How we stay honest.
Vet Your Vehicle takes zero money from car manufacturers or dealerships — no ads, no sponsorships, no affiliate pressure to make a car look better than its records. This page is the full receipt.
The sources behind every report
Every number in our vehicle reports traces back to one of these official, public, taxpayer-funded records. Each section of a report names its source right where the data appears.
- NHTSA — VIN Decoder (vPIC) — Official VIN decode — year, make, model, trim and engine specs
- NHTSA — Safety Recalls — Official safety recall campaigns
- NHTSA — Owner Complaints — Verified owner complaints (the Common Flaws Heatmap)
- NHTSA — 5-Star Safety Ratings — Official government crash-test star ratings
- U.S. EPA / DOE — fueleconomy.gov — Official EPA fuel-economy (MPG) and fuel-cost estimates
Data is re-checked about every 24 hours. Our "How it compares" benchmarks are computed by us from NHTSA complaint records for a fixed roster of popular models (snapshot 2026-07-10) — the methodology is explained beside every comparison we show.
Who we deliberately leave out
Most well-known car-research sites earn money from the industry they review — manufacturer advertising, dealer referral fees, or affiliate commissions. That doesn't make their people dishonest, but it does mean the business has a reason to soften the truth. We can't verify their editorial independence, so their numbers don't appear here. If a source can't show its work, we don't show its claims.
Our promises
- We never invent, estimate, or AI-guess a number and present it as fact.
- If a source has no data, we say so — silence beats a wrong answer.
- If we can't reach a source, we say that too — never "no problems found."
- Every derived judgment (rankings, comparisons) shows its math and sample.
- Free to use. No account. Your tool entries stay on your device.
Data is provided as-is from public sources and may not reflect every issue a vehicle has. Always inspect a car in person before buying.