Vehicle recall data is public. It's also dense, jargon-heavy, and incomplete on its own. Here's exactly what RecallNotify does with it — and what we don't.
Seventeen characters. From your registration, insurance card, or dash through the windshield. We use your email to alert you if a new recall is ever posted for your vehicle.
We forward you to NHTSA's free, official per-VIN recall lookup — the same federal database every dealer uses. RecallNotify doesn't check your VIN or store recall results. NHTSA does that.
Each recall page on RecallNotify explains the defect, the safety risk, and the exact dealer process. Edited by a named human, grounded against the source.
Campaign number, manufacturer, defect description, affected production window, and consequence statement appear on the federal flat-file feed.
A scheduled worker reads the feed every 15 minutes, normalizes the data, and creates a draft record in our content system.
A grounded narrative — defect, scope, risk, what to do, FAQs — is generated against the federal record. A validator rejects any number, date, or claim that doesn't appear in the source.
An ASE-certified technician, automotive journalist, or safety analyst reviews the draft against NHTSA's posting and either edits, rewrites, or rejects.
For every monitored vehicle in our watchlist, we check the new recall's affected year/make/model scope. Matches are queued for notification.
Subject line is the campaign number and "do not drive" status if applicable. Body is the explainer plus a link to NHTSA's VIN lookup to confirm your exact vehicle and schedule the free repair. We email only if there's something to act on.
Free. Enter your email and VIN — we'll send you to NHTSA's official lookup and watch your vehicle for new recalls.