Free US Government Vehicle APIs Help Ghanaians Check Used Cars Before Buying

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A co-founder of TrustCheck, a Ghana-based platform that helps people verify businesses, prices and cars before paying, describes building tools on free US government APIs. The NHTSA endpoints require no API key or sign-up and can decode a 17-character VIN into make, model, year and engine details. They also provide recall records, owner-filed complaints with crash and injury counts, official crash test ratings, and standardized model names. The author notes practical pitfalls, such as checking error codes on imported cars and spelling model names the way NHTSA records them. The approach is especially relevant in Ghana, where used cars older than 15 years can no longer be imported.

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