Lincoln Aviator review: a genuinely good three-row luxury crossover Bahrain barely notices
3.9/5motorssouq Editorial Team
The Aviator is one of the most underrated three-row luxury crossovers on sale, with genuinely strong ride quality, a quiet cabin and a standard twin-turbo V6 that never feels stressed. Buy one because you have driven it and prefer it to an X5 or Q7, not because you are chasing a bargain — Bahrain's tiny used market for the model means you will do the selling alone when the time comes, and the discount you got at purchase will not fully offset that on the way out.
Pros
- Standard twin-turbo V6 makes a confident 400 hp without ever feeling strained
- Rides more quietly over patched roads than a BMW X5 or Audi Q7
- Genuinely usable third row for the class, with strong interior material quality
- Grand Touring plug-in hybrid offers a rare, credible 494 hp option higher up the range
Cons
- Rare in Bahrain, so independent workshops have little hands-on familiarity with it
- Lincoln-specific parts take longer to source than for a mainstream German rival
- Small used-car pool means resale depends on finding a buyer, not a market price
- Standard AWD is the only drivetrain offered — no rear-wheel-drive-only grade to lower the entry price
The Aviator sits on a rear-wheel-drive-based platform shared with the Ford Explorer, and it shows in the way it drives: the steering has real weight, the standard twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6 makes 400 hp without ever sounding strained, and the 10-speed automatic changes gear smoothly enough that most passengers will never notice it working. Against a BMW X5 or Audi Q7, the Aviator is not the sharper-handling car, but it rides better over Bahrain's patched secondary roads and does it more quietly.
Living with the cabin
Lincoln's interior team did the Aviator few favours in badge prestige but real favours in material quality — soft-touch surfaces, a genuinely useful third row for the class, and a driver's seat that stays comfortable on the causeway run to Saudi. The Grand Touring plug-in hybrid grade adds a battery and electric motor for a combined 494 hp and around 21 miles of electric-only range, but it is a rare and expensive order in the Gulf; the standard V6 is the sensible choice.
Air conditioning performance matters more here than in most reviews, and the Aviator's dual-zone system copes with a Bahraini August without the compressor cycling audibly the way some rivals' systems do — a small detail that shows up daily rather than on a spec sheet.
The resale problem
The honest issue is exposure. Lincoln sells a fraction of the volume that BMW and Audi do in Bahrain, and the Aviator specifically is uncommon enough that most independent workshops will not have seen one recently. That is not a reliability warning — the drivetrain is shared with high-volume Ford products and is mechanically sound — but it does mean parts for anything Lincoln-specific take longer to source, and a private-sale buyer pool that size does not support strong resale numbers.
Buy it as a car you plan to keep for years, serviced through the Lincoln distributor, rather than as a three-year lease-and-flip. The ownership experience day to day is genuinely good; it is the exit that costs you.