Panama City life in August rarely fits inside one box, and your weekend proves it fast.
You wake up with a contractor's to-do list, a trunk full of lumber to grab from the E. 23rd Street stores, and by noon you want the boat in the water near St. Andrews. By 3 p.m. the family is demanding Gulf time. By 6 p.m. you're hauling wet towels, leftover sandwiches, and a cooler back through summer thunderstorm traffic on US-98. A commuter crossover won't cut it. Neither will a pickup if you've got three rows of family to move.
A used full-size luxury SUV fills that niche better than almost anything else we carry here at Bay Cars, and the Lincoln Navigator is the clearest example we can point to. We're not making a status argument here. The practical case holds up, and the specs back it up.
What's the Route?
You can run four stops across one Saturday in a single vehicle, and the day maps out cleanly once you see where each spec earns its keep.
| Stop | Drive from Previous | What You're Doing | What to Pack or Load |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Home Depot (409 E 23rd St) | Start of day | Lumber, PVC, concrete bags, appliances | Fold the third row flat; use full cargo floor |
| 2. Lowe's (300 E 23rd St) | 1 min (same block) | Second pass for hardware or comparison shop | Consolidate your list; both stores are side-by-side |
| 3. St. Andrews Marina area | ~12 min via US-98 | Drop boat gear, fuel up, scope the launch ramp | Verify tow package is present on your specific unit |
| 4. Gulf beach via Front Beach Rd | ~20 min via US-98 W | Family beach afternoon before the storms roll in | Cooler, chairs, sunscreen, dry bag for phones |
The vehicle doing the work is where the decisions get real. The route is the easy part.
The Four Stops, Up Close
Stop 1 and 2: Home Depot and Lowe's, E. 23rd Street
They sit less than a block apart on E. 23rd Street, so you can legitimately hit both in one swing. The practical question is whether your vehicle actually handles what you buy.
A used Cadillac Escalade from the 2022-2023 generation delivers up to 121 cubic feet of max cargo volume with the second and third rows folded, and Cadillac's own specifications list that figure. You get enough real estate for flat-pack cabinetry, multiple bags of concrete, or a full appliance box. The standard 6.2-liter V8 on these years produces 420 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque. It moves loaded weight like it barely notices.
The 2022-2023 Lincoln Navigator matches that energy with its 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V6, rated by Lincoln at 440 horsepower and 510 lb-ft of torque. Max cargo volume reaches 103.3 cubic feet. Not quite the Escalade's all-seats-folded figure, though the Navigator's interior loading height is more forgiving for awkward hardware-store shapes, and the flat-fold third row gives you a genuinely usable floor.
Neither of these is a pickup truck. If you need full 8-foot sheets of plywood riding flat and uncovered, rent a trailer. For everything else off a hardware run (treated lumber cut to length, bagged materials, boxes, appliances), they haul with room to spare.
Stop 3: St. Andrews Marina, Panama City
The St. Andrews marina area is where the towing numbers stop being abstract.
Lincoln lists the 2022-2023 Navigator at up to 8,700 pounds maximum towing capacity when the Heavy-Duty Trailer Tow Package is fitted. That covers a pontoon, a 20-foot center console, a personal-watercraft trailer, or a dual-axle utility rig. Cadillac rates the 2022-2023 Escalade at 8,200 pounds with its Max Trailering Package on V8-equipped models.
On our lot, we pay close attention to one thing. Not every used Navigator or Escalade comes with those packages already installed. When the factory tow package is present, you're set for serious Gulf Coast hauling. When it isn't, the effective capacity drops (always confirm the specific vehicle's door-jamb label, not just the model's headline number). It matters.
For smaller-family buyers, the Lincoln Aviator is worth considering. It's a two-row luxury SUV rated at up to 5,000 pounds towing capacity per Lincoln's towing guide. If your boat or ski trailer is lighter, the Aviator's smaller footprint makes marina parking a lot less stressful than maneuvering a full-size Navigator into a crowded launch-ramp lot.
See What Your Current Vehicle Is Worth
Stop 4: Gulf Beach via Front Beach Road
August in Panama City means upper-80s beach temps, high humidity, and afternoon thunderstorms that build fast. Ventilated front seats (standard on upper Navigator and Escalade trims from these years), powerful multi-zone climate control, and rear-seat A/C vents earn their keep here. In stop-and-go Front Beach Road traffic, they separate a pleasant afternoon from a miserable one.
The 2022-2023 Escalade's 16.9-inch curved OLED display (standard on Luxury trim and above) gives kids something to look at during that crawl. The Navigator's upper trims counter with their own rear entertainment options. Neither detail feels significant until you're stuck in beach traffic at 3 p.m. with the sun baking through the glass and two worn-out kids in the third row. Then it matters a great deal.
What to pack for this specific day:
- Ventilated seats on upper Navigator and Escalade trims handle August Gulf heat better than standard A/C alone
- Rear-row A/C vents serve a third row in both vehicles (not automatic in every SUV, worth confirming by trim)
- Both Navigator and Escalade offer panoramic sunroofs that crack for airflow without turning the cabin into a wind tunnel at speed
- A waterproof cargo mat protects the floor from salt, sand, and wet gear (and peels out for a hosing after a beach day)
- A phone-mount with wireless charging keeps navigation running on Front Beach Road without draining a battery
Tweak It to Your Crew
Not every family needs the full Navigator-and-three-rows setup, and the right pick shifts with who is riding along, so we'd adjust the same Saturday a few different ways depending on your crew.
For a smaller family, or a buyer who wants luxury without the parking-lot anxiety, look at the Lincoln Nautilus. It's a two-row luxury crossover, and Lincoln's listed specs show 37.2 cubic feet of cargo behind the second row. It handles hardware-store runs for bags and fixtures, parks easier at crowded beach access points, and still delivers real premium interior quality at used-car value.
For a contractor who also wants a comfortable daily commute, the Escalade makes its own case. The 6.2-liter V8 handles a loaded work trailer from the E. 23rd Street stores, and that same engine makes the daily grind on US-98 feel like a quiet capsule rather than a work vehicle.
Already own a truck for the heavy contractor work? Then the Navigator or Escalade becomes a pure weekend-and-family vehicle, which is exactly where both shine the most. At used pricing from a lot like ours, that combination of space, features, and comfort is genuinely hard to match.
Come see what we have on the lot. The Bay Cars team is at 615 W. 15th St in Panama City, and we're happy to walk you through which specific units came in with tow packages, third-row configurations, and the trim-level details that change your Saturday.