A Tale of Two Seras

James and I finally had time to do some maintenance today on the Toyota Seras that we own. The Sera is a model of Toyota that was only sold in Japan from 1990 - 1996. There were about 16,000 made altogether. Because it was made for the Japanese market, it is right hand drive. It sounds cool until you need to go through an ATM line or buy food from a drive-through window. Then you need a seat buddy to help you. It is believed that Toyota named the car after the phrase "que sera sera," as a nod to the futuristic butterfly doors (not gullwing!) that the car had.

As to how our Seras ended up over here, people in the US are allowed to import a car that has not been tested or met standards for the US market as long as it is 25 years old or more. We had been eyeballing a Sera for awhile, but had to wait until at least 2015 to purchase one, and even then, it had to be a 1990 model, as the rest did not meet the 25 year criteria yet. The grey one arrived in the fall of 2015 and the green one in the spring of 2016. Both took about 6 weeks to come here, and they were shipped by boat from Japan to the local port in Galveston, where we could pick them up. James found them both listed on a Japanese used car site called tradecarview.com. We are planning on keeping one and fixing one up to sell. The one we keep we would like to take on a road trip, as the mostly glass doors are great for sightseeing.

The grey Sera got new door struts installed today, and the green Sera got its horn reconnected and a high idle issue worked out. Both are appearing to have some oil seepage around the new oil filters, so that is something I am going to have to keep an eye on. They did tighten up a bit with a filter wrench, so it seems they somehow relaxed a bit after some mild use. They both still need to have their AC's charged. Sitting in a rolling greenhouse in the Texas summer is no fun!

​Like what you read? Click the button below to see related posts:

Related