The Used Car Index

Ask Claude about any used car and get the recorded facts, not guesses. The Used Car Index turns federal safety data into one clean record per make, model and year, covering about 68,000 vehicles.

What you get:

• Vehicle risk record: NHTSA owner complaints broken down by system and subsystem (engine, transmission, electrical and more), crash, fire, injury and death counts, recalls, defect investigations (open and closed) and manufacturer communications to dealers.
• Compare vehicles: put two cars side by side and see which has more recorded complaints and recalls.
• Listing changes: daily dealer listing events (new, price drop, relisted, delisted) with VIN, price, mileage and a link to the listing, currently for Chicagoland dealers.
• Recall changes: new and updated NHTSA recalls and investigations, recorded daily from NHTSA's bulk files, with campaign numbers, dates and source links.

Every number comes from a recorded source, with coverage notes. Nothing is scored, rated or predicted, and a delisted car is never assumed sold.

Free to use with no API key, within fair-use rate limits: full vehicle risk records, 2-vehicle comparisons and 10 listing-change events per call. Paid plans (Builder, Scale and a two-week pilot) add a private key, higher limits, 5-vehicle comparisons and full paged listing history: https://theusedcarindex.com/#pricing

Good questions to ask: "What are the most common problems with a 2015 Honda CR-V?", "Compare complaints and recalls for a 2018 RAV4 and a 2018 CR-V", "Any open NHTSA investigations on the 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee?"