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| The Nissan Serena - about to transport French-exchange visitor, Marc. |
The Nissan Serena was one of those vehicles adapted from another
model to try to take advantage of a new trend or fashion.
Renault designed the Espace from the ground up and it was a
fantastic car. It defined the people carrier market and sold like hot cakes.
Nissan wanted a slice of the action, so it took its panel van, inserted windows
and seats and – hey presto – you have a people carrier.
In the US, they called people carriers ‘minivans’. In the UK, a
Minivan is the car-derived van version of the Mini, so it’s a little confusing.
However, the Serena was a van and little had been done to improve the ride,
handling or performance. It was no Espace, but it was in my price range; in fact, I could afford the top-spec model.
There was a normally aspirated diesel, which was incredibly slow,
and a 2-litre petrol, which was the version I had. It was very thirsty (below
30mpg) even on a long run and it still wasn’t what you’d call fast. Thankfully,
I was able to put a fair bit of petrol into the car on the company’s account,
so I wasn’t unduly concerned about mileage. Auto
Express named the Serena as the
slowest passenger car in the benchmark 0-60 mph (now 62 mph) test,
with the 2.3 diesel version taking 27.8 seconds to reach that speed.
There were some odd quirks about the vehicle. Soon after we got it,
Margaret called me one day to say the battery was flat. I told her she’d left
the lights on, she swore she hadn’t. I didn’t believe her, but then it happened
to me and I definitely hadn’t left the lights on. There was clearly an
electrical leak that was flattening the battery over around three days. I checked
all the interior lights, none were staying on and I also checked for odd things
like bonnet lights – nothing!
The car went to the Nissan dealer in Peterborough and, almost in
mockery, they gave me a Nissan Micra as a replacement car. From an eight-seater
people carrier to a four (five at a push) seater supermini – now that’s what
you call customer service!
They said they’d check over the car, it was fine. It was probably
a faulty battery, so they changed the battery.
Of course, it happened again and Nissan’s (then) high reputation
for reliability was looking a bit suspect. The car went back and I suspect this
was a rare, but not unique, fault on this model. They kept the car for a couple
of weeks and flew in a technician from Japan to look at it. When it came back,
they couldn’t tell me what the fault had been, but they promised it was sorted
(and so it was).
The Serena was tall and thin and, dynamically, it was not a good
car to drive. It felt heavy, accelerated slowly and overtaking had to be
carefully judged. It wasn’t the sort of car you’d throw into a bend. It was
front engine/rear-wheel drive and the car had a live rear axle, mounted on leaf
springs – crude by passenger-car standards in the mid-90s.
Oddly, the engine sat quite high between the driver and front
passenger. The almost mid-engine design would have helped handling, but the
engine was set too high for good weight distribution. To check the oil level,
you had to lift a cover inside the car and hinge it forward to expose the
engine. It was a faff and, despite a heat shield and noise insulation, you were
always aware there was a big engine sitting alongside you. There was a short,
stubby bonnet and that lifted to allow access to washer fluid and coolant
levels.
It did have a radio/cassette player, electric windows, power
steering and two electric sun-roofs. No air-conditioning back then. I never
liked sun-roofs, they are noisy when open, reduce headroom and often leak. However,
pulling back the cover on the Nissan’s main sun-roof gave you a tinted glass
roof that made the car seem really light and open. If you did open the roof and
drive at any speed, all kinds of severe vortexes and whirlwinds would be
created inside the car and you couldn’t hear yourself think!
We didn’t take the Serena abroad, but we did clock up quite a few
miles around the UK. It certainly went to Somerset a couple of times and also
to the Lake District. I remember doing the Hardknott and Wrynose passes in the
Lakes. These two lead into each other and have some really steep roads, which
were quite wet on the day we did them. The rear-wheel drive Serena lost a bit
of traction on some sections. It was possible to lock the differential by
pressing a button, but this wasn’t needed.
It was hard to like the Serena, but there was no denying its
practicality. It was an eight seater 2+3+3 and, unlike other people carriers
I’ve owned, it was possible to fold all the rear seats out of the way (there
was no need to start unplugging them like the Galaxy, Sharan, et al. The middle
seats tipped forwards and upwards (like an estate car) and the rear seats (a
bench seat) split in the middle and folded into the side.
We didn’t have to do any removals, but the eight seats came in
handy a few times, and Tom and I managed to get a motorcycle in the back. We
took the Derbi Senda to a moped endurance race at Cadwell Park and it just
about squeezed in (along with our other gear).
We had the Serena for four years. I changed it in 1999 for another
people carrier – a VW Sharan.
Also see:
Ford Popular - click
Ford Popular - click
Bedford HA Van - click
Morris Mini - click
