoln’s “Ultra Comfort” seats, which offer 22-way adjustments and a massage feature. These seats let you independently move different parts of the seatback and cushion, then lock in your preference in the SUV’s memory system. It took us a while to get things just right, but if you’re not thrilled with the standard Nautilus seats, it can be worth the bother and expense. The Ultra Comfort seats are a $1,500 option on all but the base Nautilus trim level. 

Photo by Brady Holt

Useful Cargo Capacity

Many luxury crossovers give up lots of cargo space in the name of sporty styling or bulky suspension systems. Even the Nautilus has less space than some mainstream-brand compact crossovers. 

Still, this Lincoln crushes its closest competitors’ cargo-carrying abilities. It has 37 cubic feet behind its rear seat — twice what you’ll find in a Lexus RX 350 — and 69 cubic feet with the rear seat folded. The seat folds easily with the push of a button in the cargo hold. There is one drawback: The Nautilus can tow only 3,500 pounds with either its four-cylinder or V6 engine when equipped with an optional trailering package, which isn’t great for a mid-size SUV but matches its closest competitors. 

Photo by Brady Holt

Quiet Ride

The Nautilus’s suspension isn’t a work of art like a BMW X5’s or Audi Q7’s. This is a mainstream Ford Edge that’s dressed up for luxury duty, not something engineered from the ground up to dazzle. That means it rides and handles well without offering a vault-like feel or sports-car agility. Our test vehicle’s big 21-inch wheels also do the ride no favors over bumps. The big deal is quietness, as Lincoln has worked hard to keep noise out of the cabin by any means possible — including acoustic window and windshield glass along with a noise-cancellation system. 

The Nautilus comes standard with a 250-horsepower turbocharged four-cylinder engine, which strikes us as the sensible choice. Our test vehicle includes a 335-horsepower V6 for livelier performance, but it’s a pricey add-on. And we wouldn’t consider the Nautilus a natural fit for livelier performance anyway. The four-cylinder engine gets an EPA-estimated 23 mpg in mixed driving with front-wheel drive and 22 mpg with all-wheel drive. The AWD-only V6 averages 21 mpg, and we hit 23 mpg during our test. 

Photo by Brady Holt

Top Safety Pick

Every Nautilus includes a suite of safety features called Co-Pilot360: a forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, lane-keeping steering assistance, and blind-spot monitoring. You can also upgrade to Co-Pilot360+, which has further driver aids like adaptive cruise control and automatic lane-centering. A handy surround-view camera is also a useful parking aid, and the big screen has room to also show where the parking sensors identified an obstacle. However, the cameras aren’t sufficiently high-resolution to provide a crisp view across the big screen, making the image look grainy. 

The Nautilus earned a top five-star score in all National Highway Traffic Safety Administration crash tests. It also received a Top Safety Pick designation from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, with top marks in all crash tests and decent performance in automatic emergency braking tests. However, most Nautilus headlights did poorly in the organization’s tough headlight illumination test.

Photo by Brady Holt

Attractive Starting Price

The Nautilus brings plenty of features at its starting price of $42,500. In addition to all the safety features and the big infotainment screen, even the base Nautilus Standard includes a power liftgate, leatherette upholstery, heated front seats with driver-seat memory, and a 10-speaker stereo. And unlike European competitors, genuine leather is part of a relatively affordable $1,815 package bundled with a navigation system. 

Choose your add-ons carefully, though. While Lincoln has no shortage of options to choose from, you’ll pay up for some of them. All-wheel drive costs $2,500 extra on most models. You’ll spend nearly $50,000 if you want a sunroof, ventilated front seats, a heated steering wheel, or a sunroof, and $1,500 more for the Ultra Comfort seats. You’ll spend $53,000 for adaptive cruise control. You’ll spend at least $55,000 if you want the V6 engine. And if you combine enough of those features (and more), you end up with our test vehicle’s staggering $77,990 price tag. We love the Nautilus in the low $40,000s, but it’s a tougher sell for nearly $80,000. 

Photo by Brady Holt

Competitors to Consider

The Nautilus most closely competes with the Lexus RX and Cadillac XT5. Both are five-seat mid-size crossovers, and both are mechanically derived from less expensive models (the Toyota Highlander and GMC Acadia, respectively). 

The Lincoln is roomier than those competitors, is our favorite of the three to drive, and has the lowest starting price. And with its new interior, it also has the best fit and finish, the best technology, and the easiest-to-use controls. The others have edgier styling, though, and the RX gets better gas mileage — especially if you choose its gas-electric hybrid version. You could also shop it against the three-row Acura MDX, which has sportier handling despite its huge interior; its dashboard has a tech vibe rather than a luxury one, though, and its controls are a pain to use. You can also consider the Nautilus as a roomier, quieter alternative to similarly priced compact crossovers like the Mercedes-Benz GLC, BMW X3, and Audi Q5, though it feels bulkier and doesn’t have their handling poise. 

Photo by Brady Holt

A Great SUV That Just Got Better

We’ve been fans of the Nautilus even since it was called the MKX. It’s roomy, quiet, and relatively affordable, and its controls are simple to use — elusive qualities in far too many luxury suvs. Now, thanks to this year’s update, it also delivers a generously sized infotainment screen and a more elegant interior design. 

The Nautilus is at its best as a relatively affordable luxury crossover, without all its expensive options. Even so, it’s not impossible to see it as an alternative to a top-tier model like the BMW X5 or Mercedes-Benz GLE. If you want a posh, relaxing luxury SUV that doesn’t drive you up the wall with fussy controls, the Nautilus is a great option at any price. 

Photo by Brady Holt