Below is a guide to the grading system used by most vehicle auctions in Japan:
Grade 6, 7, 8, 9 or S is given to a new car that is being sold in an auction.
Grade 5 to a car with exceptionally low mileage and in mint condition.
Grade 4.5 is in excellent condition.
Grade 4 is a good, solid car.
Grade 3.5 is similar to a grade 4 but may need more paint and panel work. Alternatively, it may have high mileage, since very few cars are given grade 4 if they are over 100,000 kms.
Grade 3 often has either serious paint and panel, or it has had a panel replacement somewhere. Grade 3 cars can also be basically grade 3.5s in terms of condition, but with very high mileage.
Grade A, R, RA are repair history cars. The auctions definition of “repair history” is a car that has had an inside panel repaired in some way. This can range from extremely minor to major.
Grade 2 is reserved for vehicles in the worst condition. This does not mean that they are write offs, simply that they have experienced deterioration such that they are now in a very poor state. A grade 2 vehicle will often have corrosion, perhaps corrosion holes and other serious issues. If you are looking for “classic” and other older cars or older trucks and buses, you will find a number of them are grade 2.
Grade 1 Can be one of the following 1). Flood history (rare) 2). After market turbo / engine (some sort of serious modification to the original vehicle) 3). Transmission changed from auto to manual.
Grade ??? , *** or 0 are ungraded write off cars which may not move at all. Auctions provide no information about these cars on the auction sheets. If the cars are drivable, then there should be no additional transportation costs. However, if the motor does not start or if the car cannot move under its own power for some other reason there may be problems in getting it from the auction to the port, and then from the yard onto the ship. If the engine does not start and is not steerable, transportation and port costs can skyrocket.
Exterior and Interior Grading
Some auctions have a letter, A, B or C to denote the exterior and interior grade separately. These letters can be seen near the overall grading number. A is excellent, B average and C below average.
We will normally not note the exterior grade, as the exterior condition of the car can be ascertained by looking at the car map (see below). For the interior grade, we will normally note this in the translation of the auction sheet if you bid on a car.
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