A jury hit Enterprise with a $15M verdict over one vehicle with an open recall, and in March 2026 the FTC put dealers on notice for deceptive recall practices. Dealer Recall Check screens your whole inventory against NHTSA's live recall file in seconds, then prints a dated disclosure sheet for every deal jacket. The checker below is running on the real feed right now.
One VIN per line, or drop in any DMS export (CSV, TXT). Each vehicle is decoded through NHTSA vPIC and screened against the NHTSA recall file for its year, make, and model. Nothing is stored.
Demo caps at 50 VINs per run. The sample list is demo-labeled: well-formed VINs that decode to real vehicle builds with real NHTSA recall data. They are not cars offered for sale.
Selling a used car with an undisclosed open recall stopped being a gray area. The cheap, defensible move is a documented NHTSA screen at intake and a signed disclosure in every deal jacket.
A jury returned a $15 million verdict against Enterprise after a vehicle with an open recall was put back into service. Retail dealers carry the same exposure on every unit they front-line.
Source: OTD Check on dealer recall liabilityThe FTC's March 2026 guidance targets deceptive recall practices in used-car sales. Advertising a car as inspected or certified while an open safety recall sits unrepaired is exactly the pattern it names.
Source: Consumers for Auto Reliability and SafetyCalifornia and Virginia already require used-car recall disclosure, and press keeps catching big-name lots listing recalled cars. A dated screen plus a signed sheet is the low-cost defense in the other 48.
Check any single VIN free at NHTSA.govRecall Masters and AutoAp built this for franchise groups behind enterprise sales calls. The 36,000 independent lots got nothing self-serve. That is the gap.
| Option | Built for | How you buy | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recall Masters | Franchise dealer groups | Sales call, enterprise contract | Opaque, quote only |
| AutoAp | Dealer groups, fleets | Sales call, per-check billing | Opaque, quote only |
| VIN report vendors | One car at a time | Per report | Adds up fast across a lot |
| NHTSA.gov by hand | One VIN at a time | Free | Nobody does it for 60 cars, and nothing gets filed |
| Dealer Recall Check | Independent lots | Self-serve, cancel anytime | $49 to $99/mo flat |
The recall data is free from NHTSA. What you're buying is the habit: know before you sell, and keep the disclosure on file.
Tell us where to point it. We set up your lot, run the first full-inventory screen with you, and you keep the disclosure sheets either way.
No card today. First full-inventory screen is on us, and the disclosure sheets are yours to keep either way.
We'll reach out within one business day to set up your lot and run the first screen with you. If your inventory list is handy, have it ready: any DMS export with VINs works.