VIN Decoder — Specs, Recalls, Complaints and Crash-Test Ratings

Turn a VIN into everything the US government knows about that vehicle: full factory specifications, the safety features it left the plant with, every open recall campaign, the complaints owners filed, and its official crash-test ratings.

Four NHTSA sources in one run. No API key, no scraping, no per-lookup licence.

What a decode returns

5YJ3E1EA6PF384836:

Field	Value
make, model, modelYear	TESLA · Model 3 · 2023
bodyClass, doors, seats	Sedan/Saloon · 4 · 5
fuelTypePrimary, electrificationLevel	Electric · BEV
batteryType, evDriveUnit	Lithium-Ion · Single Motor
plantCity, plantCountry	Fremont · United States
curbWeightLb, grossVehicleWeightRating	4 048 · Class 1C
openRecallCount, overallSafetyRating	12 · ★5

And a safetyFeatures object with roughly thirty entries — ABS, stability control, airbag locations by row, forward-collision warning, automatic emergency braking, lane keeping, blind-spot monitoring, adaptive cruise, backup camera, event data recorder.

A 2003 Honda Accord decodes just as completely: engineModel J30A4, V-6, 3.0 L, 240 hp, five-speed automatic, built in Marysville, Ohio.

The three attachments

Recalls — every NHTSA campaign affecting the vehicle, with the defect, the consequence, the remedy, and two flags that matter operationally: parkOutside (fire risk, do not garage it) and overTheAirUpdate (fixed by software, no workshop visit).

Complaints — what owners actually reported, each with the component, the date, whether it involved a crash or fire, and the number of injuries or deaths. Popular models carry thousands, so this is off by default and capped.

Crash-test ratings — the NCAP five-star results: frontal by seating position, side barrier and side pole, rollover, plus the numeric rollover probability and the dynamic tip result.

Without a VIN

You do not always have one. Put honda/accord/2015 in the make/model/year field and the recalls, complaints and ratings come back the same way — which is what you want when you are enriching a listing rather than inspecting a car.

Who uses this

Used-car marketplaces and classifieds enriching a listing from the VIN alone. Insurers and underwriters pricing on the safety-feature set rather than the trim name. Fleet and lease operators checking a batch of vehicles for open recalls. Dealer tools, inspection apps and vehicle-history products that need specifications without licensing a commercial catalogue per lookup.

Scope and limits

North American VINs. vPIC decodes vehicles built for the US market. A European or Asian-market VIN will decode partially or not at all, and the Actor says which — decodeClean is false and decodeNote carries NHTSA's own explanation rather than a guess.

Specifications are what the factory declared, not what the car is today. A VIN cannot tell you about later modifications, mileage, accidents or title status.

Recalls are by make, model and year, which is how NHTSA publishes them. A campaign listed for a model year may not apply to your individual car if it was built outside the affected production window — the campaign text says so, and the manufacturer's own VIN-level check is the final word before work is authorised.

Source and licence

NHTSA — the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — through vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov for decoding and api.nhtsa.gov for recalls, complaints and safety ratings. US federal government works, public domain. Queried live on every run.

Frequently asked

Why is a field missing? Because the manufacturer did not declare it for that model. vPIC returns 154 fields and most vehicles populate fewer than half; empty ones are dropped rather than returned as blanks.

Is an invalid VIN charged? No. Billing is per vehicle returned. A VIN that fails the format check is reported with an explanation and costs nothing.

How many VINs per run? As many as you like. They are decoded in batches of forty against the bulk endpoint, so a few thousand is one run.

Does overallSafetyRating of "Not Rated" mean the car is unsafe? No — it means NHTSA never crash-tested that variant. Older and low-volume models are frequently untested.