NHTSA Vehicle Recalls Scraper

Every US vehicle recall, owner complaint and NCAP 5-star safety rating NHTSA publishes, by make, model and year or by VIN, as clean JSON.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is the US authority for vehicle safety: manufacturers report every safety recall to it, owners file complaints about defects with it, and its New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) crash-tests new cars for the 5-star safety ratings. This Actor scrapes US vehicle recalls, owner complaints and NCAP safety ratings from NHTSA by make, model and model year, by VIN, by recall campaign number, or from any nhtsa.gov vehicle or recall page. Recalls come with the campaign number, component, defect summary, consequence, remedy, report date, units affected, "park it" and "park outside" warnings, over-the-air fixes and every other vehicle the recall covers. Complaints come with the complaint number, incident and filing dates, components, the owner's own account, crash and fire flags, injuries, deaths and the partial VIN. Safety ratings give overall, frontal, side and rollover stars, rollover risk, standard safety equipment, crash-test photos and the counts of complaints, recalls and investigations. Give a make and year without a model to cover every model. No API key, no login and no proxy. Built for used-car dealers and marketplaces, fleet managers, insurers, auto repair shops, lemon-law and product liability attorneys, journalists, and anyone building vehicle-history or VIN-check products.

⚡ Quick start

{
  "vehicles": [{ "make": "Honda", "model": "Accord", "modelYear": 2018 }],
  "dataTypes": ["recalls", "complaints", "safetyRatings"],
  "maxItems": 5
}

🧩 Input

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
startUrls	array	no	—	nhtsa.gov pages: a vehicle page (https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle/2021/FORD/F-150), a make and year for every model (https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle/2018/HONDA), or a recall page (https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls?nhtsaId=20V314000).
vehicles	array	no	—	Vehicles to look up, each { "make": "Honda", "model": "Accord", "modelYear": 2018 }. Leave out model to cover every model of that make and year.
vins	array	no	—	17-character VINs, such as 1HGCV1F35JA123456. Each is decoded to its make, model and year, which are then looked up.
campaignNumbers	array	no	—	NHTSA recall campaign numbers, such as 20V314000. Returns the recall once for every vehicle it covers.
dataTypes	array	no	["recalls"]	Data to collect for each vehicle and VIN: recalls, complaints, safetyRatings, or several. Campaign numbers always return recalls.
maxItems	integer	no	—	Maximum results per source and data type: up to this many recalls, this many complaints and this many safety ratings per URL, vehicle, VIN or campaign. The input form starts at 5; leave it empty to get all of them.
proxyConfiguration	object	no	{ "useApifyProxy": false }	Proxy settings. NHTSA's data is public and needs no proxy.

Add vehicles, VINs, recall campaign numbers, NHTSA URLs, or any mix; each one is a source. Model names are matched the way NHTSA files them: a model listed only under longer names, such as the F-150 under "F-150 SUPER CREW" and "F-150 REGULAR CAB", is read under each of them. A VIN is decoded to its make, model and year, so its rows are the recalls, complaints and ratings of that model and year. They do not say whether that one vehicle's recall repair was done.

📤 Output

Each row is one recall, one complaint or one safety rating, marked by itemType: recall, complaint or safetyRating. A recall row is one recall campaign as it applies to one vehicle; affectedVehicles lists every vehicle the campaign covers. A safety rating row is one rated variant, such as "2018 Honda Accord 4 DR FWD". Complaints come newest first, recalls by newest report first. Fields that do not apply to a row's type are absent from it.

Fields

Field	Type	Description
itemType	string	recall, complaint or safetyRating.
make	string	Vehicle make, such as HONDA.
model	string	Vehicle model, as NHTSA names it.
modelYear	number	Model year.
url	string	The recall's page on nhtsa.gov, or the vehicle's page for complaints and ratings.
source	string	The URL, vehicle, VIN or campaign number the row was found through.
campaignNumber	string	Recall: NHTSA campaign number, such as 20V314000.
nhtsaActionNumber	string	Recall: the NHTSA investigation that led to it, such as EA23002.
manufacturer	string	Recall and complaint: the manufacturer, such as Honda (American Honda Motor Co.).
component	string	Recall: the component recalled, such as FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE:DELIVERY:FUEL PUMP.
summary	string	Recall: the defect. Complaint: the owner's account.
consequence	string	Recall: what the defect can lead to.
remedy	string	Recall: the fix and when owners are notified.
notes	string	Recall: further notes, such as hotline numbers.
reportReceivedDate	string	Recall: date NHTSA received the manufacturer's report (YYYY-MM-DD).
potentialUnitsAffected	number	Recall: number of vehicles the manufacturer estimates are affected.
parkIt	boolean	Recall: true when owners are told not to drive the vehicle.
parkOutSide	boolean	Recall: true when owners are told to park outside, away from buildings, for fire risk.
overTheAirUpdate	boolean	Recall: true when the remedy is an over-the-air software update.
affectedVehicles	array	Recall: every vehicle the campaign covers, each with make, model and modelYear.
odiNumber	number	Complaint: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation complaint number.
dateOfIncident	string	Complaint: date of the incident (YYYY-MM-DD).
dateComplaintFiled	string	Complaint: date the complaint was filed (YYYY-MM-DD).
components	array	Complaint: components involved, such as AIR BAGS.
crash	boolean	Complaint: whether a crash happened.
fire	boolean	Complaint: whether a fire happened.
injuries	number	Complaint: number of people injured.
deaths	number	Complaint: number of deaths.
vinPartial	string	Complaint: the first 11 characters of the vehicle's VIN, when given.
vehicleId	number	Safety rating: NHTSA's id of the rated variant.
vehicleDescription	string	Safety rating: the rated variant, such as 2018 Honda Accord 4 DR FWD.
overallRating	number	Safety rating: overall stars (1–5). null when not rated.
overallFrontCrashRating	number	Safety rating: frontal crash stars.
frontCrashDriverSideRating	number	Safety rating: frontal crash stars for the driver.
frontCrashPassengerSideRating	number	Safety rating: frontal crash stars for the front passenger.
overallSideCrashRating	number	Safety rating: side crash stars.
sideCrashDriverSideRating	number	Safety rating: side barrier stars for the front seat.
sideCrashPassengerSideRating	number	Safety rating: side barrier stars for the rear seat.
sideBarrierRating	number	Safety rating: overall side barrier stars.
sidePoleCrashRating	number	Safety rating: side pole crash stars.
rolloverRating	number	Safety rating: rollover stars.
rolloverRisk	number	Safety rating: chance of rolling over in a single-vehicle crash, from 0 to 1 (0.093 is 9.3%).
dynamicTipResult	string	Safety rating: result of the dynamic rollover test, such as No Tip.
electronicStabilityControl	string	Safety rating: whether electronic stability control is Standard or Optional.
forwardCollisionWarning	string	Safety rating: whether forward collision warning is Standard or Optional.
laneDepartureWarning	string	Safety rating: whether lane departure warning is Standard or Optional.
complaintsCount	number	Safety rating: complaints NHTSA holds for the model.
recallsCount	number	Safety rating: recalls NHTSA holds for the model.
investigationCount	number	Safety rating: defect investigations NHTSA holds for the model.
vehiclePicture	string	Safety rating: a picture of the vehicle, when NHTSA has one.
frontCrashPicture	string	Safety rating: photo of the frontal crash test.
frontCrashVideo	string	Safety rating: video of the frontal crash test.
sideCrashPicture	string	Safety rating: photo of the side crash test.
sideCrashVideo	string	Safety rating: video of the side crash test.
sidePolePicture	string	Safety rating: photo of the side pole crash test.
sidePoleVideo	string	Safety rating: video of the side pole crash test.

💡 Use cases

• Used-car listings and dealers — show open recalls, complaint counts and crash-test stars next to every vehicle you sell.
• VIN checks and vehicle history — turn a list of VINs into the recalls, complaints and safety ratings of each model and year.
• Fleet management — check every make, model and year in a fleet for new recalls each week.
• Insurance and risk — compare complaint volumes, crash and injury reports and NCAP ratings across models.
• Legal research — collect owner complaints and recall histories for lemon-law and product-liability cases.
• Journalism and market research — follow defect trends by component, manufacturer or model year.

❓ FAQ

• Do I need an API key or an account? No. NHTSA's data is public, and the Actor needs no key, login or proxy.
• Does a VIN tell me whether that car's recall was fixed? No. A VIN is decoded to its make, model and year, and the rows are the recalls of that model and year. Whether one vehicle's repair was done is only known to its manufacturer; check it on nhtsa.gov.
• Why did a model return nothing? NHTSA names some models differently in each dataset, and the Actor tries the longer names it lists (the F-150 as "F-150 SUPER CREW" and so on). If nothing matches, the log says so; check the spelling on nhtsa.gov.
• Why do some vehicles have no safety ratings? NCAP crash-tests a selection of popular new models each year, not every vehicle, and the newest model year is often rated later in the year.
• How far back does it go? Recalls reach back to the 1949 model year; complaints and safety ratings cover the decades NHTSA has published them for.
• How does Maximum results count? Per source and data type: with 5, a vehicle returns up to 5 recalls, 5 complaints and 5 safety ratings. For a make and year without a model, the count covers all its models together.
• Why is potentialUnitsAffected empty on some recalls? The manufacturer has not reported a number for that campaign.

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🖼 Image credit

Image credit: nhtsa.gov