How we get our data

Last updated: 2026-09-28

What NHTSA is

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is the U.S. federal agency that regulates vehicle safety. Manufacturers must report recalls to NHTSA, and vehicle owners can file safety complaints with the agency. Both datasets are public. We cite NHTSA as our source because it is the primary U.S. public record of vehicle safety defects — it is also incomplete by nature (not every defect is reported or recalled), so treat our pages as a starting point, not the final word.

Our three sources

We pull from three NHTSA public data sources, refreshed monthly:

1. Recalls API. Open recall campaigns by model-year, including the campaign number, affected component, and the agency's summary. Verify any recall directly at nhtsa.gov/recalls.
2. Complaints API. Owner-filed safety complaints, grouped by component to build our "known issues" cards. Each card's footer states exactly how many NHTSA complaints it is based on. You can file a complaint at nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem.
3. vPIC VIN decode. Our VIN lookup page decodes VINs using NHTSA's public vPIC service (vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov) and checks open recalls — entirely in your browser. We never see or store your VIN.

How we turn records into checklists

1. Monthly refresh. On a monthly cadence we re-pull recalls and complaints for every model-year we cover and diff the results against what's published.
2. Deterministic templates. Issue cards and recall summaries are generated by fixed rules over the API data (severity rules, complaint counts) — no AI-generated prose in v1.
3. Human review before publishing. Every new or changed safety card is reviewed by a person on our unlisted review page (approve / edit / reject) before it goes live. Nothing reaches the site on autopilot.
4. Honest gaps. If NHTSA has no recalls or complaints on file for a model-year, the page says so plainly instead of hiding the gap.

What we don't do

• We are not mechanics, and this site is not professional advice.
• We are not a substitute for an independent vehicle inspection by a qualified mechanic.
• We don't diagnose your specific car — our pages describe model-year patterns from public records.
• We don't sell cars or take a cut from dealers. Partner links, where they exist, are labeled and disclosed.

Citations

• NHTSA recalls lookup — source of recall campaigns and our "Verify on NHTSA" links.
• NHTSA report-a-safety-problem — source of owner complaint filings.

All data claims above describe our process and sources. Model-year facts on checklist pages trace to live NHTSA API responses, each cited with campaign numbers or complaint counts.