Vehicle Recall Monitor: Check a Whole Fleet for Safety Recalls

Check any list of vehicles against US NHTSA safety recalls, by VIN or by year, make and model. For every recall you get the affected component, what can go wrong, the manufacturer's fix, and NHTSA's do-not-drive and park-outside warnings. Schedule it, and each run tells you only about recalls that have just been filed against your vehicles.

Built for fleet managers, used car dealers and rental companies who need to know about a recall before a customer or a driver finds out the hard way.

How it works

flowchart LR
    A["VIN or<br/>2021 Ford F-150"] --> B{"VIN?"}
    B -->|yes| C["NHTSA VIN decoder"]
    B -->|no| D["Year, make, model"]
    C --> D
    D --> E["NHTSA recall search"]
    E -->|nothing under that name| F["Try NHTSA's other<br/>spellings of the model"]
    F --> E
    E --> G["One row per recall,<br/>do-not-drive first"]
    G --> H{"Since last run?"}
    H -->|new campaign| I["new-recall"]

It doesn't scrape and doesn't need an API key. It reads NHTSA's own public recall and VIN APIs.

It doesn't give up on the first spelling. NHTSA's recall search wants an exact model name. "F150" returns nothing while "F-150" returns 29 recalls, and many tools stop at the first empty answer and call the truck clean. This Actor tries NHTSA's other spellings of the model before concluding there are no recalls, and every row lists the model names it checked.

Built for

• Fleet managers keeping vans and trucks safe and legal
• Used car dealers checking stock before it goes on the lot
• Rental and car-sharing companies, where a do-not-drive recall means pulling a car today
• Insurers and leasing companies tracking recall exposure across a book
• Auto repair shops telling customers about open recalls

Input

{
  "vehicles": [
    "2021 Ford F-150",
    "2020 Toyota RAV4",
    "2021, Land Rover, Defender",
    "1HGCV1F30LA000000"
  ],
  "onlyParkIt": false,
  "onlyChanged": true
}

Setting	What it does
vehicles	One per line: a 17-character VIN, or year, make and model in any order
reportedSince	Only recalls NHTSA received on or after a date
onlyParkIt	Only do-not-drive and park-outside recalls
componentContains	Only recalls for, say, AIR BAGS or BRAKES
onlyChanged	Return only recalls that are new since the last run

Output

{
  "vehicle": "2024 Kia Telluride",
  "status": "recall",
  "campaignNumber": "26V430000",
  "manufacturer": "Kia America, Inc.",
  "component": "SEATS:FRONT ASSEMBLY:POWER ADJUST",
  "summary": "Kia America, Inc. (Kia) is recalling certain 2020-2024 Telluride vehicles. The front power seat motor may overheat...",
  "consequence": "A fire increases the risk of injury.",
  "remedy": "Owners are advised to park outside and away from structures until the recall repair is complete...",
  "reportDate": "2026-07-02",
  "parkIt": false,
  "parkOutside": true,
  "overTheAirUpdate": false,
  "modelsSearched": ["Telluride"],
  "url": "https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls?nhtsaId=26V430000",
  "changeType": "first-run",
  "checkedAt": "2026-09-23T20:22:40.850Z"
}

Do-not-drive and park-outside recalls come first. Every vehicle gets at least one row, so nothing silently drops off your list:

status	Meaning
recall	One row per recall campaign
no-recalls	NHTSA has no recalls on file for it
not-recognised	The line couldn't be read, or NHTSA has no such model. note suggests close model names
lookup-failed	NHTSA didn't answer; try again later

Schedule it for your fleet

Save your fleet list, turn on onlyChanged and run it weekly. The first run records every existing recall. After that, you only get recalls filed since the last run, plus any vehicle that couldn't be checked.

Run it as an API

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/arched_friend~vehicle-recall-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "vehicles": ["2022 Hyundai Tucson", "2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee"],
    "onlyParkIt": true
  }'

Pricing

You pay $0.002 for each vehicle checked.

Checking a 200 vehicle fleet monthly	Monthly cost
Typing each VIN into nhtsa.gov	several hours
Fleet recall services	often $1 or more per vehicle per month
This Actor	$0.40

Common questions

Does it tell me if my specific car has already been repaired? No. NHTSA only shows per-VIN repair status on its own website, behind a captcha. This returns every recall issued for the vehicle's model and year. The manufacturer or a dealer can confirm whether a particular VIN was fixed.

Why does a row say "enter the full model name"? Some manufacturers file recalls under the trim (for example a Mercedes "GLE 350" rather than "GLE"), and NHTSA doesn't publish a list of those trims. When a short model name finds nothing, the Actor says so instead of calling the car clean. Use the full model name or the VIN.

Is it US only? Yes. It covers vehicles sold in the US and recalls filed with NHTSA.

Do I need an API key? No. NHTSA's APIs are public.

Related products

• FDA Recall Monitor for food, drug and medical device recalls
• Medical Device Clearance Tracker for new FDA device clearances
• Brand Mention Monitor to catch press coverage when a recall breaks