Auction

When viewing cars at auction you may notice that all will have an auction sheet attached, to those of us who cannot read Japanese these can appear a little daunting but our Pro Auction Consultant guides you and you will be able to make some sense of what is being mentioned.

The auction inspection system in Japan is extremely thorough and was developed so cars in more remote parts of Japan could be sold unseen and purchased by buyers who may live hundreds of miles away likewise buyers from rural areas could buy in big sales unseen and send a transporter to collect.

This is a system that’s been refined and improved over the years and is trusted by Japanese buyers and international buyers alike. The auction houses are liable for misrepresenting a car and will have to settle a claim if they have made a mistake. With car auctions in Japan accounting for thousands of car sales each week the auction sheet has to be accurate and truthful with any faults being clearly specified.

The Japanese auction system is not uniform across all auctions. Some of the symbols vary from auction to auction but here is a basic guide to what they all mean.

But if this all sounds too complicated rest assured Awan Trading assigns a full time Agent to customers for ther full auction sheet translation service to all of our customers with bidding privileges.

A Is a scratch with A1 being a very light scratch, which usually means a light graze that will polish out. A3 will mean a bad scratch that needs paint, some auction use up to A4 either way on any Japanese auction sheet the higher the number the worse the damage

U Is a dent. A car may have many U1s which are pin dents that may be very small or unrecognizable U3 will be a proper Knee sized Dent

B Dent with Scratch

W Wavy means showing signs of previous repair W1 means a qualified inspector could identify a good repair. W2 is a repair that is visible W3 is a bad repair that will probably need to be redone

S Rust (orange discoloration on the surface)

C Corrosion (rust has progressed so that now the original metal is now flaking away)

P Paint Market (repaint or require paint)

P Paint faded

X Panel is damaged beyond repair and needs replacement

XX Item / Panel has been replaced

G Stone chip on glass

Y This means damage to front or rear lights. Y1 can mean a small chip in the Headlight glass, Y3 will mean you can put your hand through the hole to replace the bulb

E Some dents which are barely visible.

The Auction Grade is a representation of the car’s overall condition, not just the bodywork. It is meant to give an indication of how much money will require spending on a car to make it trade saleable, so if you are looking at a car that appears mint but only gets a grade 3 it may have a mechanical issue and will need further inspection.

The auction grades can run from 2 to 6. However, 5 to 3 is the standard in most auctions. The auction grade is also dependent on age and mileage, for example, it is very rare for a fifteen-year-old car to be grade 4, and in this instance, you can consider the car to be exceptional for its year, similarly, a one-year-old car shouldn’t be grade 3.5 unless it has had a hard life.