NHTSA Vehicle Recalls Tracker

Pull US vehicle recalls from NHTSA. Filter by make, model, year, component, or date. Free official NHTSA API. No key required.

This actor uses the official NHTSA recallsByVehicle API to extract structured vehicle recall data with full campaign details. Tested on real data: 10 Tesla Model 3 2023 recalls (including the famous FSD Beta unsafe-at-intersections recall and curtain airbag defect), 22 Ford F-150 2022 recalls, 4 Honda Civic 2020 recalls.

What you actually get

Real recalls returned in test runs:

Campaign #	Vehicle	Component	Issue
22V844000	Tesla Model 3 2023	Tail lights	Tail lights fail intermittently. OTA fix.
21V834000	Tesla Model 3 2023	Side curtain airbag	Curtain airbag improperly secured
23V085000	Tesla Model 3 2023	FSD Beta software	"Vehicle to act unsafe around intersections"
23V434000	Tesla Model 3 2023	Battery disconnect	Pyrotechnic battery disconnect defect
23V838000	Tesla Model 3 2023	Autosteer	Driver misuse risk
24V064000	Honda Civic 2020	Occupant classification airbag sensor	Sensor failure

Each row includes:

• Make, Model, Model Year
• Manufacturer (legal name)
• NHTSA Campaign Number (the unique recall ID)
• Component (which system: airbags, brakes, electrical, powertrain, etc.)
• Summary (full text description of the defect)
• Consequence (what could happen — crash risk, injury risk, fire risk)
• Remedy (how the manufacturer is fixing it — free repair, OTA update, replacement)
• Notes (additional info)
• Report received date
• Over-the-air update flag (Tesla-style fixes vs physical service)
• parkIt flag (severe — don't drive at all)
• parkOutside flag (severe — fire risk, don't park indoors)
• NHTSA Action Number (when there's a separate enforcement action like an investigation)
• Direct link to the NHTSA recall page

Why use this

There are over 1.4 billion vehicles registered in the US, and NHTSA issues 800-1,000 recalls per year covering tens of millions of vehicles. Recall data is essential for:

• Class-action lawyers — find new defect campaigns to build cases around. Plaintiffs' firms pay $200-2,000/month for similar tools.
• Auto journalists — break stories on safety defects. Hot recalls (Park It! / Park Outside! flags) are page-one content.
• Used car dealers — check inventory for unrepaired open recalls before listing cars
• Insurance companies — adjust risk models based on vehicle defect history
• Fleet managers — proactively schedule recall service for company vehicles
• Auto parts suppliers — track which OEMs are recalling which components (= replacement parts demand)
• Consumers + consumer advocates — watchdog tools, comparison sites, used car research
• Investors shorting auto stocks — bad recalls move stocks (Tesla -7% on FSD recall, GM -5% on Chevy Bolt fire recall)

Commercial alternatives:

• Carfax / AutoCheck — $40-100 per individual VIN report, no bulk API for businesses
• NHTSA's own website — free but UI-only, no bulk export, no scheduling
• NHTSA's API — what we use, but raw API requires custom integration code
• Federal Recall Database services — $500-5,000/year for similar bulk access

This actor delivers structured JSON output with pay-per-event pricing — much cheaper than annual subscriptions for moderate-volume use.

Honest limitations

• NHTSA only covers recalls, not customer complaints. For complaint data (which can be a leading indicator of recalls) NHTSA has a separate complaintsByVehicle endpoint we don't currently call.
• NHTSA only covers US recalls. For Canada (Transport Canada), UK (DVSA), EU (RAPEX), Australia (PSA), and other countries, you need different APIs.
• Vehicle make/model strings must match NHTSA's spelling exactly. It's Tesla not tesla (case-insensitive in practice but spaces and hyphens matter), Model 3 not Model3. We pass them through unchanged.
• NHTSA returns dates in DD/MM/YYYY format (despite being a US agency). We parse them and convert to ISO 8601.
• The "since date" filter is applied client-side after fetching because NHTSA's API doesn't natively support date filtering. The full recall list for a vehicle is always fetched.
• Some recalls cover multiple model years (e.g. 2017-2023 Model 3). We only return them when querying for a year that's in the affected range.

How to use

1. Click Try for free (or Start)
2. Add vehicles to Vehicles as JSON: [{"make":"Tesla","model":"Model 3","modelYear":2023}]
3. Optionally set Component filter (e.g. "AIR BAG" to only get airbag recalls)
4. Optionally set Since date (e.g. "2024-01-01" to only get recent recalls)
5. Click Start

Output

{
    "make": "TESLA",
    "model": "MODEL 3",
    "modelYear": 2023,
    "manufacturer": "Tesla, Inc.",
    "nhtsaCampaignNumber": "23V085000",
    "component": "STEERING:AUTOMATED/ADAPTIVE STEERING",
    "summary": "Tesla, Inc. (Tesla) is recalling certain 2016-2023 Model S, Model X, 2017-2023 Model 3, and 2020-2023 Model Y vehicles equipped with Full Self-Driving Beta (FSD Beta) software or pending installation. The FSD Beta system may allow the vehicle to act unsafe around intersections...",
    "consequence": "FSD Beta software that allows a vehicle to exceed speed limits or travel through intersections in an unlawful or unpredictable manner increases the risk of a crash.",
    "remedy": "Tesla will release an over-the-air (OTA) software update, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed April 15, 2023.",
    "notes": "Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236...",
    "reportReceivedDate": "2023-02-15T00:00:00.000Z",
    "overTheAirUpdate": true,
    "parkIt": false,
    "parkOutside": false,
    "nhtsaActionNumber": "EA22002",
    "recallUrl": "https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls?nhtsaId=23V085000",
    "extractedAt": "2026-04-15T21:50:00.000Z"
}

Pricing

This actor uses pay-per-event pricing — extremely cheap for use cases that need either spot-checks or bulk historical analysis:

• Actor start: $0.05 per run
• Per recall extracted: $0.01 per recall pushed to dataset

Example costs:

• 1 vehicle × ~10 recalls = $0.15 per check
• Bulk audit of 100 used car inventory → ~$10
• Daily snapshot of new recalls for 50 fleet vehicles → ~$15/month
• Full recall history for a class-action prep on one make/model → $1-5

For comparison: Carfax charges ~$40 per single VIN report. NHTSA Commercial API access plans run $500-5,000/year. This actor pays for itself within the first day.

Free Apify tier members get $5/month in platform credits, which covers ~500 recalls per month.

Tips

• Schedule weekly runs to track new recalls on vehicles you care about
• Use componentFilter: "AIR BAG" to focus on a specific defect type (airbags, brakes, electrical, powertrain, fuel system, steering, structure, tires, exterior lighting)
• Use sinceDate with weekly runs to only get NEW recalls and avoid duplicate processing
• Combine multiple makes/models in one run for portfolio monitoring
• Watch for parkIt: true or parkOutside: true flags — these are severe recalls that can move stock prices
• Pair with the SEC EDGAR Filing Monitor to correlate recalls with 8-K material event filings (auto manufacturers often file 8-Ks for major recalls)

Source

This actor uses the official NHTSA Vehicle Safety Recall API at https://api.nhtsa.gov/recalls/recallsByVehicle. The API is documented at https://www.nhtsa.gov/nhtsa-datasets-and-apis. It's free, public, requires no authentication, and is maintained by NHTSA itself as a public service.

License

This actor is MIT licensed. The recall data it returns is from NHTSA and is in the public domain (works of the US federal government are not subject to copyright). You may use the extracted data for any purpose, including commercial use, with no restrictions.