Three Things To Keep in Mind
The overall auction grade is the auction inspector's assessment of the overall quality of the car. You can usually find it written in the top right corner of most auction inspection reports.
However, before we get into the details about all these different grades and what each one means, there are three things that need to be emphasized about overall auction grades:
- They are subjective with different inspectors and different auctions more or less strict.
- The details the inspector writes about the car are much more important.
- Thy are broad categories covering a range of levels of quality.
Put simply, a grade 3.5 at one auction may not be as good as a grade 3.5 at another auction, but may be better than the same grade at a third auction. So anyone who tells you they have a great grade 4 you should bid on is not giving you the whole story -- make sure you get a translation of what is written on the auction sheet first.
At Integrity Exports, we think the overall auction grade is useful for one thing and one thing only, and that is to narrow down the number of vehicles you will consider bidding on: Rather than trying to bid on all 247 Corollas, it means you just consider the 56 grade 4 Corollas.
It's a tool to cut through the thousands of vehicles available in the car auctions in Japan to quickly find the ones you will actually be interested in bidding on.
So what are the major Japanese car auction grades?
With that said, let’s look at the different overall auction grades and what they mean about the overall condition of the car:
Grades 7, 8, 9 or S – These refer to a brand new car with only delivery mileage.
Grade 6 – This grade can sometimes be equivalent to the grades above, but sometimes will have a little more than just delivery mileage.
Grade 5 – A vehicle in superb condition, very close to brand new standard, but with several thousand kilometers on the odometer.
Grade 4.5 – A vehicle in nice condition, but with up to a few tens of thousands of kilometers on the clock.
Grade 4 – Better vehicles than of 3.5, solid vehicle usually having less than 100,000 km on the clock.
Grade 3.5 – A higher mileage vehicle or one which will need some work to clean up.
Grade 3 – Either a very high mileage vehicle or one which is rough.
Grade 2 – A very rough vehicle usually with corrosion holes triggering this low grade.
Grade 1 – Usually a heavily modified vehicle which has had a different engine or transmission fitted, or which has an aftermarket turbo charger. Other possibilities are flood or fire extinguisher damage.
Grade R, RA, A and 0 (zero) – These are vehicles that have had some degree of accident repairs. At one end of the spectrum the repairs will be a single panel replaced due a minor parking ding, whereas at the other extreme there are vehicles that must have rolled in an accident which have had almost every panel replaced.
Ungraded vehicles (***) – These are sold as-is by the auction with no or almost no information about their condition. As such they are very risky and can result in escalating additional costs if they cannot drive or move.
We find that the most successful importers really understand how it all works - from the auction to the ship and beyond. Don't get left behind!
