What? You don't remember seeing a Toyota with gullwing-style doors on the roads back in the '90s? Well, that's because this model, the Sera, was sold between 1990 and 1996 in Japan only as a rounder option to the MR2. It packed a 1.5-liter inline-four that was good enough for 110 horsepower and 98 pound-feet of torque.

Looking at this round example of '90s automotive design you can't help but ask yourself what were the people at Toyota thinking when this thing was given the green light for production. I mean, yes, gullwing doors are cool, but what are they doing here? Well, to be pedantic, these are a certain variety of gullwing doors where the doors are hinged to the A-pillar and not the roof itself, but we're getting into useless technicalities here. Still, there's no answer to that question: why does a 3-door hatchback coupe require such doors and, also, divided windows like you see on a Bugatti EB110?

Toyota Somehow Managed to Sell 16,000 of These in Japan

The Sera, as Jalopnik points out, dates back to Japan's 'Bubble Era.' That's a period of time before the crippling economic crisis that hit Japan in the '90s. You may be more familiar with an even weirder product of those years, the Autozam AZ-1. That car tries to look a bit like what an MR-2 would look like if the central design inspiration for the MR-2 were an egg. The Sera, however, is different in that it pretty much looks like a hatchback version of a Mazda 323 Astina from the early '90s.

That car shared the gullwing doors (or should one say 'butterfly'?) and had an all-glass greenhouse at the back. It shared its underpinnings with the Toyota Starlet and, due to a positive reaction from the public, it morphed into the Sera for the year 1990 when it went into mass production.

Once in production, people could opt between... well, they didn't really have a choice because Toyota only offered the 5E-FHE DOHC inline-four throughout the Sera's life. To put it into perspective, the McLaren Senna is almost 600 pounds heavier than the Sera!

This early example with tan interior and a lime green exterior comes with the Toyota A242L 4-speed automatic transmission although you could also get a 5-speed manual on the Sera. As you would expect, this sporty hatchback offers great visibility thanks to its dihedral doors with windows that extend onto the roof and thanks to its massive all-glass hatchback door made out of one piece of glass supported by a steel beam. However, the car's sizeable B-pillar limits a bit of that unbridled visibility, especially on the driver's side. The Sera has two bucket seats up front as well as foldable rear seats.

According to Barret-Jackson, this car has quite a few options onboard: "parking sensors, rain-sensing windshield wipers, air conditioning, and a Super Live Surround Sound (SLSS) stereo system" just to name a few. The stereo system features a total of 10 speakers scattered around the interior. The elongated thing you see placed on the tray in the back is actually a funky housing for two of the tweeters and two of the cones placed together. There's also an 'Acoustic Resonance Woofer' in the trunk.

You could go for either the 'CleanAce' system that comprised of a roof-mounted filter and interior light or the 'Air Fantasy' system which was connected to the air-conditioning and sprouted you with bursts of scented air from its location within the center console, right below the radio. Apparently, most Sera owners went for the roof-mounted 'CleanAce' system that extracted air through an air vent up front then took it all the way back where there was a filter before bringing it into the cabin.

The auction house that has this car listed for its Scottsdale auction without a price reserve points out that this "Sera is considered the first one imported to the United States after the Federal 25-year exemption in January 2015." Oh, and if you're curious, 'Sera' comes from French and it means "will be," hinting to the car's unmistakable futuristic doors and clever interior features.

Now, you may ask yourself how much would you have to pay for a Sera. Well, there aren't too many up for grabs and, as you'd expect, all of them are right-hand-drive. Is it worth it? Well, that's about the price of an AW11 Toyota MR-2, but the MR-2 is a car that car fans know about. But, if you're one of those that enjoy traveling around in a car that almost nobody else can identify, then get out by elegantly pushing the doors up like that's what's supposed to happen (because it is, unlike some tacky modified Civics out there), then the Sera's the car for you!

Further reading

Read our full review on the 1991 - 1995 Toyota MR2.