Manufactured by General Motors, the Achieva has been marketed and sold under this vehicle manufacturer's Oldsmobile division. The Oldsmobile Achieva has been making its rounds on the streets and roads since 1992, the year of its introduction, and has continued to do so for six years. Come the year 1998, General Motors has then decided to discontinue and entirely halt the production and manufacturing of this vehicle. The Oldsmobile Achieva actually replaced the spot and niche that the Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais vacated when the company has decided to discontinue its production. When the Oldsmobile Achieva's production was halted, it was the Oldsmobile Alero that took the spot of the latter vehicle.

The Oldsmobile Achieva is a compact car. It has been made available in two body styles. These body styles include the coupe with two doors and the sedan with four doors. It was built on the FF N body platform and is greatly related to the Buick Skylark, the Chevrolet Malibu, the Oldsmobile Cutlass, and the Pontiac Grand Am because of this. It has been said that one of its major competition was the Mercury Tracer. The very reason why the Oldsmobile Achieva was designed and manufactured to be such was because General Motors targeted this vehicle to be one of the great competitions of Japanese compact cars that has been entering the American automobile market during the time of its introduction.

The Oldsmobile Achieva was introduced back in the year 1992. Although it was mounted and built on the FF N body platform, the basis for the car was the GM N platform. This vehicle was also made available in four trim levels which comprise of the S, the SC, the SL, and the SCX. The engines that were mounted on the Oldsmobile Achieva through the years that it was being manufactured included the high output version of the 2.3 L Quad 4 LD9, as well as the 3.1 L V6 engine.