FREE TO START · iOS
Read the listing like a mechanic.
Research any used car free: recalls, owner complaints, crash-test ratings, real fuel cost. Then turn a Marketplace screenshot into a full buyer's report: what to ask, what to offer, when to walk.
FREE TOOL · NHTSA + EPA
Research any car
Recalls, owner complaints, crash-test ratings, specs, and real yearly fuel cost. No account, no charge.
Free, from NHTSA & the U.S. EPA. The full buyer's report on a specific listing is the $3.99 app.
02 · FREE FOR EVERYONE
Research any car before you spend a cent.
Pick a year, make, and model, or punch in a VIN, and VINly pulls the public record in seconds. Straight from NHTSA and the EPA. No upload, no account, no charge.
Open recalls
Every safety recall on file with NHTSA, grouped by component.
NHTSA
Owner complaints
What real owners report going wrong, by the part that fails.
NHTSA
Crash-test ratings
NHTSA's 5-star NCAP scores: frontal, side, and rollover.
NHTSA NCAP
Fuel & yearly cost
EPA mpg plus the estimated yearly fuel cost to run it.
U.S. EPA
Then, when a listing's worth chasing, turn its screenshots into the full buyer's report. That's the $3.99 part below.
03 · THE TRANSFORMATION
Marketplace gives you a price. VINly gives you a verdict.
VINly reads your screenshots for the listing text, decodes the VIN against NHTSA when one's present, grounds known-issue claims against public sources, and writes the buyer's report a mechanic-friend would write, if you had one.
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FOR SALE
2017 Lexus GX · GX 460 Sport Utility 4D
$24,500
Anaheim, CA · 155k mi
Description
2017 Lexus GX460
Clean Title… more
RAW LISTING
4 RED FLAGSVINLY REPORT
GENERATED IN 109S$20,825
Opening offer · −$3,675 vs asking
Worth seeing, inspect hard.
Timing-cover oil leak + valley-plate coolant leak both past their typical onset on a 1UR-FE at this mileage.
REPORT CONTAINS
04 · THE FULL SPECTRUM
Three listings. Three verdicts. The same $3.99.
VINly isn't a marketing tool that always says "buy." Some listings get walked.
2014 Honda Civic LX · Oakland, CA
$8,400
−$500 vs asking
A clean 9th-gen Civic at 78k miles, priced near the comp median. Two questions, an inspection, and you're done.
See the full report →
2017 Lexus GX 460 Premium · Anaheim
$20,825
−$3,675 vs asking
High-mileage but body-on-frame. Timing cover and valley plate are due-or-done, so let receipts decide the price.
See the full report →
2018 Ford Mustang GT · Sacramento
Walk away
Asking $14,000 · skip the drive
Salvage title, no inspection, cash-only, no test drives. Three of those alone is the pattern. Pass.
See the full report →
05 · THE BEATER PROOF
Same depth at $2,400.
Same NHTSA queries. Same forum grounding. Same anchor math. Same six-section report. The price of the car doesn't change the price of the mistake. A $20 misread on a $2,000 car is still $20 lost.
2004 Toyota Corolla CE
195k mi · Fresno
1ZZ-FE bulletproof if maintained. Check the oil cap, drive it home for another 50k.
$2,800 asking
2003 Honda Accord LX
215k mi · Modesto
K24A4 is bulletproof; the auto isn't. Soft-shift past 180k and PS pump whine are budgetable.
$3,200 asking
2002 Mitsubishi Galant ES
165k mi · Bakersfield
Timing belt overdue, 4-speed auto on borrowed time, parts network thinned. $1,800 in year-1 work on a $2,400 car.
Asking $2,400
Heads-up: report depth scales with how much a model is documented online. Mainstream Toyota / Honda / Ford get the deepest reports. Niche imports are still useful but lighter on known-issue specifics.
06 · HOW IT WORKS
Four steps. Sixty to ninety seconds.
Screenshot the listing.
Tap-and-hold the listing in Marketplace, share to VINly. Multiple images is fine.
We extract the details.
Year, make, model, trim, price, mileage, location, title. Confirm or correct anything we read wrong.
Sonnet researches the model.
Known failures, service intervals, NHTSA recalls, regional price comps, all grounded against public sources.
You get the verdict.
Opening offer, walk-floor, the message to send, the questions to ask, the things to check. A buyer's report.
07 · WHAT'S IN THE REPORT
Every report has six sections. Each one matters.
Should you see this car?
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Listing details, parsed
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Red flags specific to the listing
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What the seller didn't say
What's likely to break?
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Known issues with cost ranges
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Service timeline at your mileage
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NHTSA open recalls
What will this car cost?
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Fuel · Repair · Insurance · Maintenance
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Year-1 all-in range
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Anchored to your actual mileage
Talk to the seller
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A send-first message
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A negotiation script
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Open questions to clear
Inspect in person
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Walk-away triggers, pre-decided
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A 6-item test-drive checklist
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Bring this to your mechanic
The receipts
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Evidence log per claim
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Sources cited (forums, NHTSA)
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Methodology, in plain English
08 · PRICING
Research is free. The full report is four bucks. Or ten for less than a tank.
Carfax sells accident-and-title history (backward-looking). VINly sells a buyer's-side verdict (forward-looking). Different tool, different job.
FREE FOR EVERYONE
$0Research any car: recalls, complaints, crash-test ratings, fuel cost.
No upload, no account, no charge. The two tiers below unlock the full buyer's report on a specific listing.
SINGLE REPORT
$3.99
One full buyer's report. No commitment.
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Full six-section report
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Verdict, offer, walk-floor
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NHTSA recalls + sources cited
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PDF export + share sheet
SHOPPING PASS
$12.99
/ 10 reports
$1.30 effective per report.
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10 full reports, use whenever
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Comparison across multiple listings
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Star + shortlist your top 5
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Same depth as the single tier
All purchases handled by Apple. No subscriptions. No accounts. Reports stay on your device. Refunds via Apple's standard process.
09 · TRUST PACT
What VINly is. What it isn't.
We'd rather underpromise.
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Free to research any car: NHTSA recalls, owner complaints, crash-test ratings, and EPA fuel cost, no account and no charge.
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A pre-purchase research tool: a verdict, a fair-offer number, walk-away triggers, and the message to send.
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A structured second opinion grounded against public sources (NHTSA, owner forums, repair databases).
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Honest about uncertainty. Every claim is tagged verified, likely, or possible.
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On-device. No accounts. No tracking. Reports stay on your phone.
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A substitute for a hands-on inspection by a qualified mechanic. Use the inspection checklist; bring the report to the shop.
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Accident-and-title history. Use Carfax for that, but probably only after VINly says the listing is worth $40.
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A live market price API. The offer math is a heuristic anchored to mileage and title status, not real-time comps.
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Affiliated with Facebook, Marketplace, Meta, Cars.com, AutoTrader, CarGurus, or any other listing platform.
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Perfect. AI output can be wrong, so always confirm critical claims before you buy.
10 · FREQUENTLY ASKED
The questions people ask before they install.
Is any of it free?
Yes. Researching a car is free. Pick any year, make, and model (or enter a VIN) and VINly pulls NHTSA recalls, owner complaints, and crash-test ratings, plus EPA fuel economy and estimated yearly fuel cost. No account, no charge. The paid part is the full AI buyer's report on a specific listing, $3.99.
How is this different from Carfax?
Carfax sells accident-and-title history for about $40. That's backward-looking. VINly is forward-looking: a verdict, a fair-offer number, walk-away triggers, and the message to send the seller, based on the listing itself plus public sources on the model. Different tool, different job. Run VINly first; if the listing passes, then maybe pay for Carfax.
Is VINly affiliated with Facebook Marketplace?
No. VINly reads screenshots you upload. We don't log in, scrape, or partner with Facebook, Marketplace, Meta, Cars.com, AutoTrader, CarGurus, or any other listing platform.
How accurate are the known-issue claims?
Every model-level claim is grounded against public sources (owner forums, NHTSA, RepairPal, manufacturer docs) and tagged verified, likely, or possible in the Evidence Log. AI output can be wrong, so confirm critical claims before you buy. We'd rather underpromise.
What does it cost?
Researching any car is free. The full buyer's report on a listing is $3.99 per single report, or $12.99 for the Shopping Pass (10 reports = $1.30 effective each, no expiration). One-time purchases via Apple. No subscription. No accounts.
Does it work without a VIN?
Yes. VIN is optional. If the listing has one we decode it against NHTSA's free vPIC database; if not, the report works from year, make, model, trim, and mileage. (Recall data is best with a VIN.)
Where does my data go?
Screenshots are sent only for the duration of the ~90-second report generation and aren't retained on our servers. Reports themselves live on your device. No accounts, no advertising IDs, no third-party tracking.
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Don't drive 45 minutes to see a car you'd walk away from in two.
Research any car free. The full report is $3.99. No subscription, no accounts. Reports stay on your device.