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2025 Lincoln Aviator Review: Is the Black Label Worth It?

lincoln aviator black label 2025 05 exterior profile jpg 2025 Lincoln Aviator Black Label, profile | Cars.com photo by Leslie Cunningham

The verdict: At the lower end of its price range, the 2025 Lincoln Aviator is a competitive and luxurious three-row SUV, but the high-end Black Label version doesn’t offer the goods to warrant its nearly six-figure price tag.

Versus the competition: A mild refresh with new interior screens helps the 2025 Aviator stay current with an array of mid-size luxury SUVs.

The 2025 Lincoln Aviator is a three-row mid-size SUV based on the Ford Explorer, but you’d be hard-pressed to find evidence of that if you poked your head inside our Aviator test car. The Aviator is updated for 2025, and as you may have guessed, we didn’t test a paltry $60,000 entry-level version: We drove a top-of-the-line Aviator Black Label that, with options, came in at an insane $97,000. Let’s go through what makes this Aviator a nearly $100,000 SUV — and whether it’s worth that price.

Related: 2025 Lincoln Aviator: Refreshed Interior, $59,890 Base Price

What Is the Aviator Black Label?

The Black Label is the Aviator’s top trim level. It starts at roughly $88,000 — already in the stratosphere — mostly because the Black Label adds every package that’s optional on lesser trims, including Luxury, Illumination, Trailer Tow and Dynamic Handling packages.

This means the Black Label comes with all these features:

  • 30-way adjustable front seats with massage
  • Revel Ultima 3D Audio System with 28 speakers
  • Standard all-wheel drive
  • 22-inch wheels
  • Class III tow hitch with four- and seven-pin wiring connectors for a 5,000-pound maximum towing capacity
  • Air glide suspension with automatic-lowering entry height
  • Heated and ventilated first- and second-row seats

The next layer to the Black Label is a choice of interior themes — Flight, Invitation or Moonbeam — that include color, materials and accent stylization inspired by the heyday of travel. The SUV I tested used the Invitation theme, which combines a darker, open-pore wood with leather seats featuring Brandy stitching. Our Aviator Black Label also had $750 Asher Gray paint, a $480 full rear console with two USB charge ports and rear shade controls, and a $7,250 Black Label Special Edition Package. That package includes:

  • Unique 22-inch wheels
  • Black-painted exterior trim
  • Body-colored lower front and rear trim, door cladding and wheel lips
  • Black-painted roof

The Black Label also brings along ownership privileges, including:

  • Free maintenance for four years, 50,000 miles or four service visits
  • Home delivery
  • More reward points for maintenance or premium services
  • Complimentary car washes
  • Avis President’s Club membership

Note, however, that some of these ownership perks are reliant on buying from a participating dealership. In the Chicago area, where Cars.com is headquartered, there are 25 Lincoln dealerships within 300 miles, and all 25 were marked as Black Label dealers in Lincoln’s dealership finder.

Interior Quality and Size

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The Aviator’s interior has a real sense of quality; it feels, looks and smells like an authentic luxury car, though perhaps not as luxurious as a BMW X5 or Porsche Cayenne, both of which can top six figures. The Aviator’s interior impresses more in the SUV’s $60,000-$70,000 range. For 2025, the Aviator’s cabin has been updated with a new 12.4-inch digital instrument panel and 13.2-inch center touchscreen. They modernize the interior in a big way, but I didn’t love either of them; I’m not a terribly tall person, at about 6 feet tall and average build, but I struggled to get a good view of both.

The center touchscreen is mounted a little more rearward than usual and faces straight at the second row, not toward the driver, making it hard to easily reference and use. The digital user interface within that touchscreen is easy to use, but Lincoln put the climate controls in the touchscreen, which is never preferable to hard buttons. It takes away some of the real, tactile luxury experience that buttons and dials can provide.

Then there’s the instrument panel, which I couldn’t see in its entirety because the steering wheel always partially blocked the screen; I could not find a comfortable and safe driving position from which I could see the whole screen. I think I could have gotten there if the seat could be lowered just a little more, but it couldn’t. For those who can find a good view, the instrument panel itself is well done — easy to read while still looking stylish and contemporary.

lincoln aviator black label 2025 16 interior front row seat jpg 2025 Lincoln Aviator Black Label, front-row seat | Cars.com photo by Christian Lantry

Then there are the front seats, which prove that more adjustability is not always better. I couldn’t get comfortable in these seats, and I don’t normally have issues with seating comfort in test cars. It felt like my thighs and middle back were touching the seat but everything else was just floating. And I’m not a wide person, but even with the side bolsters relaxed all the way, they were too tight.

lincoln aviator black label 2025 46 interior second row jpg 2025 Lincoln Aviator Black Label, second-row | Cars.com photo by Christian Lantry

The narrow second-row seats aren’t much better, and the third row is best suited for smaller individuals or kids. Using child-safety seats in the Aviator also created issues: With car seats in the second row, there’s no way for third-row passengers to get to the rearmost seats because the fixed console between the second-row seats eliminates the walkway that exists without the console. The only way to get back there is to unlatch a child seat to slide the Aviator’s seat forward. When I had the car loaded with my two kids, a third-row passenger had to climb in from the cargo area. I don’t expect the Aviator to be a dedicated family-hauler like the Explorer, but it shouldn’t be that difficult to access the third row with car seats in place.

How It Drives

For 2025, a 400-horsepower, twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 working with a 10-speed automatic transmission is the only powertrain. A plug-in hybrid system in the Aviator Grand Touring was last offered for 2023, but we don’t miss it; it was a wonky drivetrain that never felt cohesive.

The Aviator’s twin-turbo V-6 is a powerful engine that offers good acceleration, but if its EPA-estimated gas mileage of 17/25/20 mpg city/highway/combined with AWD isn’t satisfactory, there isn’t a more efficient powertrain to choose. What’s nice, however, is that the Aviator can run just fine on 87-octane gasoline, even though premium 91-octane is recommended for best performance.

lincoln aviator black label 2025 13 interior engine jpg 2025 Lincoln Aviator Black Label, engine | Cars.com photo by Christian Lantry

The Black Label’s air suspension dampens large bumps well, but its overall ride quality is let down by the loud slapping of tire impacts and constant jittery impacts from the 22-inch wheels. Even on smooth roads, you can always feel and hear the tires and wheels moving up and down; one third-row passenger was not particularly thrilled being back there for a 40-minute drive. Yet even though the ride is tuned firmly, spirited driving isn’t very rewarding.

For those who want to do less driving, there’s BlueCruise, a newly available semi-autonomous hands-free driving system. It works well when engaged, and I’ve found it to be a real fatigue-reducer on longer highway trips. It won’t change lanes for you when a spot is open, unlike a rival system from Cadillac, but otherwise, it’s easy to feel comfortable driving hands-free.

Versus the Genesis GV80

The Aviator’s closest competitor is the Genesis GV80, which has a third row only in its 3.5T Advanced trim level. The GV80 is a favorite of ours, and it’s also updated for 2025. I’ve driven both the GV80 and Aviator, and doing so reaffirmed that the Genesis is the more luxurious, more comfortable and more value-laden mid-size luxury SUV. If you absolutely need a third row, though, your choices are severely limited in the GV80 because the third row is only available in one trim level with one powertrain. The GV80’s third row also offers less headroom than the Aviator’s.

Shop the 2025 Lincoln Aviator near you

New
2025 Lincoln Aviator Reserve AWD
$83,200 MSRP $83,200
New
2025 Lincoln Aviator Reserve AWD
$83,550 MSRP $83,550

Is the Black Label Worth It?

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When our team talked about the Aviator’s as-tested price, one editor said that, with that money, they could buy nine decent C-Body Mopars (full-size vintage Dodges, Chryslers and Plymouths). Another pointed out it’s enough for 19,000 Chalupa Supremes. For me, I’d split the difference and take a Genesis GV80 Advanced with the third row ($75,750), one Plymouth Fury ($10,700) and 2,000 Chalupa Supremes ($10,300). If you really like what the Aviator delivers, though, I suggest looking at one of its lesser trim levels; the level of luxury you get in an Aviator Black Label just isn’t enough to command $90,000-plus.

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Cars.com’s Editorial department is your source for automotive news and reviews. In line with Cars.com’s long-standing ethics policy, editors and reviewers don’t accept gifts or free trips from automakers. The Editorial department is independent of Cars.com’s advertising, sales and sponsored content departments.

Joe Bruzek
Managing Editor Joe Bruzek’s 22 years of automotive experience doesn’t count the lifelong obsession that started as a kid admiring his dad’s 1964 Chevrolet Corvette — and continues to this day. Joe’s been an automotive journalist with Cars.com for 16 years, writing shopper-focused car reviews, news and research content. As Managing Editor, one of his favorite areas of focus is helping shoppers understand electric cars and how to determine whether going electric is right for them. In his free time, Joe maintains a love-hate relationship with his 1998 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am that he wishes would fix itself. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-bruzek-2699b41b/
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