2020 Lincoln Aviator vs 2021 Ford Explorer

The heyday for Lincoln was more than a half-century ago. Those postwar years of prosperity and optimism were the perfect time for cars like the Continental and others. They delivered comfort and luxury, wrapped in midcentury modern styling. Even as recently as the 1990s, Lincoln was still a popular brand, riding the SUV craze with its Navigator.

But after the turn of the century, Lincoln lost its ability to create new designs and looked inward and backward. Sure, retro-themed cars like the redesigned Mustang, PT Cruiser, and Chevy HHR had turned some heads, but none of those came from luxury brands. The BMWs and Mercedes of the world were all looking forward and pushing the envelope for contemporary automotive design. Meanwhile, Lincoln offered the MKX, which was based on the Ford Edge and featured ’66 Continental styling. Neat in a vacuum, but off-base compared to the modern luxury market.

This experimental phase with various retro looks coincided with the move to the MK-# alphabet-soup naming convention and big improvements in the Ford lineup, where top-end trims of the Fusion overlapped with an entry-level trim of the MKZ. The combination left Lincoln a confusing, anonymous afterthought in the modern luxury game.

But Lincoln is finally ready to change all that. It has a new cohesive design language, its focus is once again on luxury, and the three-letter naming convention that never meant anything to anyone other than Lincoln marketers is gone. The brand led with the 2017 Continental and 2018 Navigator, which are each impressive in their own right. But the company's lineup is growing and now includes the all-new 2020 Lincoln Aviator. Named after a luxury variant of the 2002-2005 Ford Explorer, this new Aviator is also based on the contemporary Explorer platform, but it's a luxury vehicle in its own right.

Much of the success of the Lincoln brand may hinge on this midsize, 3-row luxury SUV, so you need to consider its competition, such as the Audi Q7, Infiniti QX60, and all-new Cadillac XT6. Read on to learn if Lincoln’s take on luxury will stand out in a crowded competitive field.

There was a time when everybody in America seemingly drove an Explorer. That may be an exaggeration, but not by much. In its first four years of production, Ford sold over a million examples. In 1998, Ford was selling its second-generation Explorer at a rate of nearly 440,000 per year. Whether your family purchased an Explorer or not, this was the nameplate that invented the midsize SUV segment.

Fast forward to the 2021 model year and the Explorer is in its sixth generation. It's now a three-row SUV that clocks in at a maximum of 4,700 pounds, with a price tag north of $50,000 for the Explorer Platinum trim level. Long gone are the days when it was the only game in town. Almost every automaker has a competitor. So how does the Explorer shake out for 2021?