By vehicle production, Japan is the third-largest automaker on earth. Most of the vehicles it builds are affordable commuter cars or luxury sedans and SUVs. Over the years, though, the Japanese have built automobiles for both road and track that eventually became high-dollar classics. Below are the most expensive ones sold at auction. (We started with a list of 10, but with some ties, and a few too many Lexus LFAs, we expanded it to 16).
First, a couple of caveats: We left out charity lots. We also left out cars that combine a non-Japanese chassis with a Japanese engine, like the Dallara-Honda Indy car that won the 500 in 2016 and sold for over a million dollars in 2018, or Dan Gurney’s Toyota-powered AAR Eagles from the ’90s.
1996 Nissan Skyline GT-R NISMO 400R
Sold for $995,000 at RM Sotheby’s Monterey 2025
Built to celebrate the GT-R’s participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 400R received a carbon-fiber rear wing, hood, and driveshaft along with a titanium strut brace, lower ride height, Bilstein dampers, three-piece wheels, and a 2771-cc (up from 2.6-liter) engine with higher boost than stock for the turbos. Nissan built approximately 44 examples. For the Gran Turismo generation, this is one of those Holy Grail JDM cars. A seven-figure price for this 7093-km (4408-mile) example would have been feasible, but it came just shy of that.
1967 Toyota 2000GT
Sold for $1,045,000 at RM Monterey 2014
While this wasn’t the first Japanese car to sell for a million dollars (keep reading!), 2013–14 was a breakout period for the cars of the rising sun. Japanese collector cars existed, of course, but most of them weren’t particularly pricey. Then, a handful of 2000GTs started bringing serious money, and the idea of a seven-figure Toyota became a reality.
Developed in a joint effort with Yamaha, the 2000GT boasted impressive ingredients like a twin-cam straight-six, five-speed synchromesh gearbox, four-wheel disc brakes, and independent suspension at both ends. It also packed it all under a curvaceous aluminum body that caused many to liken it to a miniature Jaguar E-Type. But the 2000GT cost more than an E-Type, or a 911, or a Corvette, so Toyota only built around 350 examples. Of those, only about 60 came to the U.S.
2003 Honda NSX-R
Sold for €934,375 ($1,060,516) at Broad Arrow Villa d’Este 2025
A million dollars for a Honda sounds as crazy as a million dollars for a Toyota but, just like the 2000GT above, an NSX-R ain’t exactly an economy car. Honda first sold this higher-spec version of its mid-engine superstar from 1992 to ’95, putting the standard NSX on a 265-pound diet, upgrading the suspension, giving it a blueprinted and balanced crankshaft assembly, and shortening the final-drive ratio. Honda sold 483 of the original NSX-Rs, then gave a similar Type R treatment to the facelifted NSX that came out in 2002. Honda made just 140 of those later cars, all for the Japanese market.
In dollar terms, this one was the first to break a million at auction, and it sold for way more than the previous record for an NSX-R, a 1995 model that sold for $632,000 in 2023.
2012 Lexus LFA
Sold for $1,105,000 at RM Sotheby’s Monterey 2023
Toyota’s first true supercar, the Lexus LFA, was nine years in the making and was launched at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show. The letters stand for Lexus Fuji Apex, after the Toyota-owned speedway where it was developed. Like the 2000GT of the ’60s, the LFA was a joint development between Toyota and Yamaha. This one was represented as the 188th of the 500 LFAs built between 2010 and 2012, finished in a color called “Whitest White,” with an odometer reading of just 47 miles. That low, low odometer reading goes a long way in explaining the $1.1M price, which was slightly above the LFA’s condition #1 (best in the world) value in our price guide at the time.
1990 Nissan R90CK
Sold for €1,073,750 ($1,154,174) at RM Sotheby’s Le Mans 2023
One of six R90CK chassis built for the 1990 World Sportscar Championship (WSC) season, this car sat on pole at the 1990 24 Hours of Le Mans. Mark Blundell’s blistering 3:27 lap gave Nissan the first pole for a Japanese manufacturer at Le Mans, but the car retired from the race at around half distance with gearbox trouble, and a Jaguar XJR-12 ultimately took the victory. In later rounds of the season, the car took fifth place in Montreal and fourth place in Mexico, helping Nissan accumulate enough points to finish sixth in the constructors’ standings for the season.
1967 Toyota 2000GT
Sold for $1,155,000 at the RM Don Davis Collection sale 2013
A rare left-hand drive example and the recipient of a top-notch restoration, this 2000GT was a record-smasher and the first Japanese car to break seven figures. In the 2000s, the few examples that did pop up at auction typically sold in the mid-$100K range, so over a million dollars for one caused quite a stir. This sale cemented the idea that Japanese cars could indeed be top-tier collectibles.
1967 Toyota 2000 GT
Sold for $1,155,000 at Gooding & Co. Pebble Beach 2014
A year later, another rare U.S.-market example in left-hand drive sold for the same money. After several high-profile seven-figure sales, though, 2000GT prices did soften a bit. This one, for example, brought $797,500 at Amelia Island in 2016.
1967 Toyota 2000GT
Sold for $1,155,000 on Bring a Trailer June 2022
During the early 2020s, 2000GTs rebounded, and we saw another million-dollar result—this red car. A left-hand drive, Swiss-market example, it brought $803,000 at auction in 2015 before joining the million-dollar club on Bring a Trailer in 2022.
1992 Mazda RX-7 FD Veilside Fortune
Sold for £911,000 ($1,229,434) at Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed 2025
Even non-car people might recognize this FD-generation RX-7, as it starred in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. In turning the Mazda into a movie car, Universal Studios commissioned Japanese body-kit supplier Veilside Co. Ltd. to completely change the look of the rotary-powered coupe. The resulting bodywork added almost 8 inches in width and altered every body panel except for the roof. Tokyo Drift might be the least popular movie of the F&F franchise, but the car that starred in it is currently the most expensive RX-7 and the most expensive Mazda road car ever sold.
2000 Nissan Skyline GT-R by Kaizo Industries
Sold for $1,357,000 by Bonhams (online) in May 2023
Another F&F car is this R34-generation Skyline GT-R, which is one of the cars that Paul Walker’s character drives in Fast and Furious 4. Several stunt cars were reportedly used (and abused) in the film, but this Bayside Blue example is not among them.
The car was bought in Japan and shipped to the U.S. without an engine by Kaizo Industries, an outfit that imported multiple GT-Rs in-period. The technicians fitted a correct engine, classified it as a kit car, and registered it as a “2007 Kaizo” to get it on the road. It has a lengthy list of modifications and cosmetic changes, reportedly all to Walker’s preference. Since every car with a connection to the late actor has sold for a premium price, it’s no wonder that one he drove prominently on screen went for big bucks.
2012 Lexus LFA Nürburgring
Sold for $1,600,000 at RM Sotheby’s Monterey 2021
In addition to 436 “regular” LFAs, Toyota built an additional 64 cars with the Nürburgring Package. The LFA’s only special edition, each of these cars wore carbon-fiber components like nose winglets, a revised front splitter, and a bigger fixed wing at the rear. Ride height was lowered, lighter 20-inch BBS wheels fitted, and the engine tweaked for 10 extra hp, 562 in total. One of 25 Nürburgring-spec cars that came new to the U.S., this one boasted 930 miles from new when it sold for $1.6M, becoming one of the most surprising sales at the 2021 Monterey auctions. Less than three years earlier, at Scottsdale 2019, the same car sold for $918,500.
2012 Lexus LFA Nürburgring
Sold for $1,600,000 at Broad Arrow Monterey 2022
The LFA was never cheap. Its base price was $375,000, and the Nürburgring Package bumped that up to $445,000. But not until the pandemic boom did clean, Nürburgring-equipped cars like this 1200-mile example begin to sell for seven figures. From mid-2021 to mid-2022, the Nürburgring’s value in our price guide effectively doubled.
1967 Toyota-Shelby 2000 GT
Sold for $2,535,000 at Gooding & Co. Amelia Island 2022
The only Japanese automobile so far to break the $2M mark at auction, this 2000GT is unlike the others on this list in that it has serious race history. It is also the first serial-numbered 2000GT, chassis MF10-10001.
When Toyota set its sights on the SCCA’s C-Production category, then dominated by the Porsche 911, it initially set its sights on a young Pete Brock of Brock Racing Enterprises (BRE) to campaign its new coupe. But Carroll Shelby won the contract with a last-minute sales pitch. Toyota sent three cars to Shelby, and though the 2000GTs managed to get a handful of wins, the team still finished fourth behind the European competition. Even with that so-so result, however, the Shelby-run Toyotas represented one of Japan’s first stabs at sports car racing in the West, and they are hugely significant for that reason, as demonstrated by this one’s $2.5M price.
Report by Andrew Newton
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