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Big, roomy and powerful, the new Navigator is a plush craft loaded with all the luxury accouterments required to set sail as a Lincoln.

But unlike every other Lincoln, this one is not a car. It’s a truck, an especially brawny member of the booming sports-utility clan.

Navigator follows a flotilla of sport-utility vehicles that have moved upstream to more luxurious harbors: Toyotas to Lexus, Nissans to Infinitis, Isuzus to Acuras, Chevrolets to Oldsmobiles and, in the same stable, Ford Explorers to Mercury Mountaineers. Mercedes-Benz has begun making its own, with Lexus soon to follow.

Now, the year-old Ford Expedition becomes the ’98 Lincoln Navigator, which docked at the dealers July 10. The idea is to bring customer traffic into the Lincoln-Mercury showroom, offering dolled-up Mountaineers and Navigators to high-end shoppers.

Ford’s Lincoln division has been foundering in recent years, partially because of the massive defection of customers to trendy sports-utility vehicles. With the Navigator, Lincoln’s marketing plan is to bring younger buyers carrying fatter wallets into its stores.

In the Navigator’s price range, the brawny sport-ute sets out to battle against such upscale stalwarts as Range Rover and Toyota Land Cruiser, both highly popular among the country-club set.

The Lincoln is armed with a formidable array of leather, wood, electronic and stylistic fittings designed to pamper and impress, including a wood-rimmed steering wheel from the XK-8 Jaguar (Ford owns the British marque) and a dynamite stereo.

There’s also a full-leather interior with a forest of wood accents and a middle row of primo bucket seats with a commodious console.

On the road, the Navigator proves to be very Lincoln-like in ride and comfort, transporting driver and passengers in regal isolation. Road noise is nearly nonexistent, even at freeway speeds, and wind roar is mimimal. The soft suspension soaks up nearly every irregularity.

Despite the mushy suspension, handling is nimble, though somewhat elephantine. A back-road trip over the mountains to Prescott felt more like Hannibal crossing the Alps.

If Navigator ever does go off-highway, it’s equipped with an advanced four-wheel-drive system that provides a variety of settings with a single dashboard switch.

The steering, though quicker and more responsive than the Expedition’s, feels too light for this big, nearly 3-ton truck.

The Navigator’s ocean-liner proportions take a toll on acceleration and hill climbing. The strong overhead-cam V-8 works hard to motivate this beefy load, and the transmission downshifts heavily on grades at highway speeds.

As for gas mileage, well, the onboard computer determined that we averaged a whopping 11.4 miles per gallon during a week of driving.

The interior, though loaded with comfort features, still suffers from some of the problems of the Expedition. The rear bench seat is about useless for adults, seeming more like an aftert hought than a cohesive part of the interior design. Legroom and headroom are lacking, and this seat should be considered only for kids, and small ones at that.

The luggage space behind the rear seat is also too tight.

These space liabilities compare unfavorably with the Navigator/Expedition’s biggest competition, the Chevrolet/GMC Suburban, which still boasts of being the biggest four-wheeler on the block. Ford wants to end that with its planned Crew Wagon, a behemoth by any standards.

Next thing you know, General Motors will be hawking Suburbans as Cadillacs.

The Navigator has them all beat in the head-turning category, with every pickup-truck and sports-ute driver in sight giving it the eye. Some people were turned off, though, by the big, upturned grill and the huge taillights.

With its voyage into the upstream, the Navigator ends up being more of a luxury yachtthan a sport-utility vehicle. That’s also very Lincoln-like, and it brings luxury vehicles f ull circle to the big, plush, overweight gas guzzlers of yore.

But that’s where the market is, and the Navigator quickly should become a prestige item at upscale shopping malls everywhere.

1998 Lincoln Navigator

Vehicle type: Seven-passenger, four-door sport-utility vehicle, rear/all-wheel-drive. Base price: $42,660. Price as tested: $46,660. Engine: 5.4-liter V-8, 230 horsepower at 4,250 rpm, 325 pound-feet of torque at 3,000 rpm. Transmission: Four-speed automatic. Curb weight: 5,557 pounds. Length: 204.8 inches. Wheelbase: 119 inches. Safety features: Dual air bags, anti-lock brakes. EPA fuel economy: 13 mpg city, 17 mpg highway. Highs: Luxury interior. Commanding presence. Good driveability. Lows: Lame rear seat. Poor gas mileage. High sticker price.