Japanese Car Auction Grades Explained: 2026 Sheet Guide

Published October 26, 2026 · Rules as of October 26, 2026

At Japan's major auctions, an inspector checks each car before the sale and records the result on an auction sheet: an overall grade (S, then 6 down to 1, or R for structural repair history), an interior grade from A to E, and a body map that marks each flaw with a letter and a size number, such as A1 for a small scratch. Each auction house writes its own rules, so the meanings are close but not identical. This guide follows the published rules of USS, the largest group with 43.2% of Japan's auction market in 2025 by its own count, and notes where TAA and CAA differ.

Key takeaways

• Grades combine condition with mileage. At USS a 4.5 needs under 100,000 km and a 4 under 150,000 km, so a car with 150,000 km or more cannot score above 3.5.
• R or RA means structural repair history. A replaced door or bumper alone does not make a car R.
• The body map matters more than the number. A is a scratch, U a dent, W a repair trace, XX a replaced part; 1 is the smallest.
• Mileage is checked against a shared database of earlier auction readings; ＊, ＄ or ＃ flags a problem.
• To verify a sheet, get the auction's original Japanese sheet with the venue, date, lot number and chassis number, and match the chassis number to the export documents.

Who inspects cars at Japanese auctions

At USS, inspectors certified by USS check each car against the seller's declaration, grade it on a ten-level scale and enter the result, with photos, into the database members search before bidding. USS calls its grade a reference, not a guarantee of quality.

TAA and CAA use their own inspectors, but software calculates the grade from the recorded defects, age, mileage and repair history, which TAA says removes the inspector's subjectivity. Both describe a visual check of a stationary car, with no parts removed and no road test.

AIS, a third-party inspector that began as Aucnet's inspection department, inspects auction cars under contract and grades on an S-to-R scale shared with Aucnet and the used-car companies of Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mazda. Repair history has one definition, used by the Japan Auto Appraisal Institute (JAAI), the Japan Auto Auction Association (NAK) and the Automobile Fair Trade Council.

The overall grade scale

Under USS's inspection rules, in force since July 1, 2015, a car gets a grade only if it meets every condition in that row.

What separates 4.5 from 4 and 3.5: mileage, the interior and the work needed. A 4.5 needs only minor touch-ups to match a 5, a 4 has a few marks that need attention and a 3.5 needs panel work in several places. Because mileage caps the grade, the body map often tells you more than the number.

The interior grade (A to E)

USS grades the interior separately: A needs little or nothing; B needs minor work for a few tears, burns, scuffs or screw holes; C needs work for many burns, scuffs or cracks, or is dirty throughout; D needs major work for many burn holes or tears, a deformed dashboard or heavy dirt; E needs major work throughout, such as large cracks, badly worn seats or a strong odor.

TAA and CAA also give an exterior grade from A to E, and TAA allows an interior A only up to 30,000 km. AIS reports show the two as stars.

Body-map codes and severity numbers

Each flaw on the car diagram gets a letter for its type and a number for its size. The sizes below are from TAA's and CAA's rules, the only auction legends with sizes we found published; other houses use the same core letters with their own scales.

Letters are not always used the same way: a Mazda condition report built on the AIS standard uses X for a cut, tear or crack. One XX or W is not repair history, but several on one side of the car deserve a close look at the photos.

Inspector comments

Notes in Japanese, often handwritten, cover what the map cannot show:

USS sellers must also declare modifications, former rental or commercial use, export history and mechanical faults.

Mileage checks

At USS and TAA, the mileage is marked ＊ for a tampered odometer, ＄ for a documented meter replacement (the figure combines both meters) and ＃ when the true mileage is unknown. USS may classify a car as tampered without the seller's agreement if the way the speedometer is fitted suggests the reading is false.

Behind this sits NAK's odometer management system, set up by the auction operators in 2001. It stores the readings of cars listed at member auctions, including USS, TAA, CAA, Aucnet and JU venues. Inspectors confirm each car's chassis number and check its reading against the database; a car found abnormal is treated as unsold and the seller must explain. A car never auctioned before has no history to compare.

Why grades differ between auction houses

Each auction writes and applies its own standard, and CAA's rules state that it is not responsible for differences in inspection between venues. Besides the differences in the table, USS treats R and RA alike and sells accident and as-is cars in a separate corner without a grade. When an English-language guide disagrees with the auction's own legend, trust the legend.

How a buyer's agent reads a sheet before bidding

1. Identity: model code, chassis number, first registration year, trim and color. Some import limits, such as Kenya's, count from first registration (see our East Africa rules guide).
2. Grade against mileage: a high-mileage 3.5 may simply be capped; a low-mileage 3.5 needs an explanation.
3. The map: locate every mark and price the repairs. A1 and U1 are cosmetic; W3, C and X mean real work.
4. Notes and mileage marks: flooding, smells, mechanical faults, ＊, ＄ or ＃ are reasons to pay less or walk away.
5. Photos and a preview: USS lets members view stored cars before the sale, and remote members can request a proxy preview.
6. The claim window: at USS, a price-reduction claim that a car differs from its sheet must be made within five days, including the auction day, and is generally not accepted for repair-history cars, cars with 100,000 km or more, cars 15 or more years from first registration, or cars already exported.

The rules we read say nothing about a hybrid's battery health (see our hybrid and EV guide); for prices, see our auction price report.

How to check that an auction sheet is genuine

PakWheels, which runs a sheet-verification service in Pakistan, reports that fakes are usually genuine sheets edited to change the mileage, the grade or the notes, and that a translated copy can be altered while the Japanese original stays unchanged. To protect yourself:

• Ask your agent for the original Japanese sheet as stored in the auction's system, with the venue, auction date and lot number visible.
• Match the chassis number on the sheet to the car's export documents and a photo of its chassis plate.
• Treat a blurry or cropped image, or a missing lot or chassis number, as a warning sign.
• If in doubt, use a service that retrieves past auction records by chassis number.

Frequently asked questions

Is grade 4 good?

For most buyers, yes. A USS 4 has under 150,000 km, an interior of C or better and a few noticeable marks that need attention: a normal used car, not a damaged one. The map shows whether the marks are cheap to fix.

What does an R grade mean, and should I avoid it?

R or RA means part of the structure, such as a side member, pillar, floor or roof, was damaged and has been, or needs to be, repaired or replaced. Since April 1, 2019, damage larger than a card (8.5 × 5.4 cm) on a structural part counts. An R car is not automatically a bad buy, but the sheet does not show how well it was repaired, and USS generally accepts no price-reduction claims on such cars.

What do 0 and *** mean?

Neither appears in the published USS, TAA or CAA scales. Exporter guides report that some sheets use them for ungraded cars, such as accident-damaged or as-is cars; CAA uses 99 for these.

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This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Auction rules change and differ between auction houses; check the current rules and the legend on the sheet before you bid.

Sources

• USS rules, current versions as of October 26, 2026: rules index; inspection rules, revised July 1, 2015; consignment and bidding rules, effective January 6, 2025; claims rules, effective February 1, 2025; auction rules, effective February 1, 2026; accident and as-is corner rules
• USS auction flow and market share: auction flow; strengths (read in the web archive copy of October 6, 2026, while the USS site was under maintenance)
• TAA member rules, revised January 1, 2026: TAA
• CAA auction rules and grading standard: CAA
• AIS: evaluation method; inspection services and repair-history definition; company profile; client companies
• Repair-history standard and the 2019 change: Automobile Fair Trade Council
• Example condition report (Mazda Chuhan): Automobile Fair Trade Council
• Odometer management system: Japan Auto Auction Association, organization, checks at auction and member auctions; Automobile Fair Trade Council; JAAI
• Inspector comments: UCARWORLD; HUBRIDE; codes Y, 0 and ***: EVERYCAR
• Forged sheets: PakWheels