A lot of the answer depends on your goals and the type of vehicle you are after.  If you are after a rare and old car, the answer is often naturally whatever comes first as many older JDM cars are almost impossible to find in Japan.

You want a more popular vehicle, and you've read about the auctions and dealerships.

This comes after years of buying experience and it often depends on the buyer and their situation.

Case 1.) You just want a car now!

You don't have time to wait for a car at auction or wonder how many bids you might lose or what the reserve of the car is.

Then in this case a quality dealer/stock/one price auction car is the way to go.  This way, you are guaranteed to get the car and you won't wonder how much you have to pay for it or how many weeks, months or years it will take to find the car.

In addition, it is often possible at some dealers to get more information on the car such as asking them to check for startup noise or perhaps a few obvious known faults in that type of vehicle, or maybe simple things like "can you make sure there is no underbody rust". 

When we support "buying a dealer car" we mean trusted dealers and cars that have been graded and inspected.  We don't mean ABC dealer with great pics and no inspection sheet.  The reality in Japan is that we say it is VERY COMMON for many dealers to hide and not disclose faults, which is why the auctions became popular.

Another great way is "One Price" auction and many of those end up being dealer cars or put through other channels that have the cars inspected and graded.

The only time we would ever recommend purchasing without the above safeguards is if it's a rare, collectible car that cannot be found and you understand the risks and our assumptions that there will be surprises, so be prepared and budget in that case for a full restoration.

Case 2.) You like the thrill of the auction and can wait long!

There is a reason why they say over 80% of bids are unsuccessful.  Sometimes it is true that the seller has an insane reserve price and we see some common vehicles that are not that special not selling after some fairly placed bids.  This is what we call the "available but Unicorn category".  They are essentially cars that are often not at all special or unique (eg. they don't have particularly low mileage, or even the best condition) but they want a lot. 

Sometimes, ironically, these are overpriced dealer cars that aren't selling at the lot.

What we actually recommend is that if you are making a more expensive purchase and you really want to have the chance to check the car, then you should not go for auction or at least not a car at auction that has not been checked over by someone trustworthy (sometimes the auction house agent is trustworthy and can get photos and more info for a fee).

The most common reason bids fail

Usually it's because you are just not bidding high enough.  You may have checked the average price for a car is X yen and figure this unique, mint condition, low mileage, with lots of extras car will go for average or below.  The reality is that such a car will almost always go for much higher than average.

When I first started bidding on cars in 2008, I lost most of my bids, simply because I "didn't want to pay too much".  However, almost all of my bids for personal cars in the last 10 years have been successful.  This is because I'm good at gauging the market and willing to bid a reasonable price, and not "trying to get the best deal" but relatively speaking I still think I've paid a fair price for most vehicles.

Which case are you?

We'd love to hear in our forums about which type of buyer you are!

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