UK Vehicle Recalls — DVSA Car, Motorcycle & Parts Recall Data

Official source. No API key. Pay per record.

This actor gives you every UK vehicle safety recall from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), read from the recalls file that the GOV.UK "Check if a vehicle, part or accessory has been recalled" service publishes. Cars, vans, trucks, motorcycles, motorhomes and quad bikes, trailers, tyres, components and even pedal cycles are in it, back to 1992: the DVSA recall number, launch date, make, model, the concern, the defect, the remedy, how many vehicles are affected, the manufacturer's reference and the build date range.

On 27 September 2026 the file held 17,696 rows covering 8,971 recall numbers, from 1992 to September 2026 (17,691 rows and 8,969 recall numbers after the privacy rule below). Recall volume has been rising: 844 rows launched in 2023, 1,200 in 2024, 1,427 in 2025 and 1,006 in 2026 up to late September. A recall that covers several models has one row per model line, so one record here is one row of the DVSA file.

Use it three ways:

• New-recall feed. lastDays: 7 or 30 returns recalls launched recently — 79 rows over the 30 days to 27 September 2026.
• Make and model watch. Every recall for a make, a model, or a defect type (textContains: "AIRBAG"), with build dates to match against a fleet or stock list.
• Lookup. Send DVSA recall numbers; numbers not in the file are listed in the run receipt.

Who buys this and for what job

• Fleet operators, leasing and rental companies checking their makes and models against new UK recalls every week.
• Used-car dealers, auction houses and vehicle-history services flagging open recall campaigns by make, model and build period.
• Insurers, claims and motor-finance teams tracking safety defects by manufacturer.
• Garages, parts distributors and aftermarket suppliers planning around recall work.
• Researchers, journalists and consumer groups studying recall trends in the UK market.

Sample output

{
  "record_id": "DVSA:R/2026/148:79be9cbd3b0f",
  "recall_number": "R/2026/148",
  "launch_date": "21/09/2026",
  "make": "MERCEDES-BENZ CARS UK LTD",
  "recalls_model_information": "GLC",
  "concern": "SRPC2603 - Drive Shaft Joint",
  "defect": "Mercedes-Benz AG has determined that on certain 4MATIC E-Class (213  platform) S-Class Coupé (217 platform) S-Class (222 platform) E-Class  Coupe/Convertible (238 platform) GLC (253 platform) and CLS (257 platform)  vehicles increased wear of the universal joint on the drive shaft might occur.",
  "remedy": "As a remedy Mercedes-Benz AG via its Mercedes-Benz service partners will  check the drive shaft on the affected vehicles and replace it if necessary.",
  "vehicle_numbers": "8",
  "manufacturer_ref": "SRPC2603 / 4190026",
  "model": "GLC",
  "vin_start": null,
  "vin_end": null,
  "build_start": "22/12/2017",
  "build_end": "20/03/2019",
  "launch_date_iso": "2026-09-21",
  "build_start_iso": "2017-12-22",
  "build_end_iso": "2019-03-20",
  "source": "Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) — vehicle safety recalls file, published on the GOV.UK 'Check if a vehicle, part or accessory has been recalled' service (https://www.check-vehicle-recalls.service.gov.uk/documents/RecallsFile.csv)",
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0 — the service states: 'All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated'.",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (DVSA vehicle recalls); reformatted by NexGen Signal.",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-27T17:03:29Z"
}

Pricing

Apify plan	Price per record
Free	$0.05
Bronze	$0.045
Silver	$0.04
Gold and above	$0.0335

You pay only for records delivered to your dataset. maxRecords caps what a run can cost: 500 records cost $25 on the Free plan. Filtering is free — the whole file is read on every run and you pay only for what matches.

Input

Field	What it does	Default
lastDays	Only recalls launched in the last N days	not set
launchedFrom, launchedTo	Only recalls launched between two days (YYYY-MM-DD)	not set
makeContains	Makes containing any of these texts, e.g. FORD, MERCEDES	all
modelContains	Model or model information containing this text, e.g. TRANSIT	none
textContains	Concern, defect or remedy containing this text, e.g. AIRBAG, BRAKE	none
recallNumbers	Look up DVSA recall numbers, e.g. R/2026/148	none
sortBy	newest or oldest launch date first, or file order	newest
maxRecords	Maximum records delivered and billed	500

Example — this week's new UK recalls:

{"lastDays": 7, "maxRecords": 500}

Example — every Ford recall launched in 2026:

{"makeContains": ["FORD"], "launchedFrom": "2026-01-01", "maxRecords": 1000}

(On 27 September 2026 that returned 244 rows. Airbag recalls launched in the previous 12 months: 148 rows.)

Output

Field	Meaning
record_id	DVSA:<recall number>:<row fingerprint> — unique per row, stable while the row is unchanged
recall_number	DVSA recall number. Judging by the makes under each prefix: R vehicles, RM motorcycles, RSPV motorhomes and quad bikes, RCOMP components, RTW tyres, RCT and RPT trailers, RPC pedal cycles
launch_date	Launch date as published (DD/MM/YYYY)
make, model, recalls_model_information	As published
concern, defect, remedy	The DVSA's recall text, as published
vehicle_numbers	Number of vehicles affected, as published (text; blank in 221 rows)
manufacturer_ref	The manufacturer's campaign reference
vin_start, vin_end	As published — blank in every row of the current file
build_start, build_end	Build date range as published (DD/MM/YYYY)
launch_date_iso, build_start_iso, build_end_iso	The same dates as YYYY-MM-DD, for sorting and filtering
source, licence, attribution, observed_at	Provenance on every record

Text is the DVSA's, trimmed of outer spaces. Nothing is re-worded, merged or estimated.

Cost guidance

New recalls averaged about 20–30 rows a week in 2025–2026 (79 rows in the 30 days to 27 September 2026), so a weekly run is typically under $1 on Gold. A make's recalls for a year run from a handful to a few hundred rows (Ford: 244 rows so far in 2026, $8.17 on Gold). The whole file of about 17,700 rows is about $593 on Gold. Start with the ten-record Store example to see the fields, then schedule a weekly lastDays: 7 run.

Tips

• Match a fleet: filter by make and model, then compare each vehicle's build date with build_start_iso and build_end_iso; the recall applies only to vehicles built in that range.
• Catch every spelling: use short make texts (MERCEDES, TOYOTA) rather than full company names.
• Weekly feed: schedule lastDays: 7 and keep the record_id values you have seen; a changed row gets a new record_id.
• Defect themes: textContains with AIRBAG, BRAKE, FIRE or SOFTWARE gives quick topic sets.

How a run works

The actor checks robots.txt on the service's host (it serves none — HTTP 404 — which is recorded in the run receipt as "no policy", not as permission), downloads the DVSA's recalls file (about 7.7 MB), and reads it row by row. Matching records are pushed to your dataset first and charged only after they are delivered; if you set a maximum charge, the run stops cleanly when it is reached. Test runs took 5–10 seconds. Every run saves a receipt (RUN_RECEIPT) with the robots decision, the file size, rows read, rows withheld and recall numbers not found. If the service cannot be reached after several retries, the run ends with a clear message and nothing is charged.

Honest limitations

• No VIN or registration lookup. The file lists makes, models and build date ranges; its VIN columns are blank. To check one vehicle, use the GOV.UK service itself.
• Make names vary. The DVSA spells some makes several ways (for example "MERCEDES-BENZ CARS UK LTD" and "MERCEDES BENZ UK LIMITED"); makeContains takes short texts so you can catch all of them.
• Source dates can be wrong. Some rows carry an impossible date; for example recall R/2026/030 (a Ford Kuga) is dated 03/02/2027 in the file. The actor keeps the DVSA's value, so with newest-first ordering that row sorts to the top, and it counts in date ranges that reach 2027 (it is among the 244 Ford rows above). lastDays stops at today, so the new-recall feed leaves it out.
• Remedy status is not included. The file says what the recall is, not how many vehicles have been fixed.
• Five rows are withheld. Rows whose text contains an email address (5 on 27 September 2026, covering 2 recall numbers that have no other rows) are left out whole, because an address can be a private person's. The run receipt counts them, and a lookup of a withheld recall number is reported as withheld, not as missing.
• UK recalls only. For the United States, see NHTSA-based actors.

Licence and attribution

The GOV.UK service states: "All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated". Every record carries the credit Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (DVSA vehicle recalls); reformatted by NexGen Signal. This actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by the DVSA.

Differentiation

Vehicle-recall actors on the Store — such as neuton/nhtsa-vehicle-recalls-scraper, samwise.agency/nhtsa-vehicle-safety and benthepythondev/vehicle-recalls-intelligence — cover the US NHTSA database. UK actors such as spookyweb/uk-mot-history check MOT history, not recalls. This actor covers UK recalls from the DVSA's own file: every recall since 1992, with the DVSA's concern, defect and remedy text, build ranges and vehicle numbers, under the Open Government Licence.

The NexGen Signal family

Part of NexGen Signal — official-source data products, no API keys, pay per record. Related actors:

• UK Road Collision Records — DfT STATS19
• UK Road Traffic Flow Records — DfT AADF
• EU Vehicle CO2 Records — EEA New-Car Monitoring
• NL Vehicle Registration Cohorts — by Make/Model
• FDA Recall Risk Records — openFDA Enforcement