24 Nautilus a finalist Motor Trend SUV of the year.

[Lincolnguy2]

24 Nautilus is a finalist for Motor Trend SUV of the Year.
Up against Santa Fe, Equinox , Lexus GX, Toyota Crown Signia, Land Cruiser, G Class,
Hummer EV, Kia EV9, Rivian R1S. Winner announced tomorrow. My money is on the Toyota Crown Signia.
It had received incredible reviews . Must say they do love the Lincoln. So it would not surprise me if it won.

 

[angore]

While I like to see it win, I always take a skeptical view of these awards.

I saw a report that the 24 Nautilus outscored (79) the Lexus and recommended in Consumer Reports in Nov/Dec issue. Knowing CR's past focus on safety over other vehicle aspects, the top safety score probably helped it a lot. Back to early 70s when seat belt safety interlocks were hated and later removed , safety focus has sure been a complete consumer turnaround.

It will be interesting to see next year reliability data - problem area would likely be software (not sure what category this is under), suspension (shocks), engine (injectors) , electrical (battery).

 

[Lincolnguy2]

Not a finalist any more.
2024 Lincoln Nautilus IS THE MotorTrend SUV of the Year.
Congratulations to Lincoln.
Not to rain on the parade , this is the perfect time for Lincoln to get all the issues sorted out properly and make a big splash to let everyone know that Lincoln is back.

 

[swindler]

Not a finalist any more.
2024 Lincoln Nautilus IS THE MotorTrend SUV of the Year.
Congratulations to Lincoln.
Not to rain on the parade , this is the perfect time for Lincoln to get all the issues sorted out properly and make a big splash to let everyone know that Lincoln is back

Where's Robert Blackwood?

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[Billz]

Where's Robert Blackwood?

Has this been announced. I did find it after googling

 

[Lincolnguy2]

Has this been announced. I did find it after googling

Yes. Is official. Go to Motor Trend. There is a good review of why they chose it.

 

[Millennium Falcon]

https://www.motortrend.com/news/lincoln-nautilus-2025-suv-of-the-year/

 

[markfm]

While I like to see it win, I always take a skeptical view of these awards.

I saw a report that the 24 Nautilus outscored (79) the Lexus and recommended in Consumer Reports in Nov/Dec issue. Knowing CR's past focus on safety over other vehicle aspects, the top safety score probably helped it a lot. Back to early 70s when seat belt safety interlocks were hated and later removed , safety focus has sure been a complete consumer turnaround.

It will be interesting to see next year reliability data - problem area would likely be software (not sure what category this is under), suspension (shocks), engine (injectors) , electrical (battery).

Wondering when the 79 will show in CR online - Hybrid still lists "In Test" (the ICE is "Not Tested").

It's odd to see the Gen 5 Lexus RX Hybrids with such high CR scores online. They're lower in terms of IIHS safety than multiple of the other Luxury SUVs (including Nautilus - TSP+), the '23 and '24 RX have each had a safety recall (while the new '24 TX had a hard stop sale in June for its airbag issue, though may be ready to resume sales later this month if dealers can install the correction parts), and the long-running complaint series' on RX battery/electrical systems, 500H transmission problems, and RX fit/finish issues are still quite active (at the end of MY 2). I fully understand that people with issues are more frequent posters (same as for Lincoln), but get the feel that CR has fallen into the "if it's a Lexus it must be really good" zone.

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[angore]

The question is if the Lexus issues are showing up in reliability reports. If not maybe owners are too proud to report. It is not just CR. I had a friend who said if Honda made a toilet he would buy it

 

[hinckley]

Very surprising but welcome news. It's always nice to have your choice validated.

 

[markfm]

Received my Nov/Dec CR today. The 1 page road test writeup on the Nautilus Hybrid is on page 109, and 111 has the ratings stack for Luxury Midsized SUVs. They didn't state the trim level, but an MSRP of $64,170 sounds like a Reserve II Hybrid.

 

[swindler]

The question is if the Lexus issues are showing up in reliability reports. If not maybe owners are too proud to report. It is not just CR. I had a friend who said if Honda made a toilet he would buy it

People don't take this the wrong way, but I've always thought the luxury car demographic was more likely to report even trivial issues because they feel their car should be perfect, partly due to how much they paid, of course, but partly because they feel entitled. I mean, if you buy a Chevy Trax are you really going to complain about a infrequent rattle when driving over 60 mph?

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[markfm]

People don't take this the wrong way, but I've always thought the luxury car demographic was more likely to report even trivial issues because they feel their car should be perfect, partly due to how much they paid, of course, but partly because they feel entitled. I mean, if you buy a Chevy Trax are you really going to complain about a infrequent rattle when driving over 60 mph?

Since I've driven Lexus RX for years I'm still active monitoring the Gen 5 RX area on a Lexus forum with a significant number of members. The ongoing reports, by different people, of various classes of problems/complaints posted about the Gen 5 just don't jibe with CR showing the RX-450+, 350h, and 350 having green ratings for predicted reliability/owner satisfaction/ride compared to Nautilus getting yellow on those. (the RXs and Nautilus are all tagged yellow for Routine Handling). Either the owners are ignoring their own issues, or if they're accurate in feedback CR would have to be bending over backwards to give the RX upgrading in some categories.

(Yellow is kind of "median/average". Orange and Red are "Worse" than average, while two shades of green are used to designator "Better".)

I can also confirm that CR shows the '24 Nautilus Hybrid as Recommended (checkmark) in the comparison table.

 

[gooberpeas0911]

Received my Nov/Dec CR today. The 1 page road test writeup on the Nautilus Hybrid is on page 109, and 111 has the ratings stack for Luxury Midsized SUVs. They didn't state the trim level, but an MSRP of $64,170 sounds like a Reserve II Hybrid.

I read the review online and I felt like they were driving a car completely different from mine. It's not the first time my experiences and opinions differ from CR.

There are a couple of general things that irk me:

Their diatribes with the squircle steering wheel and piano keys is laughable, and I don't know if anyone else noticed the self-contradictions through out the full article. The one that stood out to me was around how noisy and unrefined the engine was at full acceleration, then later on in the article how smooth and refined the engine was at all speeds.

They do a lot of comparing the ride/handling to the RX, and note they both have equivalent refinement flaws. But they end up scoring the RX better for ride. Struggling with their noise assessment as well. The '24 is at least as quiet if not moreso than the '23 that they gave 5/5 score for, but now only gets 4/5 for.

If you add back the points they deducted seemingly arbitrarily for the above objections, you've got a level playing field on their road test score with the RX Hybrid.

One other observation (from here I'm letting it go):

I'm having a very different fuel economy experience than they reported. I'm more like 36/30/33 than the 23/37/30 they experienced. Which again is closer to the 29/38/34 they reported for the RX Hybrid.