Markets, people, dumb people. The differences between Japanese cars sold in each and every country is vast, so many small variations. The largest and most noticable differences come between Japanese cars sold to the rest of the world, and that of Japanese cars sold in North America. Case in Point, and a continuation of our Toaster theme: The Nissan Vanette....or in this case the Quest/Serena mix fuck up.
Pictured above is the Nissan Quest, what us North Americans known also as a Mercury Villager. The van was licensed to ford in exchange for them producing it. Both versions had a VG30 engine. The styling? VERY similar to that of a Nissan Serena, just different proportions, and for good reason too...
The basic shape and idea were shared between the two vans. The window lines, headlights, even the handle cluster in the middle of the door was similar. The big difference? The engine placement. The Quest/Villager was a boring and North American generic FWD V6, where the Serena? 2L RWD. The thing was, the 2 litre engine wasn't just any 2 Liter, it was an SR20, and in some markets? Turbo manual.
I get the impression that these are still undiscovered Gems, and that there is probably a great number of people running around with Serena SR20 engines in their 240's without even knowing it. Potentially very strange. The cool thing is, prices for export are still reasonable. Why you ask? Because most other places in the world got Serenas locally, so they have no need to import them.
This guy below? SR20det 5 speed manual: $1500.
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Back in 92 we had a Nissan van with a 5spd manual trans.
Most likely a nissan axxess you had Justin.