2018 Lincoln Navigator
This year drew an ordinary 50 complaints for a Lincoln Navigator — the model's median is 25. What they were about is the unusual part: 24% of them mention transmission, against 5.8% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 50 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 25 |
| Involving a fire | 3 |
| Recalls | 12 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 18 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- transmission — 24% of this year's complaints, against 5.8% across the model's other years (4.1×).
- damage — 14% of this year's complaints, against 3.8% across the model's other years (3.6×). Owners wrote it as: damage, action, let.
- adjust — 6% of this year's complaints, against 0% across the model's other years (30×).
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
The back up camera will randomly black out. The steering wheel motor is broke and the steering wheel does not adjust. Needed a new air conditioner motor, timing chain, had a transmission leak, wheel axel leak. This is a safety hazard and caused a huge financia…
The camera with the water cleaner spray device, leaked water inside the LED taillight, this is a hazard that can make a shortcut and damaged the tail light LEDs.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V392000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 18V805000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V213000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 18V058000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 23V420000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 23V598000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 24V099000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 24V852000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 12. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Lincoln Navigator was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2018 Lincoln Navigator? What happened to yours?
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