The Car Connection Expert Review
Likes
- Lots of features
- Spectacular luxury in top form
- Impressive hybrid powertrain
- Bold style
Dislikes
- No plug-in hybrid
- Big screen isn’t used that well
- Can cost $80,000 in top form
- Base turbo-4’s a dud
Buying tip
features & specs
The 2025 Lincoln Nautilus offers flagship-grade tech and flash, plus loads of luxury—for a price.
What kind of vehicle is the 2025 Lincoln Nautilus? What does it compare to?
The 2025 Nautilus is Lincoln’s midsize crossover SUV, a luxurious model that competes with the slightly smaller Lexus RX, Genesis GV70, and Volvo XC60.
Is the 2025 Lincoln Nautilus a good SUV?
The 2025 Lincoln Nautilus is a tech showpiece with a comfortable, refined personality and decent fuel economy. It’s quite pricey, though. Overall, we score it at 7.2 out of 10. (Read more about how we rate cars.)
What's new for the 2025 Lincoln Nautilus?
The Nautilus sees minor feature shuffling and new colors for 2025. This model was thoroughly revamped for a short 2024 model year.
The Nautilus is a big midsize crossover SUV with Navigator-lite styling. Stretching 193.2 inches long, it’s a proper garage-filler, though the upside to that is its spacious interior that offers more room than we typically expect from a five-seat vehicle. Its broad grille and illuminated Lincoln logo give it a commanding presence, and there are plenty of neat details like door handles mounted just below the side windows and star-like chrome accents on the grille.
The Nautilus is downright extravagant inside with a big 48.0-inch display screen that curves around the top of the dash, plus a more conventional 11.1-inch touchscreen. There’s nothing conservative about this cabin, down to the flat-top and flat-bottom steering wheel that offers a good view of that big display.
The 2.0-liter turbo-4 that anchors the lineup offers up a reasonable 250 hp, but the 310-hp hybrid version of this powertrain is the real winner here. It’s also far more fuel-efficient at 30 mpg combined versus the base model’s 24 mpg combined. No Nautilus is especially nimble or agile, though these SUVs ride comfortably and have a stately, sedate personality.
They’re plenty roomy inside, with a hefty 43.1 inches of second-row legroom and a decent 36.4 cubic-foot cargo area. Moreover, the Nautilus features a cabin outfitted in divine materials, so long as you spend up for the priciest version. One test drive (or test sit, for that matter) in the available 24-way power-adjustable seats and you might just have to kiss your budget goodbye.
The Nautlius boasts terrific IIHS safety scores, plus all versions come with impressive crash-avoidance tech, including the ability to detect and brake for pedestrians and cyclists. Lincoln’s trick BlueCruise system allows for hands-off driving across many pre-mapped highways in the U.S. and Canada, too.
How much does the 2025 Lincoln Nautilus cost?
The 2025 Lincoln Nautilus starts at $53,000, making it among the most expensive midsize luxury SUVs. It’s well-equipped with a 48.0-inch screen across the top of the dash, an 11.1-inch screen for primary infotainment and navigation inputs, synthetic leather seats that are heated and cooled up front, and 19-inch alloy wheels. The hybrid powertrain is about $1,500 more.
Where is the 2025 Lincoln Nautilus made?
In China, which may very well be its intended market after all.
2025 Lincoln Nautilus Styling
The 2025 Lincoln Nautilus looks stately outside and high-tech inside.
Is the Lincoln Nautilus a good-looking SUV?
It’s quite pleasant, if a bit under the radar. We rate it at 7 out of 10, with a point above average for its exterior confidence and its glamorous, if a bit outrageous, cabin.
The Nautilus mushes down the shape of the bigger Lincoln Navigator. The same shield-like grille and cascade of stars effect up front draws in your eyes, but then you’ll find perhaps too many cuts below and above as the intakes and headlights shoot outward. Available two-tone paint provides some side profile drama and helps disguise a busy D-pillar treatment. The thin light bar and spaced-out Lincoln lettering at the rear is a nice finishing touch, though.
Inside, the 48.0-inch screen at the base of the windshield demands attention, though all those displays don’t really work in concert. A shelf incapable of storing anything gives way to a conventional touchscreen mounted just above a smattering of real buttons. There’s a lot of drama here, but the Nautilus really wins its points based on its fabulous attention to detail as Lincoln has finally started to pay attention to materials and surfaces.
2025 Lincoln Nautilus Performance
The 2025 Lincoln Nautilus is as close to a traditional American luxury car as you’ll find today.
It’s not fun, but the 2025 Lincoln Nautilus is plush and reasonably quick. It gets a point above average for its ride quality, earning it a 6 for performance.
Is the Lincoln Nautilus 4WD?
Yes, all-wheel drive is standard, but this crossover SUV isn’t meant for off-pavement use.
How fast is the Lincoln Nautilus?
The standard turbo-4 puts out 250 hp and 280 lb-ft of torque, which is offset by a chunky curb weight of around 4,500 pounds. The smooth 8-speed automatic transmission is a winner, but you won’t find rubber-burning acceleration here, especially since there’s a hint of turbo lag away from a stop. Engaging Sport mode holds the gears longer and tightens up shifts, but it doesn’t make this Lincoln quick.
The hybrid starts with the turbo-4 but subs in a bigger turbo and an electric motor fed by a small battery pack for 310 hp. It’s noticeably peppier while also being more efficient and quieter than the base setup. It’s very easy to justify the $1,500 upcharge.
The Nautilus is a master of isolation; the road below virtually disappears thanks more to all the sound deadening and active noise cancellation fitted here rather than any suspension trickery. The standard adaptive dampers help shrug off bumps, but they don’t endow the Nautilus with anything resembling sporty responses. The yoke-esque steering wheel affords a good view of the big screen ahead, though it serves up little in the way of road feel.
2025 Lincoln Nautilus Comfort & Quality
The 2025 Lincoln Nautilus has a top-notch interior.
By not even attempting to be a three-row SUV, the 2025 Lincoln Nautilus takes advantage of its generous footprint. It’s spacious for four or five passengers, fitted with luxurious materials, and it has a decent cargo area. It’s a 10 here.
All models have comfy front seats with at least 10 ways of power adjustment; opt for the available 24-way seats and you’ll thank us later (or about 30 seconds into your drive). The rear seat’s 43.1 inches of legroom is a top-notch boast. The bench is even spacious enough for three adults to sit abreast for shorter stints.
Then there’s the fact that this cabin is an absolute showpiece, even in base Premiere trim. It’s better when you’ve added leather seats and gorgeous wood trim, and it’s best with the suede headliner. Most competitors don’t offer this level of luxury in a midsize crossover SUV, though most also don’t cost this much.
Behind the 60:40 split-folding rear seats, you’ll find a cargo area that grows from 36.4 to 71.3 cubic feet of cargo space when the rear seats are folded down.
2025 Lincoln Nautilus Safety
The 2025 Lincoln Nautilus has a solid safety record.
How safe is the Lincoln Nautilus?
The IIHS rated last year’s model a Top Safety Pick+, which is quite impressive. That’s enough for a point, and we add more for its standard crash-avoidance tech and its hands-off BlueCruise driver-assistance system. It’s an 8 for the time being.
The 2025 Lincoln Nautilus comes with automatic emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, blind-spot monitors, active lane control, and adaptive cruise control, plus rear parking sensors and reverse automatic emergency braking. Its outward vision is good by SUV standards, too.
BlueCruise 1.2 is included on a four-year trial basis, though it reverts to a subscription thereafter. The system lets drivers go hands-off and eyes-on while traversing hundreds of thousands of miles of mapped North American highways, and it does so with aplomb. It can even change lanes on its own.
2025 Lincoln Nautilus Features
The 2025 Lincoln Nautilus can be a proper luxury SUV, and it’s priced accordingly.
The 2025 Lincoln Nautilus starts higher than many of its rivals at $53,000 in base trim. It’s well-equipped for the money, with good standard features, many luxurious options, a massive amount of screen real estate, and a decent 4-year/50,000-mile warranty with lifetime roadside assistance coverage. All those assets add up to a 9 out of 10.
The 11.1-inch touchscreen at the center of the dash serves as the Nautilus’ primary control interface for climate, audio, and infotainment functions. The 48.0-inch screen that curves across the top of the dash is primarily a static display, which makes it feel a bit underutilized. The central navigation system can be zoomed via the touchscreen, while the display on the driver’s side functions like an instrument cluster. Passengers get a choice of seven widgets, including a clock and fuel economy and trip computers, but even then the display is limited in its customization. Lincoln will likely offer some over-the-air updates to make more use of the screen.
Otherwise, the base Premiere trim has power-adjustable, heated, and cooled front seats with driver-side memory, a heated steering wheel with power adjustment, access to Amazon Alexa, wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, a power liftgate, and 19-inch wheels. The hybrid powertrain costs $1,500 more.
Which Lincoln Nautilus should I buy?
The base version is pretty well-equipped, though additional add-ons are expensive. For instance, nearly $6,000 buys a package with a big sunroof, heated rear seats, Revel audio with 14 speakers, and a hands-free power tailgate, but the price seems high to us.
In short: a Nautilus Premiere is a fine buy on its own.
Instead, you could step up to the Reserve trim at $62,000 or so instead, which has leather seats and 21-inch alloy wheels, It provides access to the sublime 24-way power-adjustable front seats, which are bundled with a 28-speaker Revel audio system for an astounding $10,000.
How much is a fully loaded Lincoln Nautilus?
The top Black Label rings in at $76,060. It’s loaded up with the majority of the packages you can add to the Reserve, plus adaptive dampers, 22-inch alloy wheels, and massaging seats. A $3,000 Jet Appearance package adds blacked-out accents. Combine that with extra-cost paint and the hybrid powertrain and you’le looking at a $80,000 SUV, which just seems outrageous to us.
2025 Lincoln Nautilus Fuel Economy
The Nautilus Hybrid is downright frugal.
Is the Lincoln Nautilus good on gas?
Choose wisely and it can be, though the 2025 Lincoln Nautilus hybrid isn’t as thrifty as its Lexus RX 350h rival. The Nautilus hybrid is the top seller, in this lineup, and its 30 mpg city, 31 highway, 30 combined estimates from the EPA earn it a 4 out of 10 on our scale.
The turbo-4 isn’t that bad, either. It’s estimated at 21/29/24 mpg.
