Plymouth Expresso

You had to have been there.

As in, the 1990s, to truly grasp how normal it was to walk into an auto show and see some vibrant, youthful concept car from one of Detroit’s Once Big Three, sitting on a plinth and hogging a few dozen spotlights.

Being both a car and coffee snob, the fact Plymouth introduced a bright-ass yellow egg-car, named it ‘Espresso’, albeit phonetically, mean I should dislike the 1994 Expresso concept.

Yet here I am, staring at Neon compact car mechanical parts (2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine, front wheel drive) dressed up as a soufflé, wondering if Stellantis isn’t missing a trick by not having its old marques all brought back to offer 1-2 vehicles each. A gallery of miscreants.

Introducing the 2026 Plymouth Prowler…and Plymouth Expresso. 

Swoon. You may recall that Plymouth did end up using the Expresso moniker, albeit as a trim level across the lineup*. Terrible. 

What's even more ugh is that the Expresso concept is practically non-existent on the internet. Like other unicorn vehicles I’ve featured here, the tiny people-mover seems to have been a one and done concept.

A final note: you may have forgotten, or never known, that Chrysler had quite the avant garde team of designers back in the 1990s, especially in the period directly preceding its merger with Daimler.

In light of this, don’t be too surprised when I tell you the Expresso hasn’t been seen or heard from since the late 1990s. Rest In Plastic, little dude.

When browsing a Stellantis photo archive, I stumbled across this scale model of the Plymouth Prowler, wearing bright yellow wheels that are suspiciously similar to the Expresso’s: