NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Scraper

Scrape US vehicle complaints, safety products, and recall data from the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) public API. Search complaints by make/model/year, lookup by ODI number, or browse the PICS product catalog. Free public API — no proxy, no auth required.

What this actor does

• Four modes: complaintsByVehicle, complaintsByODI, productsByMakeYear, productsByModelYear
• Complaint data: full narrative, component, incident date, crash/fire/injury flags
• PICS catalog: lists all makes/models with safety-relevant products (complaints, recalls, investigations)
• Filter by issue type: complaints (c), recalls (r), or investigations (i)
• Empty fields are omitted — no nulls in output

Output per complaint record

Field	Description
odiNumber	NHTSA ODI unique complaint ID
make	Vehicle make
model	Vehicle model
modelYear	Year of manufacture
components	Affected component(s)
dateOfIncident	When the incident occurred
dateComplaintFiled	When the complaint was filed
summary	Full complaint narrative text
crash	Whether a crash was involved
fire	Whether fire was involved
injuriesDeaths	Whether injuries or fatalities were involved
numberOfDeaths	Death count
numberOfInjuries	Injury count
vin	Vehicle VIN (if provided)
mileage	Mileage at time of incident
productType	Vehicle, tire, etc.
recordType	Always complaint or picsRecord
sourceUrl	API URL used to fetch data
scrapedAt	ISO 8601 timestamp

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	complaintsByVehicle	complaintsByVehicle / complaintsByODI / productsByMakeYear / productsByModelYear
make	string	Honda	Vehicle make (modes: complaintsByVehicle, productsByMakeYear)
model	string	Accord	Vehicle model (mode: complaintsByVehicle)
modelYear	integer	2020	Model year (modes: complaintsByVehicle, productsByMakeYear, productsByModelYear)
odiNumber	integer	–	ODI number (mode: complaintsByODI)
issueType	string	c	c (complaints) / r (recalls) / i (investigations)
maxItems	integer	50	Maximum records to emit (1–500)

Example: get all complaints for a Honda Accord 2020

{
  "mode": "complaintsByVehicle",
  "make": "Honda",
  "model": "Accord",
  "modelYear": 2020,
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: lookup a specific complaint by ODI number

{
  "mode": "complaintsByODI",
  "odiNumber": 11566221
}

Example: browse products for all makes in a model year

{
  "mode": "productsByModelYear",
  "modelYear": 2022,
  "issueType": "r",
  "maxItems": 200
}

Use cases

• Vehicle safety research — find all known complaints for a car before buying
• Recall monitoring — track open recalls by make/model/year
• Insurance analytics — correlate complaint frequency with risk scoring
• Automotive journalism — identify systemic issues across model years
• Consumer advocacy — bulk-export complaint data for safety analysis
• Fleet management — monitor safety issues for vehicles in your fleet

FAQ

What is NHTSA? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is a US federal agency responsible for vehicle safety. Their public API provides free access to complaints, recalls, safety ratings, and investigations data.

Is this data real-time? Complaints are submitted by consumers and processed by NHTSA. The API reflects the latest publicly released data, typically updated daily.

Do I need an API key? No. The NHTSA API is free and public with no authentication or rate limits beyond standard HTTP behavior.

What is an ODI number? An ODI (Office of Defects Investigation) number is NHTSA's unique identifier for each complaint or recall. Use mode=complaintsByODI to fetch a specific complaint.

What's the difference between complaints, recalls, and investigations?

• Complaints (c): Consumer-reported issues submitted directly to NHTSA
• Recalls (r): Official manufacturer or NHTSA-ordered recall campaigns
• Investigations (i): Active NHTSA investigations into potential defects

Why might some fields be missing? Not all complaints include VIN, mileage, or injury data — those fields are submitted voluntarily by the consumer. Empty fields are omitted from output.