Forget The Switch 2 — The Oldsmobile Expression Had A Nintendo Entertainment System In It

The Nintendo Switch 2 mobile entertainment system will soon be occupying the back seat occupants of many automobiles across the country, but that’s an idea that goes wayback … in more than one way.

The Oldsmobile Expression was a concept car that debuted at the 1990 Chicago Auto Show back when concept cars and auto shows were still very much a thing.

The tall station wagon was posed as an alternative to the Oldsmobile Silhouette minivan that went on sale the same year and had plenty of show car style and features.

The wedge nose looked more like a sports car’s than an Oldsmobile’s and the egg-shaped body was punctuated by enormous windows, compared to what vehicles have today.

The vehicle was designed with a 235 hp 2.2-liter Quad Four four-cylinder engine in mind and had an early take on the kind of four-wheel-steering system found on GM’s electric trucks today. It also had rain-sensing wipers, which would’ve sounded impressive at the time, and a built in vacuum cleaner.

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Seating was 2+2+2 with a console separating the plush leather chairs in the second row and a pair of old school rear-facing “wayback” seats in the cargo area, which had something very interesting in front of them.

Inside the Expression’s side-hinge tailgate Oldsmobile installed a small portable television set with a VCR and a Nintendo Entertainment System, with the controllers stored in ports at the top of the door, because why would you want to look out of the giant window in front of you?

Of course, neither the Nintendo feature or the Expression never made it into production. Oldsmobile’s last station wagon, the Custom Cruiser, succumbed to shift towards SUVs and went out of production in 1992, while the entire brand would follow it into the history books in 2004.

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Rear-facing seats have also gone extinct, but several General Motors models do offer screens for second row passengers that are equipped with the Google Built-in infotainment system, which has several game apps in development, can play streaming video and come with HDMI inputs that you can just plug the Swtich 2 into.