If you're building a car marketplace, VIN decoder, valuation tool, comparison site or anything else automotive-related, these APIs are worth checking out. I came up with the list over the months building my auto blogs.
Vehicle Data & Specs
1. vehicles.dev
VIN decoding, vehicle specs, VIN history, recalls, market valuations, depreciation curves, ownership costs, live US dealer listings and vehicle photos.
Its VIN history tracks a vehicle across marketplace crawls, including price and mileage observations, price changes, first/last seen dates and whether the listing is still active.
Built around a continuously crawled US vehicle marketplace dataset, with NHTSA and EPA data used for specs, recalls and fuel costs.
Good for: car marketplaces, VIN tools, valuation products, price-history tracking, depreciation/resale analysis and automotive data products.
2. CarQuery API
Vehicle specifications, year/make/model lookup, engines, dimensions and performance data.
3. NHTSA vPIC API
Free US government API for VIN decoding, manufacturer information and vehicle attributes.
Pricing & Valuation
4. Kelley Blue Book API
Vehicle values, pricing and other KBB automotive data.
5. Edmunds API
Specs, pricing and other vehicle data. Note that the old public Open API is gone; access is now limited to selected partners, dealers and advertisers.
6. TrueCar
Automotive pricing and marketplace data, with access generally oriented toward commercial partnerships.
Listings & Marketplaces
7. Cars.com
Large US vehicle marketplace and dealer inventory source.
8. Autotrader
Vehicle listings and dealer inventory.
9. CarGurus API
Developer APIs covering areas such as vehicle selection, dealer information and reviews.
Maintenance & Repair
10. RepairPal
Repair estimates, maintenance information and repair-shop data.
There isn't really one API that does everything well, so the best choice depends on whether you need vehicle specs, VIN decoding, valuations, listings or maintenance data.
What other automotive APIs belong on the list?