AutoTrader Canada Scraper — Extract Vehicle Listings from AutoTrader.ca

Scrape AutoTrader Canada listings into clean, structured data from any AutoTrader.ca search or vehicle URL. Built for car dealers, automotive market researchers, and data teams who need accurate Canadian vehicle data — price, specs, mileage, dealer details, and photos. Unlike HTML scrapers, this actor parses the embedded JSON on each listing page, so every record is complete and analysis-ready.

What is the AutoTrader Canada Scraper?

The AutoTrader Canada Scraper is an Apify actor that turns AutoTrader.ca search results and vehicle detail pages into structured JSON, CSV, or Excel. You provide one or more AutoTrader.ca URLs (any make, model, location, or filter); the actor paginates through every result page, opens each listing, and extracts 40+ fields per vehicle — including numeric price and mileage values ready for analysis without cleanup.

What you get

Listing info

• listing_url — direct link to the vehicle listing
• ad_id — unique AutoTrader ad identifier
• data_source — origin of the record (AutoTrader Canada)
• status — Used, New, or Certified Pre-Owned
• posted_age_days — how long the listing has been active
• description — full vehicle description text

Vehicle specs

• make, model, year, trim
• vin — vehicle identification number
• stock_number — dealer stock reference
• body_type, transmission, drivetrain, fuel_type
• engine, cylinders, doors
• exterior_color, interior_color

Pricing fields

• price_formatted — formatted string (e.g., "$79,990")
• price_cad — numeric CAD value for direct calculations
• strike_through_price, original_price, price_drop — discount tracking
• price_evaluation, average_market_price — market comparison data

Mileage & fuel economy

• mileage_formatted — formatted (e.g., "37,397 km")
• mileage_km — numeric km value
• fuel_city_l_100km, fuel_highway_l_100km, fuel_combined_l_100km

History & condition

• carfax_available, carfax_url — vehicle history report
• reported_no_accidents, one_owner — condition flags
• odometer_condition

Seller & dealer

• seller_name, is_private_seller — private vs. dealer
• dealer_phone, dealer_address_full, dealer_website
• dealer_google_rating — dealer reputation score

Location

• city, province, full_location

Media

• image_urls — array of full-resolution photo URLs
• video_urls — array of video URLs
• image_count — number of photos

Sample output

{
  "listing_url": "https://www.autotrader.ca/a/hummer/h1/st-eustache/quebec/5_54240768/",
  "ad_id": "54240768",
  "data_source": "AutoTrader Canada",
  "make": "Hummer",
  "model": "H1",
  "year": 1996,
  "trim": "Open Top",
  "vin": "137FA8330TE189123",
  "status": "Used",
  "price_formatted": "$79,990",
  "price_cad": 79990,
  "price_drop": "$2,000",
  "mileage_formatted": "37,397 km",
  "mileage_km": 37397,
  "body_type": "SUV",
  "transmission": "Automatic",
  "drivetrain": "4x4",
  "fuel_type": "Diesel",
  "exterior_color": "Green",
  "interior_color": "Black",
  "doors": "4",
  "carfax_available": true,
  "one_owner": false,
  "city": "St-Eustache",
  "province": "QC",
  "full_location": "St-Eustache, QC",
  "is_private_seller": false,
  "seller_name": "Empire Auto",
  "dealer_phone": "(450) 555-0199",
  "dealer_google_rating": 4.6,
  "image_count": 24,
  "image_urls": [
    "https://mkt-vehicleimages-prd.autotradercdn.ca/photos/import/202204/0102/0316/0017abd5.jpg",
    "https://mkt-vehicleimages-prd.autotradercdn.ca/photos/import/202204/0102/0316/0017abd6.jpg"
  ],
  "description": "1996 HUMMER H1 6.5L V8 DIESEL 4-PASSENGER OPEN TOP..."
}

Use cases

• ✓ Used car dealers monitoring competitor pricing on AutoTrader.ca by make, model, and region
• ✓ Automotive market researchers building Canadian vehicle pricing datasets with clean numeric fields
• ✓ Insurance and fintech teams valuing vehicle portfolios from targeted listing subsets
• ✓ Inventory aggregators feeding car-search platforms with fresh AutoTrader Canada data
• ✓ Resellers and flippers spotting price drops and one-owner vehicles across provinces
• ✓ Data scientists who need ready-to-use price_cad and mileage_km values without post-processing

How it works

• Provide one or more AutoTrader.ca search URLs — any make, model, province, or filter combination
• The actor maximizes results to 100 per page and handles all pagination automatically
• Each vehicle detail page is fetched and the embedded window['ngVdpModel'] JSON is parsed directly
• Runs are resumable — state is persisted, so an interrupted run picks up where it left off
• Failed pages retry automatically with exponential backoff for reliability
• Results land in the Apify dataset, exportable as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or JSONL

Why this scraper

• Parses embedded listing JSON instead of scraping HTML — records are more complete and rarely break on layout changes
• Returns both formatted strings and numeric values for price and mileage — drop straight into Excel or a database
• Handles pagination internally — no manual page incrementing in your URLs
• High-concurrency fetching pulls hundreds of detail pages per minute through rotating proxies
• Resumable state means large runs survive interruptions without re-scraping

Input example

{
  "start_urls": [
    { "url": "https://www.autotrader.ca/cars/on/toronto/?rcp=100&rcs=0&srt=35" }
  ],
  "start_page": 1,
  "end_page": 5
}

Leave start_page and end_page empty to scrape every available page. Supply a custom proxy_url to use your own proxy, or leave it blank to use the built-in rotation.

FAQ

Does it handle proxies and anti-bot protection? Yes. Rotating proxies are used by default with browser-like request fingerprinting and automatic retries. You can supply your own proxy_url instead.

What output formats are available? JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, and JSONL — all available from the Apify dataset UI and REST API.

Can I scrape a single vehicle URL instead of a search? Yes. Pass a direct https://www.autotrader.ca/a/... listing URL in start_urls and the actor scrapes just that vehicle.

How do I filter results? Apply any filter on AutoTrader.ca — make, model, price, location, year — then paste the resulting search URL. The actor honors every filter in the URL.

Can I limit how many pages are scraped? Yes. Set start_page and end_page to scrape a range, or leave them blank to fetch all pages.

Is the data live? Yes. Every run fetches current listings directly from AutoTrader.ca — no cached or stale data.

Does it support scheduling and webhooks? Yes. Use Apify's built-in scheduler for cron-based runs (hourly, daily, weekly) and webhooks to trigger downstream pipelines.

Can you add more fields? The embedded JSON contains extensive vehicle data, so most additional fields can be added on request — reach out via the Issues tab.

Use via API or MCP

Run this actor programmatically via the Apify REST API, or connect it as an MCP server for AI agents like Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor.

API run endpoint:

POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/fayoussef~autotrader-ca/runs?token=YOUR_TOKEN

MCP server URL:

https://mcp.apify.com/actors/fayoussef~autotrader-ca

Full API docs: https://docs.apify.com/api/v2

Need a custom scraper?

Need a different automotive site, extra fields, or a fully managed data pipeline? Visit automationbyexperts.com for custom builds, retainers, and data-as-a-service.