Shiotsu Autotrade Japan – President’s Blog

If your first priority is getting a good price on your Japanese used car or used truck, buying it from the Japanese auto auctions is the right choice for you. Some of the starting bids are as low as 10,000 Yen!  Japanese used car auctions is the right place for finding high quality Japanese used vehicles for low prices. At these auctions, you would often find high quality used cars such as Toyota Corolla, Landcruiser, Nissan Skyline or Honda accord in mint condition at very low prices.

We receive many queries from our customers if they could buy used cars and trucks directly from the Japanese used car auctions.  I would try to clarify the facts related to buying cars from these auctions, in this post.

Japanese used car auctions are not like Ebay auctions where anybody can become a member and bid for the vehicles displayed on auction.  Japanese used car auctions, which are managed by the major auction houses in Japan are not available to the general public.  These Used Car Auctions in Japan allow only dealers who have used car dealer licenses authorized by the Government of Japan.  Further, only auto dealers who pass the stringent quality check performed by an auction house to become a member of that auction.  A company’s business history, property and bank statements are checked and the company is required to provide sureties and security funds.

We, as an authorized member of these auction houses, can act as your agent to bid on cars on your behalf, examine the vehicles for you and execute a fair and transparent trade at the car auction market.  When you buy used Japanese cars from online auction houses, you would neither have the privilege to test drive the used car before you buy  it, now you would get a chance to inspect the car closely. Hence, to know more about the condition or grade of the car, you would have to depend solely upon the ‘Auction-Sheet’, which is nothing, but a car evaluation sheet prepared by the auction house. Although all auction houses have different criteria for measuring the condition of the Japanese used cars, some parameters are the same. For instance, they allocate grades 2 to 5 or 6 to S for the condition of car exteriors, and grades A to C for the state of car interiors. Details about mileage and accident records if any are also noted in the auction sheet.

Before bidding for any used vehicle on the auctions, you have to make sure that you make your requirements clear to us, and communicate with us frequently and regularly. Once we receive your requirements, we will send you pictures and other relevant information about the car or truck you are interested in.  You can also search through the auctions and we can supply you with the password for that.  You can also request for an inspection to be done at the auction premises at an additional cost.  Once you are ready for bidding, you just have to get in touch with us and let us place your bids at the used car auctions. When you win, we will then fax the necessary documents for registering and importing the car or truck. We can also arrange for the shipment of the vehicle to your country.

The majority of used car buyers do not even consider purchasing from a Japanese car auction, because they believe that the process is very difficult. However if you understand the correct process, you will find it is not that hard at all.  We, however suggest that you check the rules and regulations of your country for importing the cars before you start bidding at these auctions.

For more details, please check our Japanese Used Car Auctions page

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Many times our potential customers complain that our prices are little higher compared to those of some other Japanese used car exporters.  Then I tell them why those used cars are so cheap.

There are many used vehicle vendors who specialize in cheap cars.  How do they keep their prices so low?  Their secret lies in the fact that they buy only damaged cars or very low grade cars, for prices as low as 10,000 yen or sometimes even free.  Then they replace the damaged parts by cheap used parts and make cosmetic changes so that the car looks like any other car.  However, the reliability of such refurbished cars is very low.  So you’ll get what you pay for.

We, on the other hand, buy our vehicles from our network of reliable used vehicle dealers and  auto auctions.  We only buy vehicles having good auction grades and history.  Our in-house mechanics test drive these vehicles to make sure that there are no other problems which are not mentioned in the auction grade reports.  That’s why the vehicles we supply are of very high quality.  And that’s the reason we have many repeat customers.  In fact our margins are one of the lowest.  We just want to make sure that our customers are happy and they get the quality what they pay for.

Technorati Tags: Japanese, used car, used vehicle, auto

We would like to announce you about refund of deposit. We will charge following fees for any refunds which claimed from customers.  Also,  we can not accept to refund the money to another account for “Stop money laundering“.

Before purchase
All bank charge
Paperwork fee  :  Minimum Y.30,000 JP yen

After purchase
All bank charge
Paperwork fee  :  Minimum Y.30,000 JP Yen.
Auction fee
Transport fee
Parking fee : car Y.400/day , truck 4 ton and above Y.1,000/day.

Technorati Tags: money laundering

We have recently started our new proprietary online used car auction service that hand picks high quality Japanese used cars and other vehicles from over 50 used car auction halls all over Japan. Most of the Japanese auto auctions have websites only in Japanese language. The user-friendly interface for our auto auction service is provided in English language to overcome the language barrier for our worldwide customers.

With this new service, our customers, used car importers around the world will now able to buy used cars directly from Japanese used car auctions, thus saving significant amount of money.  All major Japanese auto auctions including USS, Bay AUC, LAA, HAA, HAA Kobe, TAA, Isuzu U-Max, CAA, JAA, Honda are supported in our auction system.  Every week over 120,000 cars available in this online auctions and there is some auction every day. So we request our customers to take advantage of this facility.

We also have started our own service for Japanese heavy truck auctions. These services will be free.  However, we only need serious buyers,  so we may limit membership to only those who send a deposit for bidding in these auctions.

For more details about the Japanese car and truck auctions, please check our auction page.

Technorati Tags: used car, auction, Japanese, vehicles, Japan, auto, importers, USS, heavy truck

I went to Liverpool UK from July 1o to July 14, 2006. The main purpose of my trip was to study Japanese used car auctions in UK. After attending the auctions, I could get a good idea about the popular Japanese cars in UK market.

The weather was very fine and I could enjoy nice scenery on adrive from Manchester to Liverpool. I also met my customers in UK and they gave me a grand welcome. I am very gratgeful to them to make my stay a pleasant one. You can see some pictures taken in my trip here.

Technorati Tags: Liverpool, Japanese used car auctions, Japanese cars, UK market

We are glad to have Kelvin who came far from Australia to have business with us.  He is a Owner of a top-class Transportation Company in Australia which doing business worldwide. He is a friendly and nice guy. We are happy to have business with him. Along the time in Japan, Mr. Kelvin had gone to the Isuzu Truck Auction in Kobe (which sell all kind of Japanese used truck) with the President of Shiotsu-Autotrade. This photo is taken in front of the Japanese used truck that Mr. Kelvin liked very much. We would like to thank for the coming of Mr.Kelvin and hope he like his trip to Japan very much. Japanese used truck, BANZAI !!!!

Technorati Tags: Australia, Transportation, Isuzu, Truck Auction, Japanese used truck

JAPAN’S leading car makers are expanding their reach into developed countries like the USA and UK. But even in the poorest countries of the world the Japanese cars and trucks are gaining a large and loyal following, thanks to a brisk trade in used Japanese cars.

Few years ago, the only customers in Japan for used automobiles were scrap dealers. But in recent years huge, high-tech bazaars have emerged across Japan, including the online bazaars – efficiently dispatching Japan’s unwanted cars, trucks and buses to dealers who in turn channel the vehicles to everywhere from Logos to Bangkok.

“Used cars are still high quality cars. They can be driven three or four years. Every right-hand drive country in the world is buying these cars now,” says Mike McCarthy, owner of Proficient Export Services in Nagoya, and a regular participant in the USS auction company in Nagoya, which runs every Friday until almost midnight.

Steven Bennington, another used Japanese automobile dealer in Nagoya, says Africa, South America, Russia and the Caribbean and even countries like Iraq, Iran and Burma eagerly purchase used Japanese cars. But the 16 year old veteran says his major exports come from England, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

One of the hottest businesses in Japan right now is used car auctions. It may not be as glamorous as robots or IT, but hyper-efficient auctions, such as those run by industry leader USS, draw buyers by the thousands. It’s an auction without hammers or gestures, or human auctioneers. Bidding is performed in silence, by the push of a button. An endless parade of used trucks, sedans, compact cars and SUVs for sale are displayed on the screen for a matter of moments, before an accelerated flurry of button jabbing decides the new owner. In an average of 20 seconds, it’s going, going, gone.

“Under the old-fashioned system of bidding by hand signals and human auctioneers, if we started at 10 a.m. and finished at 5 or 6 p.m., we would only have time to sell 350 cars a day,” says Futoshi Hattori, USS president. But with the new point-of-sale system, cars volume suddenly surged into the thousands. In the old system, each car was driven onto the arena floor, but to save time now the company simply snaps digital photos of each vehicle and projects the images on huge screens at the front of the auctioneer-less auction hall, and via personal monitors installed at every dealer’s seat; the newest auction site in Yokohama, opened in February, has room for 1,300 dealers. “With the point-of-sale system and by using video displays of the cars, our biggest auction site [in Chiba] can move 12,000 cars a day,” claims Hattori, calling his system the world’s fastest.

The 82,000 square-meter Yokohama auction site down the road from the national fuel-cell demonstration hydrogen station–was previously owned by Cosmo Oil, a gritty industrial estate built on land reclaimed from Yokohama Bay in the city’s Tsurumi Ward. But to USS spokesman Shigeo Hara, the location is as good as it gets: “We’re close to Haneda Airport, the harbor–we have the best access here of any auction site.”

USS is short for the techie-sounding “Used car System Solutions,” but the acronym originally stood for something considerably less high falutin’. Back in 1980, “USS” was President Hattori’s own sober assessment of the firm’s tenuous existence: Used car Scramble Survival. The company, which once had to plead with supermarket owners to temporarily lend their vacant lots for auctions, gained a new lease on life with the adoption of high technology in the fall of 1982.

Under the old system, “once the auctioneer got to know the buyers, he would favor the regulars and ignore bids from the rest,” says Hattori. Searching for alternatives, he learned about a point-of-sale auction system for meat, that Fujitsu had developed which involved suspending numbered sides of beef and pork from the ceiling.

“At first it was difficult to get people used to it,” he says. “But younger Japanese generation grew up on video games, and they embraced this system.”

Finicky Japanese consumers generally shun used cars, so unlike in the US, there is virtually no domestic demand for used vehicles. But Japan’s junk is treasure in the third world. A surfeit of used Japanese cars is flowing to emerging markets from Sri Lanka to Kenya, Iraq and Afghanistan. Whenever and wherever consumers can’t afford to buy new cars, increasingly they’re buying used Japanese ones.

Tokyo representatives for GM, Ford and Daimler-Chrysler declined to comment, but Detroit has good reason to be nervous about the tide of used Toyotas and Hondas being exported into developing countries. The onslaught of exports could end up creating brand loyalty to Japanese cars in the handful of emerging markets left in the world. The dealers say that US car while prized for their styling and brute horsepower are considered shoddy and unreliable, while used Japanese cars just keep on ticking. USS president Hattori says “The world is a big place. And Japanese cars are so reliable they can keep going for 200,000 miles. Even when they don’t run anymore they can be broken down for parts,” he says.

USS expects to handle two million cars a year by 2006. The firm’s flagship auction in Noda, Chiba Prefecture, is due for a facelift and is scheduled to reopen this summer on a 529,000-square-meter piece of land, enough space to bid six cars at once, seat 2,400 dealers and handle 15,000 vehicles a day.

Technorati Tags: Japanese cars, used Japanese cars, used automobiles, Used cars, USS auction, used car auctions

Shiotsu Autotrade is one of the leading used car and truck exporters in Japan.  We are also agent of  leading used car auction houses in Japan.

We offer high quality vehicles, competitive prices and prompt service.  Through innovation and modern technology, we are shaping the new face of the export/import industry of used and new cars.

In our stock, we have always different types of used cars and other vehicles. Please check our online showroom for the latest stock.  We can find New and Used Japanese Cars, Vans, Wagons, Buses, Trucks, Commercial Vehicles of any make and model like Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Suzuki, Isuzu, Hino, Subaru, Daihatsu. Please get in touch with us with your specific requirements and we will do out best to satisfy your requirements

Technorati Tags: used car auction, Used Japanese Cars, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Isuzu, Hino