NHTSA Recalls Scraper - Vehicle Recalls & Owner Complaints API

Pull official U.S. vehicle safety recalls and owner complaints by make, model, and year - or auto-enumerate an entire make - in one run. No API key.

What it does

This NHTSA recalls scraper turns the official NHTSA data into clean, normalized records you can actually use. Query car recall data by make, model, and year, look up a single NHTSA campaign number, or run a whole make to auto-enumerate every model for that make. It returns both official safety recalls and owner complaints (ODI) - including crash, fire, injury, and death flags - so you get complete safety coverage without stitching two tools together. Export results as a vehicle safety recall dataset in JSON or CSV. No API key, no scraping headaches.

Most NHTSA tools do one thing: recalls or complaints, one model at a time. This one does both, and can sweep an entire make automatically.

Who it's for

• Car dealers & used-car marketplaces - flag open recalls across inventory before resale
• Fleet managers - track recalls across every make/model you operate
• Lemon-law attorneys - pull owner complaint history and injury/crash data for a vehicle line
• Auto insurers - factor recall and defect exposure into risk models
• Automotive researchers & journalists - build defect and safety datasets
• Developers - a clean recalls + complaints data feed without maintaining an NHTSA integration

What you get / Output

Each record is one recall or one complaint, normalized to a flat schema. Fields returned:

Field	Description
type	recall or complaint
campaignNumber	NHTSA recall campaign number (recalls)
odiId	ODI complaint ID (complaints)
make	Vehicle make
model	Vehicle model
modelYear	Model year
manufacturer	Manufacturer named in the record
component	Affected component/system
summary	Description of the recall or complaint
consequence	Safety consequence of the defect
remedy	Recall remedy / fix (recalls)
reportDate	Date the recall or complaint was reported
parkIt	Flag: do-not-drive advisory (recalls)
parkOutside	Flag: park-outside fire-risk advisory (recalls)
crash	Complaint involved a crash
fire	Complaint involved a fire
injuries	Number of injuries reported
deaths	Number of deaths reported
incidentDate	Date of the reported incident (complaints)
url	Source URL for the record

Input / How to query

Three modes cover how you can pull data:

• Specific vehicle - set a make, model, and model year to pull recalls and complaints for one exact vehicle line. Model must match the NHTSA model name (e.g. Civic, F-150).
• Whole make - set a make and model year without a specific model. The Actor auto-discovers and enumerates every model for that make and year, so you don't need to know each model name up front.
• Campaign lookup - provide an NHTSA campaign number (e.g. 23V769000) to pull one specific recall across every vehicle it covers.

Example - a whole-make sweep for a 2022 make:

{
  "make": "Honda",
  "modelYear": 2022
}

Example - a single campaign number:

{
  "campaignNumber": "23V769000"
}

Example use cases

• Used-car dealer recall sweep - run whole-make mode across the makes on your lot to surface open recalls and do-not-drive (parkIt) advisories on inventory before it sells.
• Lemon-law case build - pull every complaint for a make/model/year and filter on crash, fire, injuries, and deaths to document a defect pattern.
• Fleet safety monitoring - schedule runs for each vehicle line you operate and watch for new campaignNumber entries.
• Insurance risk enrichment - join recall and complaint counts per make/model/year into underwriting models.
• Research dataset - export a vehicle recall and complaint dataset to CSV for analysis.

Recurring use / scheduling

Set the Actor on a schedule (daily or weekly) from the Apify console to monitor recalls automatically - ideal for dealers and fleet managers who need to catch new campaigns as they post. Each run outputs to a dataset you can pull via API, webhook, or direct CSV/JSON export.

To dedupe across runs, key on campaignNumber (recalls) or odiId (complaints) - both are stable NHTSA identifiers, so you can diff new runs against prior ones and act only on newly added records.

FAQ

How do I get NHTSA recall data in bulk?

Use whole-make mode: set a make and model year without a specific model, and the Actor enumerates every model automatically, returning recalls and complaints together. Then export the dataset as CSV or JSON.

How to export vehicle recalls by make and model to CSV?

Run the Actor with your make, model, and model year, then export the run dataset directly to CSV or JSON from the Apify console or the dataset API.

Is there an API for car recalls and owner complaints?

Yes - this Actor is a recalls + complaints API on top of the official NHTSA data. Call it via the Apify API, get structured JSON back, and skip building and maintaining your own NHTSA integration. No NHTSA API key is required.

How can a dealership monitor recalls across its used car inventory?

Schedule whole-make runs for the makes on your lot, dedupe on campaignNumber, and watch the parkIt and parkOutside flags for do-not-drive and park-outside advisories on vehicles you hold.

How do I pull all recalls for a whole vehicle make?

Set the make and model year and leave the model unset. The Actor discovers the exact NHTSA model names and fetches recalls and complaints for all of them.

Where can lemon law attorneys download NHTSA complaint data?

Query the make, model, and model year and export. Each complaint includes crash, fire, injuries, deaths, summary, consequence, and incidentDate for case documentation.

How to look up a recall by NHTSA campaign number?

Use campaign lookup mode: provide the campaignNumber (e.g. 23V769000). The Actor returns that recall across every vehicle it covers.

What is the best way to scrape NHTSA recalls and complaints without an API key?

This Actor reads the official NHTSA API directly - no key, no auth setup. Provide your query inputs and it returns clean, normalized records for both recalls and complaints.

How do fleet managers track vehicle recalls automatically?

Put the Actor on a daily or weekly schedule for each make/model you run, dedupe on campaignNumber, and pipe new records to a webhook, sheet, or alert.

Can I get injury, crash, and fire counts from NHTSA complaint data?

Yes. Complaint records include crash, fire, injuries, and deaths fields drawn from NHTSA owner-submitted complaint (ODI) data.

Data source & notes

• Source: the official NHTSA API (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), covering safety recalls and owner-submitted complaints (ODI). This is public U.S. government safety data - no API key required.
• Coverage: U.S. vehicles as recorded by NHTSA. Model names must match NHTSA's exact spelling in specific-vehicle mode; whole-make mode resolves them for you.
• Complaints vs. recalls: recalls are official manufacturer/NHTSA campaigns; complaints are owner-submitted reports and reflect individual claims, not verified defects.
• Field availability: some fields are specific to one record type - e.g. remedy, parkIt, and parkOutside apply to recalls; crash, fire, injuries, deaths, odiId, and incidentDate apply to complaints.
• Freshness: data reflects what NHTSA has published at run time; schedule the Actor to keep a current feed.