Original Nintendo and Oldsmobile can be very nostalgic for very different reasons to very different people. One is an 8-bit legend, perhaps the most important gaming console of all time, while the other produced memorable vehicles like the Cutlass, 88, and Curved Dash Runabout over its 107-year tenure.
Today, we bring you a rare case of when these two titans combined, resulting in an odd mixture of retro-futurism and automotive ingenuity.
At Chicago Auto Show in January 1990, Oldsmobile debuted the Expression concept, a six-seat ‘sport sedan’ with a fiberglass body straight out of The Jetsons.
With its long rear overhang and extremely smooth lines, the Expression was a quite the sight to behold, but that’s just the beginning. Mounted in the vehicle’s swinging tailgate was an original Nintendo system (NES), along with two controllers, integrated mounting ports, and an onboard display.
Two rear-facing jump seats provided the theater for endless hours of road trip fun, but the tech offerings didn’t stop there. The Expression also featured a VCR, CD player, Navicar navigation system, CRT color monitor, Head-Up Display, hot/cold storage, vacuum cleaner, and something called a ‘hands-off cellular telephone.’
As Cars That Never Made It reports, Oldsmobile’s innovative concept unfortunately never saw production. That’s a real shame, because the Expression’s forward-thinking attitude wasn’t just relegated to infotainment technology. The car also equipped automatic rain-sensing wipers, four-wheel steering, a leather interior, and a 2.3-liter supercharged ‘Quad 4’ that produced 230 horsepower.
Oldsmobile may be gone now (its last model was produced in 2004), but the automaker’s quirkiness lives on in vehicles like this. So whether your walls were decorated with Legend of Zelda posters or Oldsmobile ‘Rocket’ ads as a kid, this eccentric concept has something for everybody.
