Do you take American excess?

We first saw the Lincoln Navigator Concept at the New York Show earlier this year, where our colleague Owen Ready reviewed its strengths and weaknesses. Now, six months later, the Navigator has just reappeared at the Los Angeles Auto Show after a visit to Pebble Beach.

So, having had some time to digest the design of Lincoln’s big concept, and of subsequent reveals like the Cadillac Escala, it might be a good time to try and gain some perspective on the concept of Big American Luxury.

Big. American. Luxury. It is a concept that grew out of the giant showboats of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s – luxobarges that defined the top of the American market, massive sedans and personal luxury coupes that were the envy (and occasional disgust) of the automotive world.

No one wants to return to that gas-guzzling world of oversized engines and wallowing leaf spring suspensions. But there’s a place for a smart, taut, big American luxury car, and the opportunity to seize the moment by Cadillac or Lincoln should not be missed.

The Navigator is one of several smart luxury concept cars that have appeared in the last few years. The Cadillac Ciel appeared at Pebble Beach in 2011, followed by the Elmiraj of 2013. Those cars utilized classic Cadillac design cues to great effect, without sliding into retro design. The Escala, revealed at Pebble Beach in August and also on display in Los Angeles, is another handsome car although its design reveals a more European sensibility. Lincoln has had fewer concepts, but along with the Navigator has recently shown the controversial Bentley-like Continental concept.

The Ciel and Elmiraj, as well as the Navigator, are reminiscent of classic luxury cars such as the 1960s Continental, or its contemporary, the Chrysler Imperial (Both, incidentally, designed by the great Elwood Engel).

These cars excelled at establish a strong elegant presence on the road. Their design was calm, bold, with no extraneous surfacing or lines. They weren’t sports sedans in the modern sense, but they didn’t need to be either.

The Escala, Cadillac’s new concept, may say more things about the future of the brand, and seems to bid a fond farewell to Art and Science design themes of the last decade. In their place are more European-style design cues – especially the fastback shape – and more Audi-like front. This may play well in Cadillac’s plans for the international market, but we’re not sure about what it says for the future of Big American Luxury.

The Navigator concept hews closer to the classic narrative. It sports a larger body mass, simply articulated, and a larger grill that seems to work better here than on the new Continental sedan. It is an SUV, but in a sense, more of an executive sedan, or limousine, with six individual premium seats that say “business class”. The enormous gullwing doors and concertina steps are strictly for the show circuit as a way of revealing the interior to maximum effect, but they are theatrical elements in themselves, reinforcing the Big Luxury theme.

Like the Escala, there are some European influences in the design and the name Range Rover has been muttered more than once with respect to the design of the sides and overall massing. But the overall composition of the exterior presents a quiet, bold presence that is reminiscent of the 1961 Continental.

In fact the Navigator could easily have been presented as the new Continental – its design speaks of Big American Luxury so much better than the tepid Bentley-like sedan of the same name.

Again, don’t mistake us. No one wants to return to the overfed, galumphing dreadnoughts of the 1970s. But there is still life in the concept of Big American luxury, still lessons to be learned from that classic era. And Cadillac, Chrysler, and Lincoln could still create large elegant sedans that could easily establish themselves on the freeway among the young upstarts, and established sports sedans.

A new era of Big American Luxury? It could still happen. Recent concept cars show us the way. Bold moves are required, but the payoff could be enormous. And, who knows? Maybe those concertina steps could be included into the bargain.