How come the Lincoln Navigator never attained the cachet of the Escalade?

the escalade seemed more robust, and always came with a V8. the Navigator would eventually replace its V8 with a V6.

>>28510122 (OP)
because the modular engines have all always been massive shitheaps especially compared to the LS, and now you can't even get a V8 at all let alone a good one

>>28510122 (OP)
Because fix it again Tony or something
Also for how long Lincolns have been the more expensive fleet cars that take you from the airport? Since 1980s or earlier?

>>28510122 (OP)
>luxury suv
>no vee ayght
yea, i wonder why.

i wonder if ford will take their head out their ass and put the godzilla in, now that the BBB killed CAFE.

>>28510122 (OP)
They hired a female gorilla for their TV ads. I’m sure things will turn around for Lincoln.

>>28510122 (OP)
The Navigator was hugely popular at first, outselling total Cadillac sales even (yeah, before they could rush to badge engineer the Escalade). I think the big thing, at the time at least, was the unveiling of the 2nd gen Escalade in 2002. As the first "art & science" car from Cadillac, it was seen as even gaudier than a 2026 Escalade is now. The grille was way bigger than the Lincoln's, headlights were bigger, that middle brake light was gargantuan, and the entire car had a more chiseled, sharper look compared to the smoothed Navigator and it's Town Car/LS-like 'waterfall grille'.

IMO it had to be the styling, since after that point the Navigator has never been able to keep pace. As far as pop culture goes, the Navigator was in, what, Are We There Yet with Ice Cube? NFSUG2? Meanwhile the Escalade was on the cover of multiple video games and in numerous others, it was all over MTV, Tony Soprano had one, the dudes from Entourage rode around in one, those white dreadlock dudes from the 2nd Matrix movie drove one.

Pop culture references can only go so far with cachet, so I think yet another thing were drivetrains. Since 2002, the Escalade has always offered more power with larger motors than the equivalent Navigator. Even in 2014, the last year of the V8 Navigator, it still produced less power than a 6.0L, 2002 Escalade. Even after the "upgrade" to the 3.5L Ecoboost that gave it 380hp, that was still less than the Escalade that had 403hp since 2007.

>>28510216 (samefag)
Dependability is yet another part of cachet IMO, and though the Escalade has had a few bumps with AFM and the 4L60, you largely still see 20+ year old Escalades rolling around, even if they're half rotted out with pieces missing. The Navigators, on the other hand, don't seem to last nearly as long. Once the suspension causes them to collapse like a lowrider, it seems their owners almost never fix them back up. They used the 5.4 long enough for me not to hate on it, but it's also a fact that GM trucks and vans with Vortec V8s can easily go 500k+ miles (or easily 500hp, hence the LQ9 6.0 being an immensely popular "LS swap").

Add all that together, and yeah, don't forget that the Navigator dropped the V8 and doesn't even have it as an option anymore while you can get an Escalade with a supercharged V8 (and a diesel until recent), and as I said earlier I don't think the Navigator has ever been able to keep pace. Even if we wanted to go as far as muh infotainment, the Escalade offers one of the industry's first and only OLED, curved screens. The Navigator still has yet to even have OLED.
>inb4 muh reddit spacing
Didn't want a wall of text.

>>28510211
>I’m sure things will turn around for Lincoln.
It'll work better than hiring your virgin ass

>>28510424
unlike your ass which is very much not virgin lmoa

>attained the cachet of the Escalade
Fucking huh?

>>28510216
Great looking design. It still holds up imo. I prefer it to the rounded generation that came after. Then it got good again with the 15 refresh.

>>28510435
Are you unfamiliar with the cachet the Escalade has?