An Expert Navigator of Sport-Ute Terrain

I haven’t attracted this much attention with a vehicle since falling off my first motorcycle.

Part clown and multipurposeful, a wild thing of great girth and serious luxury, it’s the 1998 Lincoln Navigator--a definite standard-bearer if only as the first domestic luxury marque to plow head-on into the omnifarious sport utility market.

Our tester came in red, twinkling and grinning like an oversized Techron car, and to automobile-canny Southern California, it will be love at first glance.

It shouldn’t be so easy. Because most personal accommodations this size come with split levels, two mortgages and doggy door. Or in hepatitis yellow with school district decals. “Independence Day” was filmed on a sound stage smaller than this.

Fully loaded, the Navigator outweighs Rhode Island; fully armed, it could bring peace to Northern Ireland. Only Mae West flounced and heaved better, although her bosoms were smaller than the Navigator’s side mirrors.

And, just maybe, the 1998 Lincoln Navigator is the SUV to trump ‘em all, the coup de gra^ce that will still all this multinational silliness over who can build the largest, hairiest, heaviest, strongest, bulkiest, most luxurious, most brazen and bullyragging sport utility since the first Range Rover. Which always looked suspiciously like Buckingham Palace with wheels.

Lincoln needs make no apologies for the Navigator.

Other makers set the pace. Buyers wanted huge, higher and stronger, with all the comforts of Westin. Plus more grip and outdoors power than an Alaskan grizzly, even with our off-road adventures limited to climbing speed bumps.

Therefore, as the ultimate weapon for this odd, over-demanding segment that will buy 2.2 million sport utilities by year’s end--or 16% of U.S. car-truck sales--Lincoln has gone overpriced, oversized and wonderfully overboard.

You want tough? The Navigator is based on the heavy-duty, box-section frame and V-8 powertrain of the Ford Expedition, a clone of the F-150 truck, which already meets federal 1999 side impact standards and could be T-boned by a hippo without flinching.

Expensive luxury? Base prices start at $42,660, and relatively basic options--such as chrome aluminum wheels--will create a quick ascent to $46,000. Once there, however, you are motoring through life in broad-backed and well-upholstered buckets-cum-sofas surrounded by soft, monochromatic leather; real burled walnut inserts; and a wood and leather steering wheel that’s quite familiar. Of course. Lincoln is a division of Ford, which owns Jaguar, which has the same steering wheel on its new and lovely XK8 series.

Enormity? Navigator stretches 17 feet, which is mini-limo length. At 6 feet, 4 inches, it is as tall as John Wayne, and at 5,585 pounds, it outweighs 30 George Clooneys. Depending on the choice of floor plan, it will carry eight adults in total comfort in three rows--with one cup holder per person--and tow more than its own weight in horses, boats or any U-Haul large enough for a one-bedroom apartment of furniture--including washer, dryer and your old Z-Brick barbecue that seemed such a good idea at the time.

The chromed grille, optional chromed 17-inch wheels, chromed door handles, chromed luggage rack and chromed window trim show more sparkle than a Union 76 tanker truck. Which is a pretty convenient analogy for a sport utility that wheezes to reach double-digit gas consumption in the city, and gets only 17 mpg rolling at snowbird speeds on the flattest interstate.

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But all must be forgiven by the compelling audacity of the entire package, the courage of the concept and the Navigator’s small but delightful ingredients.

Shortage of seat-back nets, map pockets and cubbies has never been a sport utility issue. Yet they always seem to be a smidge smaller than whatever you are trying to stuff inside.

Not so with the Navigator. Its center console would gulp a small dog, and one must grope the bottom of the bin to locate the cell phone it swallowed earlier. Between the pub-bucket seats in the second row, there’s a locker that’s bigger than a picnic basket, looks watertight, and suggests a bag of ice and two six-packs of O’Doul’s.

The headlight reflectors and lenses have diamond facets and a look just short of costume jewelry. The running boards are broad enough to be functional--and should be, in a lofty vehicle with a 9-inch step-down--and are illuminated. There are heating and cooling ducts front and rear, sound piped front and rear--and controls for both front and rear.

Plus auxiliary power jacks, removable rear seats, and second-generation air bags with softer, supposedly saner deployment that won’t crack your contact lenses. Whether fluffier pillows will save us from cracked skulls remains to be seen.

But beneath all this fun and froufrou, there dwells a high-tech cart horse. The engine is a 5.4-liter V-8 developing 230 horsepower (better than Land Rover Discovery, but down from GMC’s Yukon) and 325 pounds of torque (way better than Range Rover, and even the Dodge Dakota pickup).

There are load-leveling shocks and traction controls, four-wheel anti-lock brakes and air suspension. The vehicle is available as a two-wheel driver or as a pur sang 4WD with Ford’s manual, dashboard, brainless switching from 2WD to 4WD to Auto Invisible and leave the traction to Hal. Off road, this is a leather-lined bulldozer that in the rough will get down and dirty with the competition--even with jungle-busting utility vehicles well below Navigator’s social level. Expect a ton of lurching, but very little groaning and never a sense of being overwhelmed by the terrain.

On road--thanks to extensive insulation that muffles powertrain and road noise, as well as Wu-Tang Clan barking from the tricked-out Honda Civic idling alongside--highway travel is a subdued ride. In a straight line, handling is peaceful and, of course, luxurious. But do anything sudden, and roll and pitch levels become uncomfortable with recovery biased toward overcorrection, thanks to moderately overpowered steering.

But with very little of its silhouette or cladding betraying any family resemblance to the Expedition, with total luxury clearly built in and not glued on, the Navigator should be a huge, even unexpected coup for Lincoln.

If alive and in a buying mood, Oscar Wilde would be well pleased with this vehicle. He knew that nothing succeeds like excess.

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1998 Lincoln Navigator

The Good: Large, luxurious, powerful, with bits borrowed from Jaguar. Many performance and technology pluses. Guaranteed to drop the average age of Lincoln buyers to 23. An easy handler despite its outer girth.

The Bad: Pricey. Spongy. When exiting, watch out for that first step.

The Ugly: Gas mileage an oil industry’s dream, your nightmare.

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1998 Lincoln Navigator

Cost

* Base: $42,660. (Includes automatic transmission, anti-lock brakes, load-leveling suspension, air bags, keyless entry with alarm system, leather-faced seats, power doors and windows, tilt steering, wood and leather wheel.)

* As tested, $46,000, estimated. (Adds six-disc CD changer and 290-watt sound system, 17-inch chrome-alloy wheels, auxiliary climate controls.)

Engine

* 5.4-liter, 16-valve, V-8 developing 230 horsepower.

Type

* Front-engine, eight-passenger, four-wheel-drive sport utility.

Performance

* 0-60 mph, as tested, 12.9 seconds.

* Top speed, 110 mph, estimated.

* Fuel consumption, EPA city and highway, 13 and 17 mpg.

Curb Weight

* 5,585 pounds.