How RecallMyCar Works

Everything on this site comes from two U.S. government sources, is rebuilt every day, and is shown without an account, a paywall or a report to buy.

Data sources

Recalls. NHTSA's safety recall database, which contains every defect and non-compliance campaign filed under 49 CFR Part 573 since 1966. We use the bulk files NHTSA publishes daily and include vehicle campaigns only (tires, child seats and equipment are excluded). Currently 26,135 campaigns.

Complaints. NHTSA's vehicle owner complaint database (the Vehicle Owner's Questionnaire), which holds every complaint filed since 1995. Currently 1,593,667 complaints. A complaint is one owner's report; it is not investigated or verified before publication.

Fuel economy and specs. The EPA's fuel economy dataset from fueleconomy.gov, matched to NHTSA make and model names. Where NHTSA and EPA name a model differently the match is by base model, so a trim-level page may show the range across all trims.

VIN check. The VIN form decodes your vehicle with NHTSA's vPIC service and queries NHTSA's recall API live. We do not store VINs.

Refresh schedule

A scheduled job downloads the NHTSA and EPA files every day, aggregates them, and rebuilds every page on the site. The footer of each page states which data snapshot it was built from. New recalls typically appear within a day of NHTSA publishing them.

What the numbers mean

A recall count on a model-year page is the number of campaigns that list that make, model and model year. A campaign can cover a model year without every car being affected, and many cars have already been repaired. Only a VIN check tells you about a specific car.

A complaint count is the number of distinct owner reports NHTSA has on file for that model year. High counts correlate with sales volume as well as with problems; a popular car gets more complaints than a rare one with the same defect rate. Compare a model year to its neighbours rather than to unrelated vehicles.

Pages exist for model years with at least one recall or at least ten complaints. Older or rarer model years with less data are listed in the model's year table but do not get their own page.

Independence

RecallMyCar is an independent site built and operated by Goods Media LLC, a small software company in Fountain Hills, Arizona. It is not affiliated with NHTSA, the EPA or any manufacturer. The site is supported by advertising; advertisers have no influence over the data shown.

Corrections

Recall and complaint text is reproduced as NHTSA publishes it, with capitalisation normalised. If you spot an error in how it is presented, email hello@recallmycar.com. Errors in the underlying records should go to NHTSA.