The Oldsmobile Expression was a concept car shown by Oldsmobile, presented by its creators as a "Sport Sedan Concept Car" and described as a preview of a "new generation of family transportation." It made its debut at the Chicago Auto Show in 1990. Despite the sedan label applied to it, the Expression was essentially an extrapolation of Oldsmobile's large station wagons, built as a fully drivable five-door wagon with seating for six. At 509 cm long it was substantially shorter than the rear-wheel-drive Custom Cruiser Wagon, the last of Oldsmobile's traditional big wagons at 560 cm, and its elliptical, rounded side profile contrasted sharply with the Custom Cruiser's angular styling. The body used fiberglass and other plastic exterior panels. Development was led by Dennis Burke, formerly chief designer of GM Design Staff's Advanced Studio 3 and later chief designer of Oldsmobile Studio 1.
Seating comprised front and rear bucket seats plus a rearward-facing third-row seat, allowing rear occupants to view an "entertainment center" built into the tailgate, which included a television, video player with Nintendo game capability, and a CD player. The interior also featured hot and cold storage compartments for food and drink, a fully integrated vacuum system with connection points throughout the cabin, and middle seats with backrests that folded into tables alongside an extended center console. Individually adjustable lighting and ventilation, headphones, and storage compartments were provided for occupants, and the cabin was trimmed in two-tone leather. Electronic gadgetry was kept deliberately limited, though the car included a head-up display supplementing analog gauges, a hands-free telephone, a navigation system with a screen on the center console, steering-wheel-mounted climate and radio controls, dual airbags, and rain-sensing wipers.
Mechanically, the Expression shared its 266.5 cm wheelbase with the Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera. It used a transversely mounted, front-wheel-drive Oldsmobile Quad 4 engine, a 2.3-liter (2260 cc) DOHC 16-valve four-cylinder introduced in 1988 as the first American 16-valve engine of its generation. Supercharging raised output from the 162 hp production Cutlass Calais Quad 442 figure to 235 hp, matching the boost method used earlier in the 1987 Aerotech concept. Drive went through an electronically controlled four-speed automatic transmission with pushbutton control. The chassis used refined GM production suspension components, with 17-inch front and 18-inch rear wheels, speed-sensitive power steering, four-wheel disc brakes, ABS, traction control, and four-wheel steering intended to aid tight parking maneuvers and sudden avoidance maneuvers.
