Verify Any Japanese Auction Sheet

An auction sheet is the official inspection report written by the auction house when a car is sold in Japan. The auction house's inspector records the mileage, assigns an overall grade and letter grades for the exterior and interior, and marks every scratch, dent and repair on a diagram of the car. It is the most reliable record of a used Japanese vehicle's true condition.

Trim grade and auction grade are different things on a Japanese auction sheet. Trim grade — EX BLACK EDITION, G Package and the like — is the factory specification set by the manufacturer, and every car of that model shares it. Auction grade — 4.5, 4, R — is a score an inspector assigned to that one car on the day it was sold, based on its actual condition.

Auction grade S means the car is as new: usually under a year old and under about 10,000 km, with no marks inside or out. Grade 6 means near new: usually under about three years old and 30,000 km, with only the smallest marks. Both are rare on cars exported to Bangladesh.

Auction grade 4.5 means very good condition: typically under about 100,000 km, with some light scratches or small dents but clean overall. Grade 4 means good condition: typically under about 150,000 km, with visible marks or a repaired panel in line with its age. These two are the grades most well-kept used cars receive. Neither means the body frame was repaired — that is shown only as R or RA.

These are the lower Japanese auction grades, in descending order of condition:

• 3.5 — fair: several visible scratches, dents or repaired panels, and some wear inside.
• 3 — below average: wear and damage across many panels.
• 2 — poor: large dents and scratches, heavy rust or holes.
• 1 — special condition: flood or fire damage, heavy modification, or another reason it cannot be graded normally.

R and RA on a Japanese auction sheet both mean repair history: part of the car's body frame — a side member, a pillar, the floor, the roof or another structural part — has been repaired or replaced, usually after an accident. RA means a lighter frame repair than R. A car whose doors, wings or bumpers were replaced is not R. Neither is automatically disqualifying — a well-repaired car can be sound — but both affect the car's market value, so both are worth checking before you buy.

A score of *** or 0 on a Japanese auction sheet means the car was not given a normal grade. It is often used for a car that does not run, is badly damaged, or is sold as it is, and the inspector's notes and the diagram say why. Read the sheet closely before buying one.

Beside the overall grade, the exterior and the interior are each given a letter, separate from the overall grade and from each other:

• A — like new, nothing worth noting.
• B — clean, with a few small marks.
• C — wear in line with the car's age: visible marks, stains or small burns.
• D — clear wear or damage that needs repair or cleaning.
• E — heavy wear or damage: parts need replacing or seats re-covering.

The auction sheet carries a top-down drawing of the car. Letters placed on the drawing show the type of damage and where it is, and a number after the letter usually shows how big it is. Read together — A2 on the left front door, say — they describe every fault the inspector found.

For most damage codes on a Japanese auction sheet, the digit after the letter gives the size of the fault, not its depth or the cost of putting it right. For dimples (E) it says how many there are, for rust and corrosion (S, C) how bad it is, and for a repair mark (W) how easy the repair is to see. The sizes are:

• 1 — small, about the size of a thumb, or a short scratch.
• 2 — medium, about the size of a palm.
• 3 — large, bigger than a palm and easy to see.
• 4 — very large, across most of a panel (used by some auction houses).

These are the four dent and scratch codes on a Japanese auction sheet:

• A — a line scratch. The number after it is its length, not its depth.
• B — a dent that also broke the surface paint.
• U — a dent with the paint still intact.
• E — a dimple: a very small dent, often only visible in reflected light.

On a Japanese auction sheet, W means the panel has been repaired and painted, and its number says how easy the repair is to see: W1 is hard to spot, W3 is obvious and may need doing again. XX means the panel has been replaced. Neither is repair history in itself: a replaced door, wing or bumper does not make a car R, and only an R or RA grade means the body frame was repaired.

S and C both concern rust on a Japanese auction sheet, and the difference matters. S is cosmetic surface rust. C is corrosion that has eaten into the metal itself, which is the more serious of the two and much more expensive to put right.

These three codes describe panels the inspector judged to be beyond ordinary wear:

• X — the panel is beyond repair and needs replacing.
• Y — a hole, crack or tear where the material is broken through.
• BP — panel beaten and painted: sheet-metal repair followed by paint.

Glass has its own codes on a Japanese auction sheet:

• G — stone chipping from road debris, usually on the front screen.
• R — a crack in the glass that has been repaired.
• RX — a crack that was repaired, but the glass should still be replaced.

P and H both describe paint on a Japanese auction sheet. P marks a paint blemish, a touch-up or a spot of fading. H marks discolouration or fading of the original paint across a wider area.

True Report is the Auto Prime Auction Sheet Verification Service: the original Japanese auction record for a vehicle, found by its chassis number. Searching is free and shows whether a record exists for that exact chassis. The Auto Prime True Report is the paid report — the scanned auction sheet, the auction grade, the mileage recorded at auction and an English explanation of every mark — delivered by email as a private link.

The chassis number of a Japanese import is stamped on a plate in the engine bay and printed on the export certificate and the registration papers. It is not the registration number. The format is a model code, a hyphen, then a serial — for example NZE141-6048723. When reading it off a plate, check 0 against O and 1 against I, which is where most failed searches come from.

If the auction sheet is one Auto Prime already holds, it is normally emailed within minutes of payment. If it has to be retrieved from the Japanese auction record, it is normally emailed within 3 hours during office hours (11:00 am to 12:00 am, Sunday to Thursday). If the report is not delivered within 72 hours of the payment, the payment is refunded in full. Prime Manual Retrieval, a search by hand, usually takes 24 to 72 hours and at most 5 working days, and is refunded in full if it is not delivered within 5 working days.

Searching is free, and nothing is charged when a chassis number returns no auction record. A chassis will not be found if the car never went through a Japanese auction, or if the number was mistyped. Auto Prime will not sell you a record for a similar chassis: only an exact match counts as found. If you are sure the number is right, you can order Prime Manual Retrieval, and Auto Prime's team will search the original auction house records by hand; it is refunded in full if the report is not delivered within 5 working days.

Auto Prime delivers the original scanned auction sheet as issued by the Japanese auction house, not a summary or a retyped version. It arrives by email as a private link to the report, which shows the scanned sheet alongside the inspector photographs and an English explanation of every damage code marked on the diagram, and can be downloaded from there as a PDF.