Junkyard Find: 1993 Oldsmobile Achieva SCX
Even though I still think the Achieva was saddled with the very lamest car name of all time— what ether-huffing focus group OK’d that abomination?— the SCX was actually quite quick for its time, and incredibly quick for a marque that appealed primarily to octogenarians too frugal to spring for a Buick. They were fairly rare to begin with, and this is the first SCX I’ve ever spotted in a self-service wrecking yard.
It’s got the Le Bra and a fair number of “tuner” style accessories, so it’s not hard to picture the young dude who spent years screaming at Integra and SE-R owners about how his W41-powered front-wheel-drive machine was actually thee most awesome thing evar. To which the response was probably “Oldsmo-what?”
185 horsepower, 2,700 pounds… and I still think it deserves to be crushed, because of that stupid name. I cringe just typing it! How could The General have sunk so low? Even bringing back the Starfire name would have been a better idea than (ugh) Achieva.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
More by Murilee Martin
Comments
Join the conversation
Now I want one of these Quad-4 editions intact for a 3800 swap, this or the Skylark equivalent.
Wow, this takes me back. Had a '92 SC, HO Quad4 with the 5 speed. It was pretty fast for its time, but did wallow in the corners if you pushed it. My biggest problem was it was quality reject...in the first year I had the following issues: bad ABS module, bad battery, replace rear brakes, split radiator, bad battery, and my favorite, the faulty keyless entry receiver that would randomly unlock the doors and trunk. All were fixed under warranty. After the 2 year lease was up, I actually got $1400 over residual because the dealer had a customer who wanted an HO/5 speed. It helped pay for the 95 Aurora I took home that day.