# CarComplaints.com Scraper (`crawlerbros/carcomplaints-scraper`) Actor

Scrape CarComplaints.com - owner-reported vehicle problems, complaint counts by model year, ranked worst problems with average repair cost/mileage, and individual complaint stories, for 70+ car makes.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/crawlerbros/carcomplaints-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Crawler Bros](https://apify.com/crawlerbros) (community)
- **Categories:** Automation, Developer tools, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## CarComplaints.com Scraper

Scrape [CarComplaints.com](https://www.carcomplaints.com) — the largest public database of owner-reported vehicle problems. Get ranked "worst problems" per model year with average repair cost and mileage, complaint counts across every model year, individual owner complaint stories, and the full model lineup for any of 75+ car makes. No login, no API key, no cookies required.

### What this actor does

- **Four modes:**
  - `yearProblems` — ranked list of the worst reported problems for a specific make/model/year, each with average repair cost and average mileage at failure
  - `complaints` — individual owner-submitted complaint stories (title, date, rating, author) for a model year, optionally filtered by problem category
  - `modelYears` — complaint-count trend across every model year for a given make/model
  - `modelsByMake` — full list of models CarComplaints tracks for a given make
- **75+ makes** available as a dropdown (Toyota, Honda, Ford, BMW, Tesla, and more)
- **Automatic AUTO-proxy fallback** — the actor lazily engages Apify's free datacenter proxy pool only if it detects blocking, keeping runs cost-free by default
- **Empty fields are omitted** — every record only contains fields with real, scraped data

### Output fields

Fields present depend on `mode`:

**`yearProblems`**

- `make`, `model`, `year`
- `rank` — position in the "worst problems" ranking
- `problemTitle` — e.g. "Excessive Oil Consumption"
- `problemCategory` — the CarComplaints category the problem is filed under, e.g. "Engine", "Brakes", "Electrical" (derived from the report URL)
- `averageCostToFix`, `averageMileage`
- `problemUrl` — link to the full problem report page

**`complaints`**

- `make`, `model`, `year`, `problemTitle`
- `complaintTitle`, `datePublished`, `rating` (1-10), `author`, `vehicleLabel`
- `sourceUrl` — link to the specific complaint

**`modelYears`**

- `make`, `model`, `year`, `complaintCount`, `url`

**`modelsByMake`**

- `make`, `model`, `url`

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `mode` | select | One of `yearProblems`, `complaints`, `modelYears`, `modelsByMake` |
| `make` | select | Vehicle manufacturer (required) |
| `model` | string | Model name as used on CarComplaints (e.g. `Camry`, `F-150`) — required for all modes except `modelsByMake` |
| `year` | integer | Model year 1950-2027 — required for `yearProblems` and `complaints` |
| `problemTitle` | string | Optional case-insensitive substring filter, used only in `complaints` mode. Matches against both the problem title (e.g. "oil", "burning") and the problem category (e.g. "engine", "brakes", "transmission") |
| `maxItems` | integer | Max records to return (1-2000, default 50) |
| `useProxy` | boolean | Force-enable Apify's free AUTO datacenter proxy |

### Use cases

- Research the most commonly reported problems for a used car before buying
- Track complaint trends across model years to spot which years to avoid
- Pull raw owner complaint text for sentiment/defect analysis
- Build a "known issues" database for a fleet of vehicle models

### Data source

All data is scraped from the public HTML pages of carcomplaints.com — no authenticated API, no cookies, no paid proxy tier required.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

What to scrape from CarComplaints.com.

## `make` (type: `string`):

Vehicle manufacturer.

## `model` (type: `string`):

Vehicle model name as used on CarComplaints.com (e.g. Camry, Civic, F-150, Silverado\_1500). Not required for mode=modelsByMake.

## `year` (type: `integer`):

Model year (1950-2027). Required for mode=yearProblems and mode=complaints.

## `problemTitle` (type: `string`):

Only used in mode=complaints. Case-insensitive substring filter matched against both the problem title (e.g. 'oil', 'burning') and the CarComplaints category (e.g. 'engine', 'brakes', 'transmission', 'electrical'). Leave empty to pull complaints across every problem category for the model year.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of records to return.

## `useProxy` (type: `boolean`):

Route requests through Apify's free AUTO datacenter proxy group. Leave off unless you see 403 errors; the actor auto-enables this on the fly if it detects blocking.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "yearProblems",
  "make": "Toyota",
  "model": "Camry",
  "year": 2007,
  "maxItems": 50,
  "useProxy": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `records` (type: `string`):

Dataset containing all scraped records.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "mode": "yearProblems",
    "make": "Toyota",
    "model": "Camry",
    "year": 2007,
    "maxItems": 50,
    "useProxy": false
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("crawlerbros/carcomplaints-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "mode": "yearProblems",
    "make": "Toyota",
    "model": "Camry",
    "year": 2007,
    "maxItems": 50,
    "useProxy": False,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("crawlerbros/carcomplaints-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "mode": "yearProblems",
  "make": "Toyota",
  "model": "Camry",
  "year": 2007,
  "maxItems": 50,
  "useProxy": false
}' |
apify call crawlerbros/carcomplaints-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,crawlerbros/carcomplaints-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/p6ybYKHDPucgxiD2w/builds/Sgh1DGCtViibAgmoE/openapi.json