If the U.S. were a sane country, stores would be decorated for Thanksgiving right now, not covered in Santas and blasting Christmas music. But regardless of whether you properly appreciate our national eating holiday or insist on skipping straight to the materialist holiday, at least we can all agree spooky season should be behind us. Which is why we wish we’d caught Lincoln’s latest Navigator recall last month when it was more on theme. You see, according to the recall, Lincoln’s concerned some of its seats could basically become haunted.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published the recall on October 20, less than two weeks before Halloween, but sadly, we missed it until our friends over at Car and Driver spotted it yesterday. Technically, neither Lincoln, NHTSA, nor Car and Driver used the word “haunted,” but what other term are you supposed to use when the official description of the recall is literally, “Front Passenger Seat May Move Unexpectedly,”? Ghosts or no ghosts, those Navigator seats sound haunted, and you’ll never convince me otherwise.
Per the information in the recall, Lincoln believes as many as 36,994 Navigators built for the 2025, 2026, and 2027 model years could be affected. Typically, though, recalls involve a large number of cars the automaker wants to check for a defect, even if only 1%-3% of the recalled vehicles will likely have any problems. This one’s a little different, though, with the recall report estimating a whopping 100% estimated to have the defect. So if you own one of the affected Navigators, the dealer will probably have to fix it.
100% affected
So what’s NHTSA’s theory? Well, it isn’t ghosts, even though we know for a fact that it’s definitely ghosts. Lincoln just doesn’t want to spook everyone by confirming the supernatural is real. Officially, owners whose Navigators have the chauffeur package may notice their front passenger seat moving unexpectedly, and it’s all because of your (kids’) nasty, grubby little fingers. From the recall report:
Affected vehicles contain a “Chauffer Seat Feature” that can be accessed by a passenger in the rear seat via a second-row digital touchscreen console, known as the RACM. One action on this RACM is to allow the rear passenger the ability to move the front passenger seat in order to provide more legroom.
Residue left on the RACM can be registered as finger touch input allowing the front passenger seat to move unintentionally. Additionally, if the home screen button on the RACM is pressed at the same time the seat movement button is pressed, the seat may continue moving to its full travel limit without any additional input.
Personally, I still think ghosts are a more likely explanation than Cheeto fingers, but I guess you can’t exactly put that in an official government recall. Could you imagine the civil unrest if the feds confirmed the existence of ghosts? Basically, what I’m saying is that you and I both know they’re lying, but it’s better to pretend there’s a problem with the RACM. Faulty Lincolns, American can deal with. Haunted Lincolns? That’s probably too much, all things considered.
