Car Dealer has gone behind the scenes of the world’s largest car auction – a site that can sell up to 20,000 used cars in a single day!

USS Tokyo, based around an hour outside the capital city, holds one giant sale every Thursday and when we visited it sold more than 18,000 cars in an auction that lasted some 13 hours.

Thousands of car dealers from across the world head to the vast 130-acre site every week to snap up vehicles in the most mind-blowing fashion.

Behind one of 3,000 sales desks, spread over two massive halls, car dealers bid by pressing buttons as fast as they can and watch as 16 lanes run simultaneously.

A car sale can take less than 30 seconds from start to finish as dealers furiously press buttons in an attempt to be the last one to have hit the switch.

There’s no hammer at these sales, but a winner is instead decided three seconds after the last button press.

Dealers get around the airport-parking-sized site on bikes and buses to inspect the cars which include everything from Porsche 911 GT3 RS’ and Ferraris, to limousines, crazy JDM models and Japanese K cars.

Car Dealer travelled to Japan to visit the insane site for a special video – which you can watch above – to try and buy some cars with import specialists Nichibo. 

The importer – an arm of the huge Tokyo stock market listed Optimus Group – is breaking into the UK and rapidly signing up dealers.

We were at the sale in early February to bag ourselves a Jimny (or three) and check out the thousands of beautifully presented, more affordable European cars. The sort we sell at the Clever Car Collection day in, day out.

We looked countless VWs, Volvos, BMWs and Mercedes models, most of them in pristine condition.

Japanese imports are growing once again thanks to lower shipping costs, a preferential exchange rate and the quality of the cars on sale.

The Japanese public consider car ownership a privilege and most city dwellers keep their cars in a garage. They usually take them back to the main dealer for all servicing needs and as the public transport system is so good in Japan they rarely use them, so mileages are lower.

Looking around the vast auction site it was clear this was true. The condition of most of the cars was impeccable and even 10-year-old models looked factory fresh.

Chay Anderson, UK country for Nichibo, explained the tough grading system that all cars are subjected to by the USS auction house. Even the tiniest scratches and dents are listed – some so small we struggled to see them.

Anderson is working his way around UK car dealers extolling the virtues and opportunities of Japanese imports. 

He used to run a New Zealand used car dealership that imported tens of thousands of Japanese cars to the country, but has since moved to the UK with his family and is now heading up Nichibo’s UK arm.

‘Many car dealers immediately turn their noses up at imports, but when they see the quality of the cars and how well looked after they are, that soon changes,’ he said.

‘The warranty claims are negligible next to an equivalent model from the UK. Plus, there are great margins to be had even after all the import costs and tweaks are made.’

Anderson’s phone has been ringing off the hook since he appeared on the Car Dealer Podcast to talk about the process two weeks ago (below).

The Japanese auction process is daunting to get your head around but Nichibo offers help for dealers who want to buy remotely.

UK dealers can check out the thousands of cars going through the Japanese sales every week and place bids on its website. If you’re the highest bidder that secures you services of one of Nichibo’s buyers on the ground at the auction.

They will then check out the cars for you, report back anything they find, and then try and win the cars for you in the button pressing frenzy.

If you’re successful, the company can even help you bring it back to the UK. Its web platform quotes a ‘landed’ price for all cars so you can bid knowing shipping and taxes are included in your price.

Unusually, Car Dealer was actually at the auction to give it a try ourselves, but Nichibo’s set up is designed to allow dealers to secure cars from the comfort of their own homes.

During a week in Japan, visiting two different auctions, I secured six cars for the Clever Car Collection and am in the process of importing them back to the UK. In fact, they’re already on a boat.

It takes around 55 days from auction win to the cars arriving in the UK and there’s a few things you need to do when they arrive.

If the car is under 10 years old it needs an Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) test which checks it is suitable for UK roads. This costs around £250. For cars over 10 years old all they need is an MOT and to pass that, a fog light.

There are customs documents to fill out, VAT to pay and some tinkering to get clocks into miles, systems reading in English and radios reprogrammed to pick up UK frequencies, but it’s all relatively simple and has all been done before. We’ll be documenting the process on our YouTube channel and this website.

‘Buying European cars – like BMW or Volkswagen – makes it even easier as they are easy to reprogram and often have fog lights already fitted,’ added Chay.

Seeing the auction for ourselves was incredible. It’s hard to understand the scale of it without actually being there, but our video gives you a good idea of its size. The drone shots at the start give you an idea of its size – the site was originally planned to be an 18-hole golf course…

Car Dealer will be running a series of videos from our Japanese trip, including some of the mad cars we saw at the auction, but for now get an idea of the scale by watching our video at the top of this page.

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