NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Scraper — AI-Ready Safety Data

Extract official US vehicle safety complaints from the NHTSA API. Get structured complaint records including crash/fire flags, injury/death counts, component details, and full consumer summaries — by vehicle make, model, and year. Zero API key required.

Who This Is For

• Automotive researchers & data scientists — analyze safety trends across vehicle brands
• Legal firms — gather evidence for product liability cases
• AI agents (Claude, ChatGPT, MCP) — automated vehicle safety lookups
• Dealerships & fleet managers — monitor complaint trends for specific models
• Consumer advocacy groups — track hazardous vehicles
• Insurance companies — assess risk by make/model/year

What Data You Get

Field	Description
odiNumber	Unique NHTSA complaint ID
manufacturer	Vehicle manufacturer name
make	Vehicle make (e.g., FORD)
model	Vehicle model (e.g., F-150)
modelYear	4-digit model year
crash	Whether complaint involves a crash (boolean)
fire	Whether complaint involves a fire (boolean)
numberOfInjuries	Number of injuries reported
numberOfDeaths	Number of deaths reported
dateOfIncident	Date the incident occurred
dateComplaintFiled	Date complaint was filed with NHTSA
vin	Partial VIN (last 6+ chars)
components	Affected vehicle component (e.g., POWER TRAIN)
summary	Full consumer-written complaint narrative
scrapedAt	ISO timestamp of when data was scraped

Example Input

{
  "make": "FORD",
  "model": "F-150",
  "modelYear": 2020,
  "maxResults": 50
}

Batch Mode (Multiple Vehicles)

{
  "vehicles": [
    {"make": "FORD", "model": "F-150", "modelYear": 2020},
    {"make": "TESLA", "model": "MODEL 3", "modelYear": 2022},
    {"make": "TOYOTA", "model": "CAMRY", "modelYear": 2021}
  ],
  "maxResults": 100
}

Example Output

[
  {
    "odiNumber": 11756860,
    "manufacturer": "Ford Motor Company",
    "make": "FORD",
    "model": "F-150",
    "modelYear": 2020,
    "crash": false,
    "fire": false,
    "numberOfInjuries": 0,
    "numberOfDeaths": 0,
    "dateOfIncident": "05/12/2026",
    "dateComplaintFiled": "08/13/2026",
    "vin": "1FTEW1E56LF",
    "components": "POWER TRAIN",
    "summary": "Went to speed up as I was approaching a ramp...",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-08-17T09:30:00+00:00"
  }
]

Data Source

All data comes from the official NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) public API at https://api.nhtsa.gov/complaints. This is a US government API — free, keyless, and always available.

AI Agent Compatibility

This actor works seamlessly with Claude, ChatGPT, and any AI agent via the Apify MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration. Simply connect Apify to your AI assistant and ask:

• "Show me NHTSA complaints for Tesla Model 3 2022"
• "How many Ford F-150 2020 complaints involved crashes?"
• "Get all Toyota Camry 2021 safety complaints"
• "What are the most common complaints for BMW 3 Series 2019?"
• "Find vehicle complaints with fire incidents for Honda Civic 2018"
• "List all Chevy Silverado 2021 powertrain complaints"
• "How many deaths were reported in complaints for Ram 1500 2019?"
• "Get consumer complaint summaries for Jeep Wrangler 2020"

Tags

vehicle-safety, nhtsa, car-recall, consumer-complaints, automotive-data, government-data, safety-database, product-liability, accident-data, ai-ready