1992 Oldsmobile Achieva SC | Retro Review 

I'm totally with you.

I wasn't even alive yet but I love the aesthetic of early 90's cars.

Right there with you.

Yep.

No. You are the only 1.

This engine seemed like it had potential to be legendary like the 3800 series but I'm assuming there's a reason why GM discontinued it aside from what I'm guessing head gasket issues.

Pretty solid achievament indeed

@@chaseman94 Head gasket and overheating issues. It was a great engine on paper, but terrible in the real world. Noisy and failure prone.

Yes, these engines had a few problems early on yeah, but they don't really suffer from those problem today. With a redesigned head gasket and a set of ARP head studs, these things don't have any problems there anymore. The one and only head gasket failure I've had on any of my numerous quad for powered cars in the past was back in 2000 when I had to replace an oem head gasket on my 1993 gtz. Truthfully, these cars are a blast to drive and are very capable of seeing 7500 RPM without breaking a sweat. They really were engineering Marvels for their day, but got a bad reputation early on that they truthfully, don't warrant today.

Unfortunately they sacrificed everything for top end power. It had no low end torque and terrible NVH. Almost every auto reviewer at the time recommended the V6 for better daily driving, and they were the volume sellers. GM would redesign the Quad 4 into the Twin Cam to fix all of those problems in the mid 90s, and in the process it would lose 30HP.

They always had manuals.Firenza's and Omega's and even Cutlasses back in the 70's and 80's.Not many were sold but they were available

The Alero had a manual too, the Achieva's replacement.

Can you imagine a first gen Aurora came with a manual??? I would be ISO as we speak if that existed.

Almost no manuals were sold

I once had a 2001 Olds Alero coupe had a manual. My wife was driving our daughter to volleyball practice and the cooling fan relay died and blew a head gasket. It had 158K on it and was 14 years old, so I sold it to the scrap yard.

Yeah that’s an insane amount of noise lol

You don't hear it over the loud music anyway.

That’s why the Quad 4 was redesigned into the Twin Cam.. gaining displacement for more low power, balance shafts to reduce NVH, and losing 30 horsepower.

If not for GM beancounters, the Quad4 would have had balance shafts and better NVH control before it was introduced.

Nah. I know ive seen way higher. And the noise on some modern cars are worse than this. Ill never understand the noise complaint

You can thank CHINA for that one.

Yep. I Bought a 2004 Olds Alero. It was the last of the line.

And the Citation. What a beaut.

@@rootsmanuva82 I think you mean Omega, if we're keeping it all Olds ;-)

Right Lane Hog Clearly indeed!

What about the 442? Is THAT inspired?

@@pgtmr2713omegas and citations were both junk just like the achevia

Looks were weird???

Blossom too.

Me too.

Me too

Me too.

He bought a red one. That episode was on a few days ago lol

20 years later nearly all of these were in scrap yards with blown engines is more like it!

There are a few v6s around and also the later 2.4 engines.

If only. They cant ve found anywhere at all!

@@isaakwelch3451There's a scx in Philly at a highend dealer for like 20k with low miles. Probably can't find one nicer

@@povking1460 the question is: who wants to pay 20k for a 90s oldsmobile?

Buick!

@@isaakwelch3451 I stopped liking Buicks when they ended the GN in '87! lol

@@Gunsforfreedom I find Buicks to be much nicer now. They've gone from an older person's simple basic luxury car to a rather beautiful, comfortable premium car for all ages.

@@Gunsforfreedom Buick never stopped making comfortable, luxurious, sleepers. The execs at GM told Buick that they couldn't keep stealing corvette customers with the GN though

@@tristanlaferriere5194 I'm not a huge fan of the modern buick, although the Regal TourX is pretty cool. There were some pretty solid winners in the 90s and early 2000's though

All too common story..had my share as well! Too bad lol

I still have a '93 SCX, my dad had a '92 when I was a kid

It pisses me off that nobody made aftermarket radios for American cars in that size, at least not in any appreciable quantities. And there are still millions of them on the road.

@@MrTaxiRob yes.... I remember when I worked in the plant that assembled those radios, we made many even when the model had become obsolete, for the dealers, as the car companies had to be able to supply replacement parts (any type) for up to 10 years, after 10 years good luck, only used and eBay maybe

At the Kokomo Delco plant ?

They did that with the Pontiac backfire in 2003

So disappointing.

@@pgtmr2713 I know

The 5 speed made for a better car anyhow

@@kevinW826 and that was a base model car, but still that's 11 more years on. No wonder RPM gauges never used to be in GM cars..75mph in 3rd gear..probably pegging the poor engine

It’s those little things that sent everyone to buy Japanese and Korean cars.

There's a reason why Olds went extinct.

Those are the older thermal flashers and worked off heat from two contacts. The warmer it is the faster they flash and vice versa.

I think they flashed at a steady rate, just flashed a little faster than newer cars which can be a good thing imo. I think they flashed this fast on my moms '97. I have seen some cars of the same era have slow flashing turn signals.

Maybe a lamp went out already as that is what happened when one went out

"Your" fathers oldsmobile was the one to own. The plastic fantastic olds from say 93 till the end in 04 were mostly cheap crap i owned a delta 88 and an 04 alero, so i put my time in with the brand. I dated a girl in high school that had a black achieva with red interior. Beautiful color combo but cheap crap.

Porsche charges $1000 to paint mirrors a "sport black"....🤣

Super unsafe too. God forbid your door pop open, even a little, during a bad accident. That door mounted seatbelt would serve no purpose.

Yes, but that’s why they had to offer four wheel ABS standard rather than rear ABS or no standard ABS like most manufacturers at the time. I personally found GMs solution far more ingenious than the complex and annoying automatic belts that Ford, Mazda, Nissan, etc had. They met the standards, but didn’t force you to use them (they used the phrase, “we hope you’ll always keep your automatic seatbelts buckled”), and for coupes it meant you didn’t have to climb through or trip over the front belts to get into the rear seat. As for crash worthiness... if the damage is bad enough to pop a door it’s probably bad enough to bend a B pillar as well. Doesn’t make much of a difference.

Oldsmobile cars 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988 is my favorotes. This Achieva SC is very nice car

I have a red '93 SCX. You didn't buy it in Norristown Pa by any chance?

You must have had a pretty weird childhood...

In 1996 the Achieva received a interior redesign which included a new dash, with driver and passenger airbags...!!!

It was a slick looking car back in the early 90s.

Sounds nice

He was right. The Ferrari Mondial is slower(0-60 in 8.7s).

@@basshead. That is interesting to know. Lol. Guess he was technically right. 🤣 🤣

It was faster than lots of Lamborghinis, too. ;)

I had a '95 Grand Am for my 1st car, & I'll admit the Achieva's interior panels were way better than the Grand Am's. My Grand Am's interior somewhat fell apart over time. It was a good car though.

@@celticsdude my parents had one also. All they did was hit a deer. It bent the fender but it also completely broke the dash from the firewall on the passenger side. We went to the junkyard and had to sift throughout several wrecked cars to find a dash that wasn’t already broken.

@@jessieharbinjr.6589 Some of the knobs on the climate control started falling off, & I had electrical issues with mine. The floor would also leak water sometimes.

@@celticsdude that’s a given with any early 90s to mid 2000s GM products. It seems like they subcontracted their interior parts from Mattel Toy company 😂

whys that?

@@jcdenton4902 it’s where Oldsmobiles were built. Used to see train cars, and transport trucks full of them.

@@jsboening oh

Hey I drove an Oldsmobile Alero, it was a fun car to drive.

@@steveespinola7652 I owned an Alero too. Bought it new. It was fun watching it self-destruct before it was paid off.

@@michaelmcwhorter8707 I had an 01 Alero coupe. It was without a doubt one of the worst cars I ever owned. Fun to drive if you ignore all of the rattling and chunks of plastic falling off every time you hit a bump in the road. Hell, even the damn steering wheel had large chunks of plastic falling off leaving the metal ring inside exposed. Absolute garbage and it's no wonder why Oldsmobile folded.

Honda was putting out 190 with their Preludes in 92

In 1992, the Camry 3.0L V6 made 188hp.

@@cameronmiles645 That was due to VTEC. The Quad 4 was dual overhead cam, but didn't have variable valve timing like the VTEC engines.

Mazda 2.5l V6 NA 200hp, 7.5k rpm redline.

@@cameronmiles645 2.3L 4 same as this. They hade a gm version with over 190hp too.

I was trying to place that - I knew the opening, but for some reason had something “pop-ier” in my head......😂

I noticed that too! Awesome.

Hell yeah!!!

Best part of the video, Simple Minds on the Delco, and a can of Coke Classic in the cup holder. Please take me back in time.

I check the comments to see who has identified the song....well done, Moondust

Love the Grand am gt lol

Or the Oldsmobile Hasbeena?

How about the Wannabea (wanna-be-ah)? _(11/18/2022)_

Alive and Kicking.....which is ironic coming from the stereo of an Oldsmobile!

Never liked the interior, but the exterior was pretty cool. Loved the "shark" commercials they used when it first came out.

Beretta with its leaky back windows? No thanks. Back then I lived where it rained a lot.

the beretta is basically the same car underneath. the L body is a stretched n body. i liked my gtz as much as i did my i-series, the achieva SC, calais and GAGT

@@MrTaxiRob i owned a GTZ for 6 years, it never leaked? it had the sunroof too. it was a FL car.

@@OxBlitzkriegxO they may all share the same platform, but the Beretta was actually nice to look at, inside and outside, plus it did handle very well. Now the Corsica, 🤢

You must have the last running copy on the planet. I haven't seen one of these on the road in years, maybe over a decade.

You’re serious?

N body cars got FE7 starting in 92. my 92 GAGT had factory FE7 suspension. imo, the 92 GTZ, Achieva, and GAGT were the pinnacle of HO Quad4 cars. you got the best suspension and the best gear spacing available for a street car; 3.94 fdr and .72 od. Only a 92 SCX would be better than that, strictly due with the .81 5th gear. i never noticed much of a difference though, couple hundred rpm.

I did some minor suspension mods on my 93 SCX, z24 strut tower brace, addco rear sway bar, eibach lowering springs and koni yellows. It would really benefit from some better tires but I don't wanna switch the wheels out the factory 14's look perfect in them.

@@BreakStuffClub sounds like we have the same mods on our cars. I also have Wilwood front brakes and rear disc.

Yes