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Lincoln Aviator Trademark Hints at a Posher 2016 Ford Explorer

Anyone remember the 2003 to 2005 model year Lincoln Aviator? Yeah, the mid-size luxury sport utility vehicle with an U1 platform shared with that era's Ford Sport Trac, Ford Explorer and the hideous Mercury Mountaineer. It appears that FoMoCo is planning to revive that nameplate once again.
Lincoln Aviator 11 photos
Photo: screenshot from trademarkia.com; Lincoln; edited by autoevolution
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Scavenging through the trademark filings section of the US Patent and Trademark Office, we found out that Ford applied for "Aviator" on January 6th, which leads us into believing that the Lincoln MKC and the all-new MKX will soon get a bigger SUV brother.

Based on the fact the 2016 Ford Explorer just went on sale in the United States and the previously mentioned MKC and MKX are sharing more than their platforms with Blue Oval products, we anticipate that there's not much to wait until a 2016 or 2017 Lincoln Aviator will be presented at a great American automotive show.

Whereas the oldtimer was animated by an old school 4.6-liter modular V8 mated to a similarly agricultural 5R55E five-speed slush box, the all-new Lincoln Aviator will borrow the oily bits of its Blue Oval-badged sibling from the 2016 model year. As such, look forward to a 2.3-liter turbocharged four-cylinder EcoBoost and a 3.5 V6 EcoBoost, both mated to a six-speed auto. I haven't forgot about the 3.5 Ti-VCT but ignored it considering a luxury product such as an all-new Aviator can't do atmospheric suck-squeeze-bang-blow.

Only time will tell if the peeps from FoMoCo will morph this trademark filing into an actual product, one that will be able to accommodate up to seven passengers. If it really happens, I have but one suggestion for the Ford Motor Company: please use a different dashboard, not the same one you can find on the 2016 Ford Explorer. Just don't repeat the extremely disappointing 2015 Edge / 2016 MKX dashboard transplant job.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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