The 2024 Lincoln Nautilus Black Label is Ford’s luxury arm’s answer to the Cadillac XT5 and the Lexus RX350. It’s a mid-sized SUV crammed with tech and luxury features, with the Black Label designation indicating that the vehicle also comes with the top level of trim Lincoln currently offers. But what’s it actually like to drive? Does it relieve any of the burdens that usually come with driving long distances? And how practical is it for everyday use?
Lincoln was kind enough to lend me a Nautilus Black Label for a week and give me a destination to head to. It involved a couple of hours of motorway driving, coupled with a few winding mountain roads, and inclement weather made an appearance. This, along with a few personal trips I had to take the Nautilus on, gave me a good chance to see everything the SUV has to offer. Here’s what I gathered after putting it through its paces.
The 2024 Lincoln Nautilus Black Label is great for getting used to Blue Cruise
Buying a Lincoln is one of the easiest ways to get Ford’s Blue Cruise level 2 self-driving system. All of Lincoln’s vehicles that come with Blue Cruise also have a four-year free subscription to the service.
While I’ve went hands-on (or off to be specific) with Blue Cruise before, this was a great opportunity to go in depth with the feature.
If you find a long stretch of road where Blue Cruise can be enabled, it really does take all of the effort out of driving. Yes, you need to keep your eyes on the road, and it will remind you to do so if you do so much as take a deep swig from a water bottle or look down to pick a new song on Spotify, but aside from that, it’s a truly hands-free experience.
Lane changes can be performed with a tap of the turn signal, and the system performs said lane changes very smoothly.
With that being said, it’s important to note that Blue Cruise is still a level 2 system, and you need to step in when required. The system may require you to take the wheel when the road markings become unclear or when it enters a section of highway that is not marked as Blue Cruise ready yet. You’ll also need to intervene if you see law enforcement or vehicle recovery at the side of the road. The system won’t spot things like that and move over for you. With that being said, such occurrences are a great time to use the lane change feature if it’s safe to do so.
During my trip, I had to take the vehicle through a few work zones. Blue Cruise managed to navigate these without incident, though it did get uncomfortably close to a concrete barrier at one point. The system did nothing wrong, but it does highlight the trust issues many people have with this emerging tech.
It’s also important to note that driving “hands-on” in the non-Blue Cruise stretches is, to me, less comfortable than just turning the cruise control off and doing it all manually. That’s what I found myself doing a lot of the time, with said cruise control coming back on when I got back to a Blue Cruise area.
The mapping is thorough but oddly inconsistent in places. I had to drive between Schenectady and Utica during the testing period, and the stretch of I-90 going out was pretty inconsistent when it came to Blue Cruise stretches. In contrast, I-90 was essentially all Blue Cruise heading east on the way back. Coverage is an area that is likely to improve tremendously over the next few years, so this part is very much an “at the time of writing” kind of thing.
The 2024 Lincoln Nautilus Black Label is obviously a luxury vehicle
Lincoln went through a bit of a dark period a few years back where corners were cut, and the luxury feel of their vehicles was greatly diminished. The plastic used felt cheap, and the horrendous metallic coverings coated many surfaces. It all just felt like a very thin facade had been applied to a big standard Ford.
Now, things are a bit different. There’s a definite feel of quality to the inside of the Nautilus. Leather coats pretty much everything, and where plastic is used, it feels solid and of high quality. None of that thin, hard nonsense that makes its way into too many vehicles.
Interior colors vary, but the one I encountered was a classic cream-like color that went very well with the black exterior. The Black Label variant comes with its own interior choices and has a few unique touches on offer. The Black Label vehicle I tested had massage seats up front, too, and those really do take the edge off a long road trip.
The ride is also very comfortable. Even in “sport” mode, the vehicle cruised over New York’s notoriously awful roads without too much of an issue. I’d say the ride quality was definitely a highlight of the vehicle and felt on par with the likes of Cadillac.
The bottom line is that when you’re spending this amount, you really want to feel like you’ve stepped into a luxury vehicle every time that door closes. This Nautilus ticks that box. With that being said, I was in Lincoln’s top-end trim and milage may vary somewhat if you pick something closer to entry-level.
There is plenty of space on offer
There are far bigger SUVs in Lincoln’s range, but the Nautilus is very much in a sweet spot. While five seats may not be enough for larger families and folks chauffeuring entire Little League teams around, it covers most people’s needs quite handily.
Those in the back have plenty of leg room and should have a luxury experience close to the folks in the front. There’s even a power outlet back there with enough juice to keep a laptop charged on the move.
In terms of storage, trunk space is very generous and can handle a small family’s vacation baggage with lots of room to spare. Said space can obviously be extended at the expense of the back seat, and there are lots of little storage cubbies around the vehicle.
Up front, you feel like you’re in a large yet very manageable SUV. There’s a comfortable amount of space around both driver and passenger, you’re high up enough to get a great view of the road ahead, and it all feels very cozy.
The full dash display is more than you might need
Lincoln is one of the few marques currently offering a full dash display. Said display is present in the Nautilus, and while the necessity of such displays is up for debate, with some manufacturers opting to take a different path, I for one appreciated the flexibility.
The display is heavily customisable. You can comfortably place maps, music, weather reports, or vehicle information where you please. This means less time is spent flicking through menus and more time is spent with your eyes on the road. If the display is proving distracting for the person driving, you can simply switch parts of it off.
Themes can also be selected, and the size of the display means such themes drastically alter the feeling of the vehicle. A wet forest will feel very different from a breezy seaside. Customization options could also be expanded through future over the air updates. Though there is a pretty good selection as things stand, and everything important seems to fit very comfortably.
The steering wheel is unique
Yoke wheels are pretty controversial, but that’s not really what you have here. Instead, you have a traditional wheel that has been squashed into a somewhat square shape. It’s also steer by wire, obviously, as most modern vehicles are.
Still, the quirky wheel doesn’t take a lot of getting used to and serves an obvious purpose. Putting as much effort into the display as Lincoln has wouldn’t make a lot of sense if a steering wheel was going to block most of it out. The square wheel obscures far less of the driver’s view, gives the vehicle a unique look, and is actually very comfortable if your hands are at nine and three like they’re supposed to be. It also feels a bit space-aged when combined with the customizable dash. Which harks back to that period when mini vans were seemingly designed to feel like a lower tech Starship Enterprise. Unfortunately, there isn’t an option to make the acceleration sound like a thruster, but who knows what might happen if and when Lincoln goes all-electric.
Even your nostrils get to relax in the 2024 Lincoln Nautilus Black Label
Digital scent is one of the more unique features modern Lincoln’s boast, and it’s essentially a futuristic twist on the old-fashioned air freshener. The vehicle comes with an array of smells, which should evoke the sea, or a forest, or some other calming scene.
Three digital scents come with the vehicle, and more can be purchased afterward. The actual modules which contain the scent are hidden away within the central armrest. Swapping them out when you want something new, or when you’ve run out of a certain smell, is very simple. Running out may take a while though, I was messing around with each scent for a long time and used less than 1%.
The intensity and duration of the scent can also be adjusted. Each scent has an accompanying animation, too, so the large display will reflect the smell you have chosen.
It’s not a high-performance car, but it shouldn’t have to be
So how does it drive when you aren’t leaving it to its own devices? Despite it being a smaller to mid-sized SUV, you do feel its weight in the corners and its acceleration is a little sluggish compared to other options. It’s not slow by any means, and my perception may be skewed by the number of sports cars and EVs I end up in, but a 0-60 time north of 7 seconds does seem a little tame by modern standards.
Then there’s a question of grip. With all-wheel drive as standard, and Ford’s traction control system, finding and maintaining traction in an array of conditions should be par for the course. However, the Nautilus seems pretty understeer prone, and I had to consciously keep my right foot in check while driving through heavy rain, lest the tires give me a screeching reminder to rein it in a bit.
So no driving like a hooligan in the Nautilus, but it should serve you well while transporting your grandma to church on a Sunday morning. And that’s probably what it should be, a smooth slice of luxury for those who want to get around with as little discomfort as possible. A comfortable little haven that will give you an opportunity to relax before you get to, and when you’re headed back from, your destination.
