JP Market Check #4: Japan Drift Car Prices, Levin Up 5.8% (Oct 2026)

We counted Japan’s drift-car market again on 21 October 2026 and found 491 priced cars across eight chassis on Goo-net. The headline is the AE86 Levin, up 5.8% to a ¥3.74M median: it has taken back all of September’s fall and is now dearer than both the S13 Silvia (¥3.70M) and the S15 Silvia (¥3.67M). The Trueno rose 1.9% to ¥5.49M, the JZX100 held at ¥4.28M, and the four Nissan chassis read flat to slightly lower. Net, our price index rose from 101.6 to 102.0.

Method: every page of every model’s listings, each car’s vehicle price (本体価格), cars advertised as price on request excluded, medians and quartiles computed from the full set. Every price below was read off Goo-net on 21 October 2026, and all four monthly censuses are archived, so this compares against recorded numbers rather than memory.

What moved between September and October?

* Counted a new way this month, explained below. Read these counts as a new baseline, not as cars arriving or leaving.

After September’s first down month, October splits cleanly by maker. Both Toyota AE86 badges went up, the Toyota Chaser stood still, and every Nissan slipped. None of the Nissan moves is large enough to call a trend on its own.

Why the Silvia counts changed this month

Goo-net has withdrawn the separate S13, S14 and S15 listing pages we used through September; those addresses now return an error. From October we read the whole Silvia listing, 292 cards across six pages, and assign each car by its model year: 1988 to 1993 as S13, 1994 to 1999 as S14, 1999 to 2002 as S15, using the chassis code in the listing title only for the boundary years or when the year is missing. Eleven cards could not be assigned and are left out.

That is why the S15 appears to gain 25 cars and the S14 to lose six. It is a counting change, not a market move, and we will compare like with like from November. The medians are a different story: they land within ¥90k of September for all three generations, which is the reassurance that the new split is reading the same market.

The Levin is now dearer than any Silvia

Three months ago the AE86 Levin was the cheap way into an AE86. On 21 October 2026 its median is ¥3.74M, against ¥3.38M in our July census, a 10.6% climb in three months with one down month in the middle.

The rise comes from the middle and upper-middle of the market filling up while the bottom thinned:

The lower quartile rose from ¥2.93M to ¥3.10M and the upper quartile from ¥4.34M to ¥4.79M. The two ends did not move: the cheapest Levin still asks ¥1.89M and the dearest ¥6.95M, the same prices as in August and September.

The Trueno finally moved too, from ¥5.39M to ¥5.49M, after two censuses at exactly the same median. Its premium over the Levin narrowed from ¥1.86M to ¥1.75M. Why the two badges are priced apart at all is in the AE86 Trueno vs Levin price gap.

The JZX100 held its median and lifted its floor

The JZX100 Chaser median is ¥4.28M for the second month running. Underneath, the cheaper cars thinned out: the lower quartile rose from ¥3.25M to ¥3.48M, the cheapest JZX100 in Japan went from ¥1.60M to ¥1.84M, and cars under ¥3M fell from 14 to 12. It is still the dearest chassis in the census after the Trueno.

The JZX90 gives us the same four priced cars for the fourth census in a row, at the same four prices: ¥0.98M, ¥1.33M, ¥2.83M and ¥3.86M. Four months unsold. If a 90 is what you want, Japanese retail listings are not where it will come from.

The 180SX and S15: more cars at the bottom

The 180SX is the one Nissan we counted the same way as before, and it gained the most supply of any comparable chassis: 84 to 95 priced cars. Cars under ¥3M rose from 18 to 20, the cheapest from ¥2.30M to ¥2.15M, and the median barely moved (¥3.71M to ¥3.70M).

The S15 shows a similar shape on its new count. 39 of 147 priced S15s ask under ¥3M, the lower quartile is ¥2.95M, and the cheapest is ¥1.75M. The S14 remains the value entry at ¥2.78M, and the cheapest S13 in the country is now a ¥1.92M car. If the S14 is on your list, the S14 Silvia buyer’s guide covers what to look for at this price.

What these prices are, and where cars sell below them

These are retail prices. This is Japan’s general used-car market, where a dealer buys at auction, reconditions the car, adds margin and a warranty, and sells it to a Japanese buyer. Retail is the ceiling of this market, not the floor.

The same chassis also change hands where these listings never look: the dealer auction halls the retail stock is bought from, and private sales inside the drift community, where cars are offered around the paddock before they reach a listing site. Buying there means giving up the showroom prep. That is the trade. Less polish, better money.

What that layer normally demands is someone on the spot. So we are on the spot for you. We inspect the car here and send you a full video and photo walkthrough, underside, chassis rails, engine bay and a cold start, before you commit a single yen. Tell us the chassis and the budget, and we will tell you, against these October numbers, what is realistic below retail this month and what is not: find and export a car with us.

Every month of this is plotted on the TSUISO JP Drift Car Price Index, and Market Check #5 measures against today’s archive.