Experiencing a Moment of Zen From Our 2025 Lincoln Nautilus Black Label
Sit back and enjoy the Lincoln Rejuvenate in-car-spa experience with us.
Join us for a moment of Zen courtesy of Lincoln. The third-generation Nautilus was designed to be a sanctuary, its “Lincoln Rejuvenate” feature offering owners a spalike experience. Unfortunately, the Lincoln Rejuvenate experience can only be felt behind the wheel of vehicles like our yearlong review 2025 Lincoln Nautilus Black Label, so spend the next five minutes of your life experiencing what we saw, felt, heard, and smelled with us.
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But first, a quick refresher course: The 2025 Nautilus has a 48-inch screen that spans the width of the vehicle, running above the dash at the base of the windshield so it doesn’t impede sight lines to the road ahead. There’s a separate touchscreen with controls for the vehicle and assorted apps. The Rejuvenate app is activated on the control touchscreen along with a multitude of other controls.The full effect is only felt from the driver’s seat, but the show will go on if that seat is vacant. It will stop if you open a passenger door.
After engaging Rejuvenate, the Nautilus will remind you that the engine will be running and you should be parked outside, and it will ask if you want to continue. It also lets you know the program's duration is five minutes.
Step One: Relax
The first half is the Relax portion, followed by Rejuvenate. To begin, the screens become a waterscape, with bubbles rising above clear water as the steering wheel moves away. The driver's seat reclines and begins a relaxing massage that alternates the pulses from one side to the other. The seat also becomes heated, the air vents swing side to side with a calming temperature to circulate air throughout the cabin, subtle scents of flowers or earthy smells are released, the interior lighting is warm and inviting, and soothing instrumental music plays as a backdrop to the sound of the water bubbles.
After a short period, land protrudes from the water, and plants begin to sprout. You can hear the plants breaking through the soil and watch the foliage spread and grow taller.
Time to Rejuvenate
The sun grows brighter until night falls. Here is the start of the Rejuvenation portion. The seats go from full recline to semi-recline and from heated to ventilated. The massage switches to an invigorating setting with simultaneous pulses from neck to tailbone. The air begins to cool to a more energizing temperature, and the vents now vacillate up and down instead of side to side.
The lighting is crisper, and the screen is filled with embers against a dark sky to the sounds of a crackling fire and the continuous music backdrop. The embers, which for some reason have tails and resemble sperm, morph into Chinese lanterns, carrying hope to the sky.
The experience ends somewhat abruptly, with the driver seat returning to its upright position and the screen returning to the water scene.
Hokey or Well Done?
The graphics are exceptionally clear, and the images feel alive. The sound is also immersive and crisp, thanks to the Nautilus’ 28-speaker Revel Ultima system. The seats are incredibly comfortable, and all the massage choices are excellent.
The factory-equipped scents offer a choice of Violet Cashmere (assorted florals including violets), Ozonic Azure (more violets but bit spicier), Mystic Forest (earthy tree smells), or choose “automatic with theme” (seven scents are currently available for replacement). The cartridges are located in the covered portion of the center console, in a compartment on the underside of the cover. The magnetized containers snap in and out easily. Even on a high-intensity setting, it is so subtle we could barely detect the scent. Opening the center console compartment from which the scents emanate (they never enter the HVAC ductwork), the scent becomes stronger so we can verify it works.
Overall, Lincoln Rejuvenate is a cool experience, worth showing your neighbors. It’s standard on the top trims—Reserve III and Black Label—this year and will be standard on all Nautilus trims for 2026. That seems wise—Rejuvenate is a feature fully in line with the quiet luxury image that Lincoln has worked hard to create but it is an amenity that might be a hard sell if it were a standalone item you had to pay extra for.
With that said, we’re not sure how many people would spend an extra five minutes running the app in their driveway, but we can see it being used at a rest stop on a long trip, or while cooling your jets while a kid finishes soccer practice. It’d probably be healthier than scrolling through your phone, too.
More on Our Long-Term 2025 Lincoln Nautilus:
- 2025 Lincoln Nautilus Black Label Yearlong Arrival: A Worthy SUV of the Year?
- 2025 Lincoln Nautilus Interior Review: How Nice Is the Black Label Interior?
Alisa Priddle joined MotorTrend in 2016 as the Detroit Editor. A Canadian, she received her Bachelor of Journalism degree from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, and has been a reporter for 40 years, most of it covering the auto industry because there is no more fascinating arena to cover. It has it all: the vehicles, the people, the plants, the competition, the drama. Alisa has had a wonderfully varied work history as a reporter for four daily newspapers including the Detroit Free Press where she was auto editor, and the Detroit News where she covered the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies, as well as auto trade publication Wards, and two enthusiast magazines: Car & Driver and now MotorTrend. At MotorTrend Alisa is a judge for the MotorTrend Car, Truck, SUV and Person of the Year. She loves seeing a new model for the first time, driving it for the first time, and grilling executives for the stories behind them. In her spare time, she loves to swim, boat, sauna, and then jump into a cold lake or pile of snow.
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