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Wish Fulfillment: The 2022 Lincoln Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring


2022 Lincoln Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring front 3/4 view

Like millions of Netflix viewers, my wife and I recently finished watching season five of The Crown. The story has moved into the early-mid 1990s and so the royals as well as the lawyers and BBC television executives are being chauffeured about in gorgeous then-new Mercedes-Benz S-Classes, Bentley Brooklands and round-headlamped Jaguar XJ6 saloons. And that's when it hit me. I miss those cars. More to the point, I miss that era's interpretation of luxury. At the time, I was in my late 30s and much more interested in sports cars---but with the success of Mercedes-AMG and BMW M, a lot of that performance-car ethic has trickled down into today's mainstream luxury vehicles. There's a lot of Nurburgring fantasies going on in the cockpits of today's top luxury cars. And maybe it's an illustration of the problem that I default to the word "cockpit" instead of "cabin", too. I wondered aloud to my wife if the type of luxury I was suddenly nostalgic for was gone forever---killed by the automotive tastes of----well, guys like me 30 years ago.

2022 Lincoln Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring rear 3/4 view

And then, three days after the season finale, a 2022 Lincoln Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring was left in my driveway. It was on my calendar. I knew it was coming. But for whatever reason, we don't see a lot of Lincolns in the press fleet. The last Lincoln I drove was the 2020 Corsair AWD Reserve, almost two and a half years ago. Before that? Three and a half years ago on the old TireKicker site---the 2019 Nautilus Black Label. And before that, almost four and a half years ago, the 2018 Navigator Black Label.


I drive 104 cars a year for a week at a time, plus another ten or 11 for half an hour each at Western Automotive Journalists' Media Days every year. I had forgotten what the inside of a modern Lincoln was like. And then I walked out to the Aviator and opened the door.

2022 Lincoln Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring front seats

2022 Lincoln Aviator Black Label Grand Touring door panel

2022 Lincoln Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring vent detail and stitching


2022 Lincoln Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring gear selector, audio and HVAC controls

Plush burgundy leather with contrasting stitching. Substantial knobs with brightwork and dark wood. THIS is what I was talking about.


2022 Lincoln Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring charging port

2022 Lincoln Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring hood up

2022 Lincoln Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring

But the Aviator is far more than an exercise in old-school style. Choose the Grand Touring model, like our tester, and you get a plug-in hybrid powerplant combining a 3.0-liter V6 gasoline engine with an electric motor that provides 21 miles of pure electric range per charge before switching over to a gasoline/electric hybrid that gets an EPA-estimated combined city/highway 23 mpg. If the range and the fuel economy figures sound a bit on the light side, they are, and it's because Lincoln, like most premium brands, has opted to use the hybrid to create serious power---494 horsepower and 630 lb-ft of torque. 0-60 runs happen in five seconds flat.

2022 Lincoln Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring

2022 Lincoln Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring

Both the cargo area and rear seats are spacious and well-trimmed.


Standard Aviator prices begin at $54,535 (destination included), but to get the full-luxe treatment you see here and the plug-in hybrid requires saying yes to the top-of-the-line Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring. And that price is $89,425.


2022 Lincoln Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring steering wheel and gauge cluster

2022 Lincoln Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring center screen and console

Got your breath back yet? Yeah, a nearly $35,000 jump from the bottom rung to the top of the ladder on the same basic vehicle is pretty substantial. But to Lincoln's credit, it's very close to a one-price deal---the only extra-cost option on the test vehicle was $500 for a Class IV trailer towing package. So the as-tested price of the 2022 Lincoln Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring is $89,925.

2022 Lincoln Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring front view

I'll just say this---if I hadn't told you, you'd never know that there was a $54,000 version of the same basic vehicle. The 2022 Lincoln Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring absolutely looks and feels the part of a $90,000 premium SUV. It could stand more pure electric range, even if that means dialing the power back a bit (how many buyers of this vehicle are looking to smoke someone at a stoplight?), but overall, the Aviator AWD Black Label Grand Touring is an extremely desirable vehicle.

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