The quirky 1990s car with a huge glass canopy joins a growing lineup of rental classics.
Toyota has found a rather brilliant way to remind us that it used to build some wonderfully weird cars. The company’s Kinto mobility arm is now offering the Sera as a rental car in Japan, giving enthusiasts a chance to experience one of Toyota’s most unusual creations without having to hunt down a 30-plus-year-old example.
If you’ve forgotten about the Sera, don’t worry. That’s what I’m here for: to jog your memory. The Sera was a tiny 2+2 liftback coupe launched in 1990, defined by dramatic gullwing doors and a huge glass canopy. I’ve managed to track down the original 36-year-old press release, and it proudly says the Sera was the “first Japanese mass-production car featuring gullwing doors with glass that stretches all the way to the roof.”
The press release also notes that the gullwing doors had a mechanism that kept the door-opening effort constant regardless of temperature changes. And yes, those doors are every bit as ridiculous as you remember, for a car built around the same time as another gull-winged contraption, the Autozam AZ-1. But the Japan-only Sera isn’t exactly a forgotten exotic supercar hiding in Toyota’s museum. Underneath all that visual drama is a small front-wheel-drive coupe related to the Starlet econobox, powered by a puny 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine.
1990 Toyota Sera available to rent through Vintage Club by Kinto
It tipped the scales at just 2,050 pounds (930 kilograms) in the four-speed automatic model, such as the 1990 model Toyota is renting out, but you didn’t need a ridiculous amount of horsepower to have fun. The five-speed manual version was even lighter, at 1,962 lbs (890 kg).
If you wanted ABS, that added 22 lbs (10 kg), while the upgraded 10-speaker sound system brought another 44 lbs (20 kg) penalty. At just 108 hp and 97 lb-ft (132 Nm), you didn’t get much power, but what you did get was enough glass to make an airport terminal jealous.
Toyota’s Kinto Vintage Club has been turning restored Japanese classics into rental cars for a few years now, with the current lineup including everything from various Celica and Supra sports cars to the Chaser, Aristo, and Altezza sedans. The MR2 is also joining the lineup alongside the Sera. There’s even a 70 Series Land Cruiser, although it’s a 40-year-old vehicle that Toyota still sells today, albeit in a slightly modernized form.
The rental program is part of Kinto’s broader effort to make old cars more accessible. Its Vintage Club specifically focuses on allowing people to see, touch, and drive restored classics rather than simply putting them behind glass in a museum. And the Sera is arguably the perfect car for that mission.
1990 Toyota Sera available to rent through Vintage Club by Kinto
It’s obscure enough that plenty of people have never seen one in person, weird enough to attract attention wherever it goes, and simple enough to remind us of an era when Toyota was willing to build something spectacularly unnecessary just because it could. The Sera is also a rare sight, considering fewer than 16,000 units were ever made, and who knows how many of them are still on the road more than three decades after production ended.
But there’s a problem: The Sera won’t exactly be cheap to rent. Then again, you’re not paying for an ordinary economy car, either. Kinto will charge ¥16,000 (about $100) for a four-hour rental at the Shikoku Automobile Museum in Kochi, Japan. The Sera will be available there on Saturdays and Sundays from December 5, 2026, through February 28, 2027.
That’s a pretty steep hourly rate for a tiny Toyota, but it’s also much cheaper than buying a pristine Sera (if you can find one) and figuring out where to store it.
To end with a couple of fun facts, the Sera inspired Gordon Murray when he was designing the doors for the legendary McLaren F1. While the Sera is long gone, Toyota does sell a Sora, but that’s a different animal since it’s a fuel-cell bus.
Here Are Other Weird Toyotas You Probably Forgot About:
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motor1.com?
– The Motor1.com Team