Auto Express once clocked this Serena’s diesel at 27.8 seconds to 60 mph — slow enough to name it the slowest passenger car they’d tested.
Lead trim: 1.6 GA16DE · up to 124 hp
Nissan Serena C23C23 · 1991–2001
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- Unclaimednobody has spotted one yet
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Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Nissan Serena C23 yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactAuto Express once clocked this Serena’s diesel at 27.8 seconds to 60 mph — slow enough to name it the slowest passenger car they’d tested.
Launched in 1991 (in Japan as the Vanette Serena until 1994) as a compact passenger van engineered by Nissan's Aichi Manufacturing Division, with a front mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout and a live axle on leaf springs. Japanese grades PX, FX, FG, SX and FE came with all-wheel drive (some full-time), while VX, LX and L were front-wheel drive only, sold at Nissan Bluebird Store dealers. It was built in Yokosuka, Barcelona and Kuala Lumpur, with the SR20DE the commonest petrol engine and the CD20 diesels for the van, and it was exported widely to Australasia and the United Kingdom, where it took a beating: Top Gear called it "about as seductive as a skip", and Auto Express named the 2.3 L diesel the slowest car it had tested, at 27.8 seconds to 60 mph. The Vanette E and Cargo were built alongside in Spain, and LDV sold the Cargo as the Cub from 1998. The rebodied Largo followed in 1993.
Collectors Spotted in the Nissan Serena Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Nissan Serena yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
4 published trims in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.6 GA16DE | 1991–2001 | 1.6 L Inline-4 | 96 hp | 97 lb-ft | — | — | — | — |
| 2.0 CD20T turbodiesel | 1991–2001 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | 90 hp | 128 lb-ft | — | — | — | — |
| 2.0 SR20DE | 1991–2001 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | 124 hp | 125 lb-ft | — | — | — | — |
| 2.4 KA24DE | 1991–2001 | 2.4 L Inline-4 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Owning one
We don’t estimate running costs for a car like this. What it costs depends on its condition, its specialist and how it is driven, and an average would mislead.
Owners’ builds
Nobody has claimed one yet.
Photographs
The flagship Luxion trim of the current Serena will drive itself hands-free on the highway above 25 mph — a minivan with tech most sports sedans don't even offer.
Nissan put the NISMO badge on a minivan — but the Serena NISMO is styling only, with zero mechanical changes under the skin.
This Serena generation quietly pioneered Nissan's S-Hybrid tech — a simple idle-stop and regen system added mid-cycle in 2012, years before hybrids were common in minivans.
Three years running, 2007, 2008 and 2009, the Serena C25 was Japan's best-selling minivan, full stop.
Taiwan got its own stretched version of this Serena: Yulon built it 141mm longer than the Japanese original, the extra length added entirely behind the C-pillar.
Auto Express once clocked this Serena’s diesel at 27.8 seconds to 60 mph — slow enough to name it the slowest passenger car they’d tested.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
This Presage minivan shares its underlying platform with the Teana sedan and the North American Murano crossover — one architecture doing three very different jobs.
Subaru's family-hauling Exiga got an unlikely STi treatment in 2009 — front spoiler, sport muffler, tighter suspension and a leather Momo wheel — but only 300 were ever built.
YRV stands for Young Recreational Vehicle, a mini MPV built to out-handle its own segment rivals.
The Terraza was Buick's first-ever minivan for the North American market - a badge-engineered cousin of the Chevrolet Uplander, Pontiac Montana SV6, and Saturn Relay.
The restyled 1994 Lumina Minivan quietly made American automotive history: it was the first minivan sold in the US with a power sliding door you could open by remote.
The first-generation Lumina APV minivan was nicknamed the "Dustbuster" by the press for its sharply sloped windshield, which pushed the dashboard far forward of the driver.
Its steeply sloped windshield gave the Lumina APV one of the deepest dashboards ever fitted to a mass-produced car.
The first Presage wasn't really its own car underneath — most of its parts came straight from the Nissan R'nessa, with more shared with its platform twin, the Bassara.