Tag Archives: 2011 Navigator

Tech Stuff: 2017 Toyota Tundra 1794 Edition First Impressions After Two Weeks

Philosophical Meanderings, Too Posted on by

With some sadness, I traded my 2011 Navigator L for a 2017 Toyota Tundra 1894 Edition 4X4 two weeks ago. How does Toyota’s essentially top of the line truck compare to Lincoln’s SUV? A lot better than you might think.

The one shortcoming I wasn’t going to get on any replacement vehicle was the ability to have 8 feet of cargo space. All SUVs, for various reasons, were ruled out, and the pickup trucks that met my option criteria all come with only a 5.5′ bed, so that was a known limitation going into this situation. I can, if necessary, get ten cat carriers in the back seat of the pick up, and eight carriers fit more than comfortably in the bed of the truck without stacking. Stacking is an option.

An open pick up bed is not useful for me, so I have ordered a BedRug (to protect the bed surface and insulate it), a BedSlide (to make the bed easier to load and unload, whether it’s cats, groceries, or other things), a Leer cap (to protect the bed from the elements). The cap will have a removable front picture window. My intent is to create a seal between the cap and the truck cab, allowing me to remove the picture window and open the lovely full back window of the truck to allow air from the cab of the truck to heat or cool the bed — I’m not sure how effective this will be as the truck has four massive front vents and only two small vents in the back seat area. We’ll see. The cats don’t ride with me often, but it’s a concern. I also ordered something called a Leer Locker, which is a slide out option on the ceiling of the cap which allows me to stow the numerous items you need to haul around with you in an out of the way yet still accessible place.

One major selling point of the Toyota was the sliding back window that opens the full width of the cab. The little pass-through windows other manufacturers offer are uninspiring. I like this very much.

In my website shopping, I thought I’d wanted a Platinum package, but once I saw one, I knew it wasn’t what I wanted, and I was impressed with the 1794 package. I liked the balance of wood and leather-look appointments in the cab. This compared favorably to my Lincoln.

One annoying point from Lincoln in both the pickups and the Navigators was the poor design of the trailer hitch mechanism. To hook up the trailer safety chains and plug in the wiring, we had to get on the ground and reach under the truck to do everything. One thing we’ve noticed with the Toyota is both these operations can be performed while standing behind the truck. No more crawling on the ground or standing on your head to hook up a trailer. It’s as if Toyota’s engineers may have hooked up a trailer. Something we sincerely doubt Lincoln’s engineers have ever done.

One thing that impressed my husband was the weather map. On the Lincolns, this was a clunky, nearly useless integration with a low-resolution pixelated map. The weather map on the Toyota was high resolution, speedy to load, and impressive. He’s annoyed that local weather is only available for the nearest large community. I’m not impressed with that aspect either.

The Lincoln had better road noise and engine noise dampening. I anticipated this would be a slight downgrade in the Toyota. It’s something we think we can get used to, but it was one area Lincoln did very well.

The Toyota has good grab handles at every seating position except for the driver. I used the drive side grab handle on the Lincoln a lot for entering and exiting the vehicle, and I do miss it on the Toyota. For passengers, they have two grab handle points to choose from, and that is an improvement.

I will miss my automatic intermittent wipers from the Lincoln, but I don’t anticipate having any trouble adapting to having to turn my wipers on again. I frequently had to “kickstart” the automatic ones myself anyway.

In an observation that I don’t think matters either way — the Lincoln’s radio antenna was integrated into the passenger side way back window. On the Toyota, I have the traditional flag-type antenna.

I got a 4X4 this time, but I was going to get that no matter what vehicle I chose. This truck comes with the blind side/cross-traffic alert feature, which I think I will appreciate. It also has an integrated brake controller, which is becoming an industry standard for pickup trucks.

The Lincoln’s seats were very comfortable. The Toyota’s seats are comfortable, but after a day of driving around Temple, I’m not sure how comfortable they will be on a road trip. The driver side seat does have lumbar and thigh support adjustments. I can also raise the seat to increase thigh support, but it also has the added effect of reducing head room, so I have to decide what’s more important to me.

The radio doesn’t come with an integrated 20G hard drive like the Lincoln did, but it reads and plays music nicely off a USB memory stick, so I’m happy with that. I have a single CD player, AM, FM, HD radio, and XM radio. The Lincoln had a Sirius radio, and we weren’t thrilled with it’s offerings. I don’t think XM is much different, but I’ll have to seeduring the three month included trial. We have discovered we like the traffic feature but don’t care for or need the radio capability.

Some things that are included that I haven’t mentioned but are common to both vehicles is the beefing up of various components for the tow package. The back up camera is excellent as are the front and rear proximity sonar sensors. The Dual Zone Climate Control is something we’ve come to expect and like.

The truck came with chrome oval step tube running boards. We had those removed for partial credit and replaced with AMP Powered running boards. So much easier for stepping in and out of the vehicle with powered running boards. Lincoln spoiled us for those, and with us getting older, this is a worthwhile change.

I loved my Lincoln Navigator L. I miss my Lincoln Navigator L. It hurt to see it on the used car website when I looked it up (but they have 41 pictures of it, and they make it look like the great vehicle it is). But I also knew it was the right time to trade it and move on. I’m pleased with my choice. I don’t think I’ll regret it.

 

2011 Lincoln Navigator L

Philosophical Meanderings, Too Posted on by

Many of you will remember my joyful posting several years ago when I acquired my 2007 Lincoln Mark LT. It was (and still is) a beautiful truck. Alas, it’s usefulness diminished, and, finally, it became in some ways, an inconvenience. Yes, I loved the 4×4 capability (without the truck feeling the need to trumpet it to the world with tacky stickers on the side). I dressed it in a Bedrug, which cushioned and protected its bed. I topped it with a sleek Leer topper to keep the bed contents dry and lockable.

Then hubby got his 2009 Navigator L, with its rear view mirror camera, retractable running boards, front and rear proximity sensors, heated and cooled seats, dual climate control, and capability to carry an 8′ sheet of plywood in the back. It put my cute little truck to shame. I still loved my truck, but I wished it could do some things it couldn’t. Finally, I knew it’s trade-in value was sinking fast. What to do?

Hubby thought I should look into the Lincoln MKT (the Lincoln version of the Ford Flex — you’d never know it by looking at them, but they are siblings. In my eyes, the MKT was the ugly sibling. Try as I might, I could not bring myself to love the MKT. Wednesday, hubby and I stopped in to North Park Lincoln (no more Mercury, sob!) to talk to James about arranging an overnight test drive of an MKT. I desperately wanted to try to fall in love with the car, and we talked about next week. But on the showroom was a 2011 Lincoln Navigator L. In Sterling Grey Metallic. With Stone interior. With no options. For the same price as the the MKT was going to wind up costing me, and a Navigator L is a vehicle I could love. I knew I could. There was one nagging problem. I talked to James, and he said it would be no problem to do an overnight MKT test drive. We agreed to do it next week.

Hubby and I left — we had other plans for the afternoon, and James was delivering a new vehicle to another customer. But that Navigator would not leave my head. The only problem with that vehicle was no heavy duty towing package. That’s not a problem if you’re rarely going to tow or just tow a small utility trailer — it had a Class III/IV hitch and 4-pin light plug. It also had an anti-sway bar. It would be fine for light duty towing if all I ever hauled was our utility trailer — and usually, that would be all I haul. Hubby hauls the heavier stuff. And that’s the capability I’d have if I got the MKT.

But with a Navigator, even a two wheel drive version, I knew I’d feel better if it had the heavy duty tow package — transmission cooler, heavy duty cooling, rear load leveling, 7-pin and 4-pin light plugs. It’s just a more mechanically sound vehicle with that option installed. I searched on line inventories. Anything that had the heavy duty towing had other stuff I didn’t want. The only thing to do was talk to James.

Hubby had plans to do something at the house yesterday, but he said, you know, if you want the Navigator, you’re going to have to clean out your truck and talk to James. So I emptied my truck, took it to the car wash, vacuumed it out, and washed it. Then we cleaned up and headed out to talk to James. He confirmed what we already knew — the exact vehicle we (I) wanted was not to be found. We looked at a couple that would possibly be acceptable and decided on a Sterling Grey Navigator L 4×2 Limited Edition with Canyon interior (a rich, luxurious deep cattle tan), two rear seats with console (instead of the bench), and a stupid moon roof. It had the fancy 20″ wheels, which I don’t care for, but he offered to swap for the stock 18″ wheels (and reduce the price accordingly). Of course, it has the heavy duty towing package. It also appears to have remote start, which I know some people love, but it doesn’t do much for me. It has the Monochrome Package as well, which means, no chrome. So, once again, I have an understated grey vehicle. Here it is:

2011 lincoln navigator

And here are the two of them together (they are the same size; I need to get a better perspective shot):

twin navigators

Take one last look at the Mark LT, taken this morning before I drove it to North Park Lincoln to take delivery on the new Navigator (If you’re in the San Antonio area and need a nice, clean luxury pick up, head over to North Park Lincoln Mercury and talk to James Puckett–he’ll take good care of you–whether you get my old truck or not):

mark lt