Toyota Sera: PH Carpool
Why this PHer can't part with his Japanese Domestic Market curio after 12 happy years
Car: Toyota Sera
Owned since: 2004
Previously owned: Ford Escort, VW Scirocco, a couple of VW Polos, a Citroen ZX and a Riley Elf.
Any Sera is rare in the UK, a manual especially
"My wife Ruta regularly saw unusual cars that she liked, but which we couldn't afford to buy or run or which simply weren't practical for the daily commute. She had always liked cars with a large, curved rear screens like the Jensen Interceptor and Renault Fuego (remember those?), and 'quirky' cars appealed to her, so when she spotted a Sera on the road she fell for it instantly. When I discovered that the doors on the McLaren F1 were a copy of the Sera and that I could afford one, I was hooked too (it's the nearest I'll get to owning an F1). I found one for sale, drove the 200 miles the following day to view it, checked it over and bought it as a surprise. That was 12 years ago."
What I wish I'd known:
"I know nothing of the history of our car prior to its arrival in the UK, which is a shame. I bought it with little knowledge of the model and did no research; I also bought the first one I saw, which is not generally considered wise when buying a car but, as it had to be a manual and the majority are automatic, the options were limited.
"Introduced for the domestic market by Toyota in 1990, the Sera began life as a show car and went into limited production for the Japanese market only; as a result all those in the UK are grey imports.
Exotic exterior hides normal underpinnings
"The doors are heavy, and the struts that support them have a hard life. In fact there are two struts for each door, the lifting strut that is external and a balancer strut inside the door. Both lifting struts on ours have been replaced using 'phase 3' struts which are more powerful. It's straightforward to change them, though take care as the door is very heavy without the strut and needs to be safely supported in the open position while the work is completed (I used a wheelie bin!). The glass rear hatch also has a pair of gas struts to raise and support it; renewing these requires removal of the rear seats and interior panels meaning that what would seem to be a half-hour job actually took me three hours, most of it working out how the whole thing came apart (there's no Haynes manual for the Sera!). Because of the glass roof working air-con is essential, but fortunately ours is genuinely ice cold.
"I spent a few days after buying it giving it a thorough check over; replacing the ridiculously loud aftermarket exhaust and a CV joint, plus giving it a full service and change of all fluids; and finally a dosing with Waxoyl, as most Japanese domestic market cars have little or no rust proofing on import. I have updated this every couple of years; on the last couple of occasions having the luxury of a ramp at North East Restoration Club has made it far more pleasant an undertaking. This together with the pristine condition of the underside on purchase has made sure the car has lasted well."
Freed from daily duties it's now being shown love!
"The rarity (there are probably fewer than 100 on UK roads), the dramatic looks, the doors and the fact that it is surprisingly practical to own. My wife used it as an everyday car for over ten years before it became a classic to take on road runs and to shows: she loves talking about it and showing it off. It's also lovely to drive; not outright fast, but nippy and very nimble with light, direct controls. It's a sporty car rather than a sports car, but suspension kits exist and fitting a Starlet Turbo engine, or turbo to the Sera engine, can significantly boost performance. In fact, as the Sera is based on the Starlet, the potential for performance upgrades common to the Starlet Turbo/Glanza makes for a very tuneable little car. Ours will remain standard however as we don't want to change the character of it."
Things I hate:
"Nothing really! I don't think I'll ever get used to being stared at when I'm driving it (my wife is used to it and doesn't notice). One minor thing is that the plastic headlamp covers become obscured, but cheap cream bath cleaner polishes them up a treat! Oh, and I recently bent the door reversing out of the garage with it raised: something for which my wife may forgive me now it's been to the body shop."
See look, the doors do go down as well
"It has been cheap to run primarily because, in all the years we have owned it, it has needed very little in the way of parts and most of these have been common to other Toyotas and easily available. Odd things can cost more than you expect: a plastic clip broke on the wipers that required complete replacement of the mechanism at £130; but on the other hand, when the clutch needed replacement a couple of years ago it was common to other models and therefore a cheap job. Despite being an import, insurance has never been a problem and it was transferred to a classic policy a couple of years ago; also, as it's below 1.5-litre road tax is cheap.
"There's one specialist in the country, Andrew at toyotasera.co.uk for help and advice and the worldwide online community is good. My mate Chris at C&C Discount Motor Parts in Sunderland has always gone the extra mile to source bits and on the couple of occasions it has been necessary the local Toyota dealer has been excellent. The mechanic I have known for over 30 years, Mick (shouldn't all mechanics be called Mick?) at MOTAFIX in Vilette Road, Sunderland deals with odd jobs I don't tackle myself and takes it for MOT each year; in fact he has become something of a fan of the car. It has just come back from 'Sprayfast' in Nile Street, Sunderland, run by another Mick (see what I mean?), where it has had the body and paintwork tidied."
This one's a keeper, says Jim
"Nowhere dramatic; it was my wife's daily driver for 10 years and now does regular Drive It Day runs with Sunderland and District Classic Vehicle Society and other classic trips and shows. The plan is to use it more in the future and travel further afield."
What next?
"We will never sell it, but after years of daily use it has needed a little bodywork, paint and some mechanical improvements to make it worthy of my wife's pride and a decent show car. Now it looks smart again, it will be seen around the shows and out on the road and just maybe we'll take it on some adventures!"
There are some cars which are more than the sum of their parts and I'd class the Sera as being in that category. Underneath they are a mixture of fairly ordinary mechanicals - mostly Starlet derived. However, the result, is actually a very capable car that gets lots of looks and second glances whilst your out and about. The styling is 90's, and because you are not familiar with the shape, still looks good in the metal. They have a broad range of talents and they offer an unusual car that thanks to Toyota's reliability record is likely to start first time every morning.
The body is less conventional - two 'gullwing' doors - Toyota call them gullwing but they are not in the same sense as the Delorean or Mercedes 300SL. Dihedral is possibly a better term. Headlamps are an early form of projector unit, body panels are pressed using high pressure water, and the rear glass held (possibly still does) a record for the largest car frameless screen.
McLaren examined the Sera in detail for the McLaren F1 doors, and used that knowledge on the McMerc and subsequent models - you can open the door fully in fairly confined parking spaces, compared to most conventional doors. Lotus looked at a Sera for the M250 Project Monaco concept car (I supplied them with a dead shell), and more recently had the guys from Caterham look at one - although not sure what happened to that project.
One Sera owner managed to track down the head of design for the Sera, and he said they planned to do a higher performance model, and it doesn't take much intuition to work out what they would use for the basis - the 4E-FTE engine from the Starlet Turbo. Its a fairly straightforward fit with a handful of wiring mods needed - I've done it to half a dozen cars. The 1500 produces 108bhp as standard, the 1300 turbo, 133bhp, so a reliable 25bhp gain - and the range of tuning parts for the Starlet engine is much wider - the only thing to bear in mind is that the Sera engine bay is tighter than the Starlet one, and not everyone wants to ditch air conditioning considering the glass area in order to fit bigger turbos or oversized intercoolers. Some people make a hybrid 5E-FTE by combining the longer stroke block, crank and rods, with Starlet turbo pistons and turbo equipment.
Now they are 25 years old there is increased interest from the American market. Values for good ones are creeping up (finally!)
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