Record check
Recall check by VIN
A recall check tells you which NHTSA safety recall campaigns were issued for this vehicle: what part was defective, what can go wrong, and what the manufacturer's free fix is. Whether that fix was ever performed on this particular car is a different question, held per VIN by the manufacturer - and the two ways to answer it are on this page.
What a safety recall is
A safety recall is opened when a manufacturer, or NHTSA itself, determines that a vehicle has a defect posing an unreasonable safety risk or fails to meet a federal motor vehicle safety standard. The manufacturer must notify owners and remedy it, and NHTSA states that to be eligible for the free remedy the vehicle cannot be more than 15 years old.
Recalls are the one part of a vehicle history report that is not about this car's past. Every other section - titles, accidents, odometer, ownership - records something that happened to this specific vehicle. A recall applies to a whole production run, so it appears because of what the car is, not because of anything its owners did to it.
It is also the only finding in the report that is free to make go away. A branded title is permanent and an accident record is permanent; an outstanding recall is a dealer appointment. Worth remembering when a seller offers money off for one - the fix costs them nothing either.
Where our recall data comes from
Recall campaigns come from NHTSA, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which publishes every safety recall filed for the US market. We match campaigns to the vehicle by make, model and year and reproduce NHTSA's own text - campaign number, affected component, the risk it creates, the manufacturer's remedy and the date it was reported - rather than paraphrasing a safety notice into marketing copy.
What the recall section cannot tell you
It cannot tell you whether the repair was done on this car. Remedy status lives per VIN with the manufacturer, not in the campaign, so a campaign listed in the report may have been completed years ago by a previous owner - or never. Free per-VIN status for most brands is published by NHTSA's own VIN recall lookup, and any franchised dealer for the make will read it off the VIN in a minute.
Nor does it cover everything a manufacturer might fix for free. Service campaigns, technical service bulletins and “customer satisfaction” programmes are not safety recalls and are not published the same way. NHTSA also states that its lookup excludes recalls more than 15 years old, recalls from small-volume manufacturers, recalls conducted outside the US, and very recent campaigns whose affected VINs have not all been identified yet.
What it looks like in the report
Each campaign is a card carrying NHTSA's wording: campaign number, component, the risk and the remedy. Reduced to three lines here:
- 2019-06Fuel pump - recall campaignRisk: the engine can stall without warning · Remedy: replace the pump moduleRecall
- 2022-02Rear-view camera - recall campaignRisk: the image may fail to display · Remedy: software updateRecall
- 2024-09Seat belt pretensioner - recall campaignRisk: may not restrain an occupant in a crash · Remedy: replace the pretensionerRecall
What to do about an open recall
A recall is the cheapest problem a report can find - but only if somebody actually books it in:
- Put the VIN into NHTSA's recall lookup, or call any franchised dealer for the make, and ask which campaigns are still outstanding on this exact car. That is the question the report cannot answer and they can.
- Book the remedy at a franchised dealer. The work is done at no charge to the owner and you do not have to have bought the car there - this holds for a car you have just bought second-hand.
- If the parts are on back order, which is normal on large campaigns, ask what interim instruction the manufacturer has issued. Some campaigns carry a “do not drive” or “park outside” advisory until the fix is available, and that changes whether you should buy the car at all right now.
- Only treat an open recall as a discount if the remedy is not yet available. If it is available, the honest ask is that the seller books it before handover: it costs them nothing and it puts the car in a dealer's hands before it is in yours.
Frequently asked questions
Is a recall check free?
Yes, if recalls are all you need - NHTSA publishes US safety recalls at no charge and its own VIN lookup shows outstanding ones for most brands. Recalls are one of the ten sections in a PriorMile report; what you pay for is the title, accident, odometer, theft, lien and ownership records next to them, not the recall list.
What does an open recall mean?
An open recall is a safety recall campaign whose free repair has not yet been performed on that particular vehicle. The campaign covers a whole affected production run; whether it is still open on one car depends on that car's service history, which the manufacturer holds against the VIN.
Who pays for a recall repair?
The manufacturer. NHTSA states that manufacturers must provide a free remedy and that, to be eligible, the vehicle cannot be more than 15 years old. It does not matter that you bought the car used, or that you have never bought anything from the dealer doing the work.
How do I find out whether a recall was already repaired on this VIN?
Use NHTSA's free VIN recall lookup, or ask any franchised dealer for the make. Both read the manufacturer's per-VIN remedy status, which no commercial history report has access to: our report tells you which campaigns apply to the vehicle, and those two sources tell you which are still outstanding.