METHODOLOGY
How VINly reads a listing.
Six stages. Six source categories. Every model-level claim is grounded against a public source and tagged with a confidence level.
THE PIPELINE
OCR + EXTRACT
Read the listing
Pull year, make, model, trim, price, mileage, location, title, VIN, and seller text from screenshots.
IDENTITY
Decode the VIN
When a VIN is present, query NHTSA vPIC for canonical year/make/model and confirm against the listing.
KNOWLEDGE
Research the model
Anthropic Sonnet 4.6 surveys known failures, service intervals, regional comps, grounded against public sources.
SYNTHESIS
Compute the verdict
Anchor math (mileage + title status) produces an opening offer and a walk-floor. Confidence + risk are scored.
CRITIC
Self-check
A second pass critiques the report for unsupported claims, missing evidence, and unsafe certainty.
COMPOSE
Build the report
Bucket the findings into the six sections. Tag each claim verified / likely / possible. Cite sources.
SOURCES WE GROUND AGAINST
Every claim has a source.
Each known-issue, service-interval, and price-comp claim is tied to a class of public sources. Each is tagged in the Evidence Log as verified, likely, or possible.
NHTSA vPIC
VIN decode against the federal vehicle database.
NHTSA Recalls & Complaints
Open recalls and complaint counts per make/model/year.
Owner forums
Generation-specific known failure patterns (ih8mud, clublexus, tacomaworld, civicx, etc).
RepairPal-grade ranges
Typical repair cost ranges by job, anchored to regional labor rates.
Manufacturer service intervals
OEM service manuals + maintenance schedules where public.
Consumer Reports / Edmunds
Reliability deltas and long-term ownership cost patterns.
VERDICT MATH
How we get to an offer.
1, Anchor against listing class.
We start with the regional median for the model + trim + mileage band. Mileage past 150k discounts by a heuristic (typically −15% from clean comps); past 200k by more.
2, Title penalty.
Salvage stacks an additional 30-50% off clean-title comps. Rebuilt stacks 15-30%. Branded titles raise risk regardless of asking.
3, Walk-floor.
Anchor minus a deal-friction discount produces the walk-floor, the price below which you simply leave. Both numbers are model-typical; not live market data.
WHAT WE DON'T DO
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OBD-II / Bluetooth scanning / live diagnostics. None of that, VINly works from listing text and screenshots only.
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Pull live KBB or Marketcheck data. The offer is a heuristic anchored to mileage + title status, not real-time comps.
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Pull Carfax accident history. That's their job, not ours. We work from what a buyer can see in the listing.
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Scrape listings or log into marketplaces. We see only what you upload.
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Promise accuracy. AI can be wrong. Every claim is tagged with a confidence level so you can decide what to trust.