6
Effectively new
Under roughly a year old with delivery mileage. You will not see this on a car old enough to import.
The grade is one number for a whole car, and it hides more than it tells you.
Two cars at Grade 3.5 can be six thousand dollars apart in real condition. The grade is a summary written in a second; the diagram and the inspector's handwriting are the evidence.
Read the grade to decide whether a car deserves your attention, then read the marks to decide what to bid.
01Overall grade
S
As new
Used by some auction houses in place of Grade 6, for a car under about twelve months from first registration.
Not every auction house uses S. Some run the numeric scale only.
5
Excellent, and rare at any age
Near-perfect with only trivial imperfections. On a 25-year-old car this is a garage-kept, low-mileage exception, and the price reflects it.
Pay the premium if the diagram and notes back the grade up. Verify rather than assume.
4.5
Very good
A well-kept car with minor cosmetic marks. Mileage is usually higher than a Grade 5 and the paint is usually original.
The best value grade on most models. You are paying for condition that actually exists.
4
Above average
Small scratches and dents, generally with service records, needing nothing beyond ordinary upkeep.
Budget $1,000 to $2,500 of cosmetic work if you want it presentable.
3.5
The most common grade, and the widest
Average wear for the age. Two cars at Grade 3.5 can be $6,000 apart in real condition, which is why the diagram and the handwritten notes matter more than the grade itself.
Never bid a 3.5 on the grade alone. This is the grade the diagram exists for.
3
Below average, work needed
Noticeable scratches, dents or paint damage, and an interior that may be torn, burned or stained. Bodywork is expected rather than possible.
Price the repairs from the diagram and subtract them in full. Assume you have found four fifths of the work.
2
Poor, often with corrosion holes
One guide associates Grade 2 specifically with perforated corrosion. At this grade the car is a project or a parts donor.
Only worth landing if the model is scarce and you can weld or pay somebody who can.
1
Modified, or genuinely rough
Two very different cars share this grade. Grade 1 covers heavily modified vehicles, including flood-damaged and mechanically altered cars, and it also covers cars in poor overall condition.
Read the diagram and notes before you form any view. A modified GT-R at Grade 1 can be a good car; a rough one at Grade 1 is not.
Because Grade 1 mixes modification with condition, it is the grade where the number tells you least.
R
Accident history, repaired or not
The car has been in an accident. Whether the damage was repaired well, badly or at all is not stated, and the range of real condition behind an R is as wide as behind a 3.5.
An R is not automatically a pass. Find where the repair was from the diagram, get photographs of that area, and bid on what you see.
Sources disagree on whether R is always worse than the numeric grades or can overlap the middle of the scale.
RA
Minor accident damage, repaired well
Light damage that was properly repaired. Away from the repaired area the car can be as good as a Grade 4.5.
Often the best value on the sheet, because the market discounts the letter more than the damage deserves.
*** or blank
No grade at all
The auction house did not grade the car. That happens when it was not inspected, when it is being sold as-is with no claims, when it does not run, when it is too old to assess, or when the seller chose the cheaper listing.
Treat an ungraded car as unknown, not as bad. The diagram and notes are the only information you have, and often there are none.
02Interior and exterior letters
A sheet reading 3.5 / C / B means overall grade 3.5, exterior grade C, interior grade B. On a 1990s sports car the interior letter is often the expensive one, because correct trim has become scarce.
A
Like new
Effectively unworn inside.
B
Clean and cared for
Tidy with at most minor marks. Good for a car of this age.
C
Average for the age
Expected wear, and on older cars sometimes small stains or cigarette marks.
D
Worn
Burns, stains, tears or odours, or a car partly stripped. On a JDM sports car this usually means the seats need work.
E
Worst tier
Everything in D, more of it.
Not every auction house uses an E tier.
03Not grades
Four things on the sheet get read as grades and are not.
# or $ or * beside the odometer
The auction house could not confirm the mileage. It may be a five-digit odometer, a replaced cluster, or simply a car too old to verify. This is a mileage flag, not part of the grade.
A single letter after the overall grade
A sheet reading 3.5 / C / B is overall grade 3.5, exterior grade C, interior grade B. The letters are condition scales, not variants.
R on the glass diagram
A repaired crack in the windscreen. Unrelated to R as an overall grade, and printed in a different part of the sheet.
F5, F6, FAT, AAC, PS, PW, SR, AW
Equipment abbreviations: five-speed, six-speed, automatic, climate control air conditioning, power steering, power windows, sunroof, alloy wheels. Useful, and not condition.
Where this comes from
None of USS, TAA, JU, HAA, CAA or ARAI publishes an English grading scale. The scale above is the industry reading used by exporters and brokers, cross-checked across several of them, with the disagreements marked. Your own sheet's printed legend is the authority for your own car.
Read next
The damage marks, priced in dollars
A1 through XX, what each one means and what the work costs.
Then
Whether your car is legal to import yet
Chassis by chassis, against the 25-year rule, to the month.
Night Line
Be told when Shunto opens
The Decode is not reading sheets yet. Leave an address and we will write once, when it is, and once more if something changes for the car you are watching.