Cars.com Vehicle Scraper

A powerful web scraper that extracts detailed vehicle information from Cars.com. This scraper automatically navigates through search results and collects comprehensive data about each vehicle listing.

What This Scraper Does

This scraper is designed to extract vehicle data from Cars.com with the following capabilities:

🔍 Search Results Processing

• Automatically processes all pages of search results
• Extracts basic vehicle information from listing cards
• Handles pagination automatically

📊 Detailed Vehicle Information

For each vehicle, the scraper collects:

• Basic Info: Title, year, make, model, trim
• Pricing: Current price
• Mileage: Vehicle mileage
• Detailed Specs:
  • Exterior and interior colors
  • Drivetrain (AWD, FWD, RWD)
  • Transmission type
  • Engine specifications
  • VIN number
  • Fuel type
  • Stock number
• Vehicle History:
  • One-owner vehicle status
  • Personal use only indicator
  • Accident/damage history

🚀 Smart Features

• Anti-detection measures to avoid blocking
• Automatic retry logic for failed requests
• Rate limiting to respect website policies
• Proxy support for reliable scraping
• Session management for optimal performance

How to Use This Scraper

Step 1: Search on Cars.com

1. Go to Cars.com
2. Perform your vehicle search using the filters (make, model, year, price range, etc.)
3. Review the search results to ensure they match what you're looking for

Step 2: Copy the Search URL

1. Once you're satisfied with your search results, copy the URL from your browser's address bar
2. The URL will look something like: https://www.cars.com/for-sale/searchresults.action?makes[]=honda&models[]=honda-civic&yearMin=2020&yearMax=2023&priceMin=15000&priceMax=30000

Step 3: Configure the Scraper

In the Apify console, you'll need to provide:

Required Input:

• Start URLs: Paste the Cars.com search URL you copied in Step 2
• Max Requests Per Crawl: Set a limit (default: 100) to control how many pages to process

Optional Settings:

• Get Details: Enable this to collect detailed vehicle information (recommended)

Step 4: Run the Scraper

1. Click "Start" to begin the scraping process
2. Monitor the progress in the console
3. The scraper will automatically:
   • Process all pages of search results
   • Extract vehicle data from each listing
   • Visit individual vehicle detail pages (if enabled)
   • Save all data to the dataset

Step 5: Download Your Data

Once the scraper finishes:

1. Go to the "Dataset" tab
2. Preview the collected data
3. Download in your preferred format (JSON, CSV, Excel, etc.)

Input Configuration

Required Fields

• startUrls (array): Array of Cars.com search URLs to process
  • Example: ["https://www.cars.com/for-sale/searchresults.action?makes[]=toyota&models[]=toyota-camry"]

Optional Fields

• maxRequestsPerCrawl (number): Maximum number of pages to process (default: 100)
• getDetails (boolean): Whether to collect detailed vehicle information (default: false, but recommended to set to true)

Output Format

The scraper outputs structured data for each vehicle:

{
  "url": "https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/...",
  "title": "2021 Toyota Camry LE",
  "trim": "LE",
  "year": "2021",
  "mileage": "25,000 miles",
  "price": "$25,500",
  "makeLabel": "Toyota",
  "modelLabel": "Camry",
  "exteriorColor": "White",
  "interiorColor": "Black",
  "drivetrain": "FWD",
  "transmission": "Automatic",
  "engine": "2.5L I4",
  "vin": "4T1B11HK5KU123456",
  "fuelType": "Gasoline",
  "stockNumber": "T12345",
  "oneOwnerVehicle": true,
  "personalUseOnly": true,
  "accidentsOrDamage": "None reported"
}

Tips for Best Results

1. Use Specific Searches: The more specific your search criteria, the more relevant results you'll get
2. Enable Details: Always set getDetails to true for comprehensive vehicle information
3. Monitor Limits: Set appropriate maxRequestsPerCrawl values based on your needs
4. Check Results: Preview the dataset before downloading to ensure data quality

Pricing & Usage

• Pricing: $50 per 1,000 results
• Data Storage: Included in platform pricing

Support

If you encounter any issues or need help configuring the scraper:

• Check the console logs for detailed error messages
• Ensure your search URL is valid and accessible
• Verify that Cars.com hasn't changed their page structure

Legal Notice

This scraper is for educational and research purposes. Please ensure you comply with Cars.com's terms of service and applicable laws when using this tool. The scraper includes rate limiting and respectful crawling practices to minimize impact on the target website.