Lemon Check Auto: Used Car Recalls

See NHTSA recalls, owner complaints, safety ratings & scam red flags right on used-car listings. Buy used with confidence.

🔧 RECALLS — every safety recall on record for that exact year, make and model, straight from NHTSA (the U.S. government’s vehicle-safety agency). Ask the seller if the recall work was done — it’s free at the dealer. ⚠️ KNOWN PROBLEM AREAS — real owner complaints filed with NHTSA, grouped by component. See at a glance whether that model year is known for transmission, engine, or electrical trouble — plus recurring failure patterns mined from the complaint reports themselves (“transmission slipping — mentioned in 458 owner complaints”). 📊 BAD-YEAR DETECTOR — a mini chart comparing complaint volume across nearby model years of the same car. Sometimes the smart move is buying the same car, one year newer — this shows you when. Real government records, not AI guesses. ⭐ CRASH-TEST RATINGS — official NHTSA overall, frontal, side and rollover star ratings. 🚩 LISTING RED FLAGS — Lemon Check Auto reads the listing text and flags warning signs: salvage/rebuilt title mentions, “needs work”, fresh paint, no test drives, deposit-before-viewing scams, mileage that doesn’t match the car’s age, and more. It also highlights good signs like one-owner and service records. ❓ QUESTIONS TO ASK — a ready-made checklist of smart questions tailored to that specific car’s complaint history. Copy and paste them to the seller. Also includes a manual lookup: click the toolbar icon, pick any year/make/ model — or paste a VIN and Lemon Check Auto identifies the exact vehicle via NHTSA’s official VIN decoder, including its engine, horsepower and trim — and get the full report, no listing needed. 🔩 ENGINE & SPECS — when a VIN is available, Lemon Check Auto decodes the exact engine in that specific car (e.g. “2.0L I4 · 158 hp”, “3.5L V6 · 365 hp”, or “Electric”), plus trim, straight from NHTSA’s VIN database. Got a link from a friend? Paste it in the popup and Lemon Check Auto opens it and runs automatically. And when a listing’s title is unclear, Lemon Check Auto finds the VIN on the page and decodes it, or lets you type the car in manually. PRIVACY FIRST No account. No tracking. No data collection. Your listing text is analyzed locally in your browser; only the car’s year/make/model (or VIN, for VIN lookups) is sent to the public NHTSA APIs. See our privacy policy. MONETIZATION DISCLOSURE Lemon Check Auto’s core features are free. The optional “full history report” button links to a third-party paid report provider and may be an affiliate link (labeled as such in the extension); it only opens when you click it. DATA SOURCE & DISCLAIMER Recall, complaint and rating data comes from NHTSA.gov (United States government). Coverage is strongest for vehicles sold in North America. Lemon Check Auto is informational only — it is not mechanical or purchase advice. Always inspect the actual vehicle, verify its history, and test drive before buying.