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Prices for the Lincoln Aviator ranged from $ 39,940 for the base RWD model to $ 42,890 for the AWD model, so this is not a model to be playing around with. The Lincoln Aviator was a mid-size luxury Sport Utility Vehicle from the Ford Motor Company's Lincoln-Mercury Division. It was introduced in 2003, and production ended quite quickly in 2005. The Aviator was built exclusively at Ford's St. Louis Assembly plant in Hazelwood, Missouri. It faced competition from the Cadillac SRX, the Lexus GX, which happened to be launched at the same time as the Aviator, and the Infiniti FX. Despite the initial praise, the Aviator was a poor seller for Lincoln as many hypothesizing that its all-too-familiar looks were to blame for the failing sales. It was quickly discontinued in August of 2005. Originally, the Aviator was supposed to be on hiatus for the 2006 model year and reappear based on the CD3 platform the next year.

However, Ford scrapped the Aviator name, and the car has been replaced by the Lincoln MKX crossover SUV instead. This replacement was unveiled at the 2006 North American International Auto Show. The MKX went on sale in December 2006 as a 2007 model and will hopefully be able to survive longer than its big brother. The original Aviator's styling hewed intentionally close to that of its previous role model, the Navigator, and Lincoln itself played up the similarity with magazine ads that read, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Especially when it's yourself you're imitating". In reality, this tag line was too long and too convoluted to actually attract buyers. People like to flatter themselves, but not so blatantly. The Aviator seemed to have been met with relatively positive press coverage, and even Car and Driver magazine said in a comparison test, in which the Aviator tied for fifth place, that the car's high price and lack of certain features held it out of contention for the top spots. This was more or less like saying, “you are good, but not good enough”.