With just 1,899 Lincoln Aviator luxury SUVs sold since their debut in August, some owners report problems ranging from the emergency brake unexpectedly taking hold while they are driving to passenger-assist alarms going off randomly and a dashboard screen that scrambles information.

“When you get in, the speedometer and tachometer kind of goes berserk,” said Jake Fisher, director of auto testing at Consumer Reports. “While driving, all of a sudden the digital gauge cluster seems to be having huge problems. For the first couple of miles, it’s hard to see what you’re doing.”

Consumer Reports spent $63,420 to purchase the vehicle for testing and took delivery on Sept. 9.

The SUVs can range from $52,195 to $90,000, including delivery charges, a Lincoln spokeswoman said.

Laurel Spencer, 46, a manufacturing executive from Glencoe, Illinois, paid about $70,000 for her Aviator in mid-August to use for commuting on business and taking kids to their activities.

“After owning my car a month, I’m sorry I bought it,” she said Sept. 14. “It wasn’t more than 24 hours since I drove it off the lot that I had my first problem — a leaky sunroof … A week or so later, it was seat belts that didn’t work, and now it has been in the shop for nearly a week for computer malfunctions which had my crash detection set off when driving on a quiet road. The parking brake came on while driving, and a major transmission fault alarm went off. When they were fixing it, the seat controls went.”

The high-profile SUV already has been the focus of two recalls in August, one related to “unintended vehicle movement” while parked; the other involving seats that "may not adequately restrain an occupant in a crash." In addition, consumer safely alerts from the company noted, vehicles may have instrument clusters that disable warning alerts and fail to display gear positions — drive, reverse, park, neutral. Federal safety regulations require gear positions to be displayed when a vehicle is not in park.

Ford Motor Co. confirmed this week that Aviators are being shipped from the Chicago Assembly Plant directly to dealers now, though the company acknowledged that a number of Aviators shipped 270 miles by truck to the Flat Rock Assembly Plant remain there for post-production troubleshooting.

An estimated 1,500 vehicles — 2020 Lincoln Aviator, 2020 Ford Explorer and Ford Police Interceptor — remained at or near the plant south of Detroit for quality review in recent days, sources close to the situation told the Detroit Free Press on Wednesday. “The Aviators and police (vehicles) were tagged as ‘high priority’ back in mid-July, although there are still quite a few of those Lincolns,” one person on site said.

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Angie Kozleski, Lincoln spokeswoman, said the company is following standard protocol.

“As part of the launch of Lincoln Aviator, we were shipping vehicles to Flat Rock for additional quality checks and inspections. This is a longstanding practice at Ford Motor Co. with all-new vehicles to ensure that our vehicles are the highest possible quality for customers and we are taking every necessary action to ensure that the Aviator is built with the levels of quality and craftsmanship that our luxury customers expect,” she said. “There has been strong demand for the Lincoln Aviator, and we are working as quickly as possible to get these vehicles into the hands of Lincoln clients. The (new vehicle) changeover at the Chicago Assembly Plant where they are built was one of the most complex in the company’s history.”

She added, “Lincoln is committed to providing our customers with top quality vehicles. We are equally committed to addressing potential issues and responding quickly for our customers. We had two small recalls on Aviator since its launch and the majority of the affected vehicles were in dealer inventory and will be addressed prior to delivery to customers.”

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The Aviator, with a highly praised design and smooth handling, is among "the most impressive" vehicles to debut in 2019, and has the potential to be a turning point for the Lincoln brand, said Mark Phelan, Free Press auto critic and former president of the North American Car, Utility and Truck of the Year Awards.

Software issues

The Free Press talked to consumers from the Midwest, the East Coast and the Deep South who shared issues of concern. One customer canceled an Aviator order, concerned after reading about owner experiences on social media sites.

Many of the issues appear to be linked to software, which "now controls more and more of the systems on today's vehicles,” said Consumer Reports' Fisher, who has spent two decades reviewing products. "Sometimes there are bugs that aren't resolved in development. Manufacturers can't rely on consumers to find these bugs as some can compromise safety.”

While new vehicles are increasingly high tech and complicated, Fisher added, “Consumers don't expect to have problems when they purchase a new car, and the majority of consumers won't see any.”

Bugs, black screen

A Facebook page for Aviator owners talks of challenges and offers encouragement.

“The transmission slipped into neutral when we were coasting up to a red light. When the light turned green, the engine just revved like the engine wasn’t in gear,” said a post from an owner identified as Richard Raz. “The infotainment system has a lot of bugs. The main screen has blacked out twice …”

Aviator owner Malcolm Hogan responded, “Hate to hear all these issues. They will get it addressed. Trust me, they are counting on this car to do well. They will be contacting the engineers and such. Ford is paying attention. They are not letting this go lightly.”

Hogan, 40, of Jacksonville, Florida, is a software business owner who purchased his Aviator Black Label for $80,000. He told the Free Press he has no official tie to Ford other than driving press cars to do freelance auto reviews.

He told the Free Press his Aviator steering wheel was off-center, a speaker grille on the ceiling had a clip that failed to snap into place and “it looked as if the windshield was replaced at the factory after production as the rain sensor and the windshield camera system did not work properly, which controlled other (features) on the car like the auto-high beams, lane-keep assist and road preview feature.”

He wrote, “Other than that, it has been a good vehicle thus far with about 1,200 miles on it. Also, it looks like that body panels are all aligned very well, which has been said to be a problem on a few earlier units.”

Hogan said he’s happy and confident nothing will go wrong in the future. “I do stay in contact with the lead engineer for the Aviator just chatting about features and mentioning the couple issues I had.”

'What the hell?'

Meanwhile, Laurel Spencer isn’t so sure.

“I work a lot and I travel a lot. Winter is coming and I want a reliable car, especially if I’m going to drive three hours each way every week for business,” she said. “The majority of cars in our family have been Fords – Tauruses, Flexes, Edge, Explorer.”

While her dealer tried to help and has serviced her car, it eventually referred her to Lincoln corporate. Spencer said she was irritated that the company offered her a break on car payments or an extended warranty.

“I start backing out of the driveway and there’s water dripping on my kids’ heads. I mean, the vehicle hadn’t been at my house 24 hours. I call the sales guy and say, ‘Bill, what the hell?’ I’m like, OK, I work in manufacturing, stuff happens. But a week goes by and I have a colleague in the passenger seat and the seat belt doesn’t work. And I’m like, ‘What the hell?’ My colleague took Uber home.”

Lincoln told Spencer the seat belt problem was serious and to get the vehicle back for repair. Later, when she took the kids to a pumpkin patch, “the car starts acting a little goofy. The parking brake comes on while driving. The lights are going on, then the transmission light. It says, ‘major transmission fault, you need to call.’ Then this alarm goes off. When I call the dealer, they will take the car but I needed to wait as they had no loaner cars, so I wait.”

The repair manager at Highland Park Lincoln Ford did not return messages left on his voicemail by the Free Press.

“I call the dealer and say, ‘Look, this is going on.' I’m going out of town ... and I’m like, 'Look, you guys need to fix this. I don’t want this car back until you’ve done every possible thing. I’m tired of being the guinea pig,'" Spencer said. "I said, ‘Can I drive the car?’ They say, ‘Don’t go on any major road trips.’ So I go to the grocery store by myself. Crash assist triggers, sirens go off, all these sirens. It's scary. I am afraid of what will happen and it happens in a split second. Warning lights go off, brakes go on. I was like, oh my gosh, and I pulled over.”

She emphasized, “All this is happening within 36 hours. They pick up the car and take it and try to work on it.” For weeks, the car was in the shop to address software and other issues, she said.

While in the shop and after scrolling Aviator owner pages on social media, Spencer called her salesman to express her frustration again. He referred her case to Lincoln corporate. A Lincoln concierge representative tried reaching Spencer while she was in Switzerland, and Spencer couldn’t call back on an 800 number. Nearly a week after she returned, the car was ready.

'I can't drive it ...'

“I said, ‘Lou, I've just got to know, am I done?’ Have I gone through every single problem?” Spencer asked her dealer's technician. “He said, ‘We can’t guarantee that ... I said, ‘It’s a $70,000 car and a month and a half old and you can’t guarantee it? What do I do? I can’t drive it in the middle of winter and have it malfunction."

When "Kate" from Lincoln concierge called, she asked if Spencer loved her amazing new SUV. And Spencer was just astonished.

“I’m like, look, this doesn’t work for me,” Spencer said. “I don’t want to be on the side of the road with my kids and my car has a big problem. I don’t know that I can trust my vehicle. To me, it’s not about money. It’s about security and reliability. I’m in a newly built Lincoln and I should have peace of mind.”

So Spencer is planning to talk again with Lincoln about what can be done.

For now, Fisher has a bit of advice.

“Clearly it’s better to figure out problems before vehicles go to the public,” he said. “Quick recalls mean fewer vehicles to fix later. But whatever you buy, do not be the first one on your block to own one.”

Why? He said all new cars can have bugs but Ford is known for introducing a whole bunch of new technology all at once, so if things go wrong the issues cascade. Toyota, for example, eases new features into products over time. “For Ford and Lincoln, these are complete redesigns, big large changes. And Ford tends to struggle on new technology in ways that Toyota and others do not. When you put a lot of new things into a vehicle all at once, it’s a recipe for problems.”

Consumer Reports, with a database of more than half a million consumer vehicles, tests and monitors more vehicles than any other entity. Its 2017 Lincoln Continental purchased for $57,761 overheated on the way back from the dealership in October 2016.

Lincoln officials are optimistic about the potential for Aviator.

Michael Sprague, Lincoln marketing director, said about 50% of first-month Aviator sales — August — were “conquests” of owners who had owned other luxury SUVs.

In fact, Spencer switched from driving a BMW to getting an Aviator, because she wanted an American luxury vehicle, she said.

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“Aviators are just beginning to arrive in dealer showrooms. We will always do what is right to ensure we provide our customers a top quality vehicle and a great luxury experience with Lincoln,” Kozleski said. “We recognize the excitement of purchasing a new vehicle and the inconvenience if a client needs to bring it back, which is why we will pick up vehicles from clients ... and provide them with a Lincoln loaner.”

'As long as it takes'

“It is a longstanding process at the company to make updates to pre-production models based on all-new platforms before they are shipped to dealers," Kozleski explained. "If a customer has a quality concern with their vehicle, they should contact their dealer or Lincoln concierge. Our dealers know their customers best and are working to handle any concern as a luxury customer would expect.”

Lincoln has some Aviators “undergoing additional quality inspections at Flat Rock,” Kozleski confirmed. “There are some Explorers that were built earlier in the process that are undergoing additional quality inspections in Flat Rock. We are shipping vehicles to dealers as we complete our quality inspection process.”

Ford plans to ramp up its operations in Chicago while continuing to perform quality inspections in Flat Rock “as long as it takes,” Kozleski said.

She was not aware of specific experiences described by Spencer or other customers in official online public Aviator forums.

Kozleski encouraged the Free Press to interview a happy Aviator owners.

Driving to Lynyrd Skynyrd

Robert Rood, 72, of Canton is a retired auto parts sales manager who paid $58,000 for his Aviator and took delivery in early August.

"I love it. I've had no problems," he said. "I’ve got 9,300 miles on my vehicle. I just got back from a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert in Orange Beach, Alabama."

Bob Ventrone, 64, a financial consultant from Jacksonville, Florida, said he took delivery of his $79,000 Aviator on Sept. 9. "I have 1,000 miles and no issues at all. The car is great."

Kozleski said Lincoln is committed to its customers and the team poured its heart into the Aviator.

"Lincoln has made really great strides in quality over the years and in fact, this year Lincoln was among the top 5 brands in J.D. Power Initial Quality Study," she said.

Late Wednesday, Spencer was trying to stay positive.

"I am concerned and apprehensive," she said. "I don’t know if the problems are finished or if I am going to be driving in the middle of I-94 and my new car breaks down."

Contact Phoebe Wall Howard at 313-222-6512 orphoward@freepress.com.Follow her on Twitter@phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter.