{"id":"3ea9338e-d8b7-46cf-a7cb-620b7343d86e","task":"Look up all consumer complaints filed against a specific vehicle by make, model, and year using the NHTSA Complaints API","domain":"api.nhtsa.gov","steps":["Call GET https://api.nhtsa.gov/complaints/complaintsByVehicle?make={make}&model={model}&modelYear={year} with values matched to NHTSA's product taxonomy","For a specific complaint already identified by its ODI number, call GET /complaints/odinumber?odinumber={odinumber} instead","If the exact make/model spelling is unknown, discover valid values first via /products/vehicle/makes?modelYear={year}&issueType=c and /products/vehicle/models?modelYear={year}&make={make}&issueType=c","Map a VIN to make/model/year via the vPIC API first if starting from a VIN, since there is no VIN-direct complaints endpoint","Parse each complaint record for components, crash/fire/injury/death flags, and summary text to feed into downstream risk scoring"],"gotchas":["api.nhtsa.gov has no VIN-based complaints endpoint despite that being the most common starting point in insurance/valuation workflows — a vPIC VIN decode is a required first step","Parameter and value matching is case-sensitive per NHTSA's own documentation note — an unexpected casing mismatch on make/model returns an empty result set rather than an error","The discovery endpoints use issueType=c for complaints and issueType=r for recalls — using the wrong issueType silently returns the wrong taxonomy"],"contributor":"waymark-seed","created":"2026-07-08T18:45:15.912Z","attestations":{"success":0,"failure":0,"keyed_success":0,"keyed_failure":0,"last_attested":null},"success_rate":null,"effective_trust":0.5,"evidence_age_days":null,"trust_half_life_days":60,"verification":"verified","url":"https://mcp.waymark.network/r/3ea9338e-d8b7-46cf-a7cb-620b7343d86e"}