ABCD

Absolute Basic Car Details (ABCD) is the lowest-cost API product that provides adequate vehicle information.

If a vehicle registered on New Zealand's Motor Vehicle Register than you should expect to at least get the following data: plate, year_of_manufacture, make, model, submodel, vin (if exists for a vehicle), reported_stolen.

In many cases additionally you will get: chassis, engine_no, cc_rating, main_colour, second_colour, country_of_origin, tare_weight, date_of_first_registration_in_nz, no_of_seats, fuel_type, vehicle_type, body_style, alternative_fuel_type, cause_of_latest_registration, registered_overseas, previous_country_of_registration, result_of_latest_wof_inspection, expiry_date_of_last_successful_wof, latest_odometer_reading, licence_type, licence_expiry_date, transmission, number_of_owners_no_traders, number_of_owners, theft_stats, safety_economy, electric_range, electric_consumption, fuel_stars, fuel_consumption, fuel_promo_badge, co2_stars, co2, yearly_co2, driver_safety_stars, driver_safety_test, pollutants_stars, test_regime, safety_promo_badge, ruc_rate, ruc, others_safety_test, others_safety_stars, warning_severity, warning_message, warning_action, class (vehicle equipment class), industry_class, industry_model_code, mvma_model_code, road_transport_code, no_of_axles.

Notes:

This API product is not available for resale of data.
Time sensitive fields may not be up to date.

Request

<site>/a/vehicle:abcd?key=<Developer API Key>&plate=<Plate|VIN>

plate — plate or VIN or chassis. Note: chassis are less reliable
key — API key
mvr — "0" to avoid a trip to the Motor Vehicle Register (MVR) if CarJam fails to source the data internally. Default: "1" which allows getting the data from the MVR if CarJam missing data internally. Note: this parameter will only be valid from October 2023; if MVR data is fetched an additional charge of 17c will be added to the API call.

Response

The default response format is JSON. For XML add &f=xml to the request.

If CarJam does not have all the data to return or the data is outdated we will start fetching the data. While we are busy doing so we will reply with null response. Additionally, we will return Refresh: <seconds> HTTP header for you to read. Refresh headers signals you how long to wait before attempting to do another request. If you don't want to read Refresh header please wait at least one second before coming back.

Eventually, you will receive a response. It would look something like:

Response example

{
    "plate": "KTY257",
    "plate2": null,
    "replacement_plate": "",
    "year_of_manufacture": "2017",
    "make": "MAZDA",
    "model": "CX-5",
    "submodel": "GSX PTR 2.5P/4WD/6AT",
    "vin": "JM0KF4WLA00115724",
    "chassis": "",
    "engine_no": "PY 10280072",
    "cc_rating": "2488",
    "main_colour": "Silver",
    "second_colour": "",
    "body_style": "SW",
    "vehicle_type": "07",
    "reported_stolen": "N",
    "country_of_origin": "JPN",
    "tare_weight": "0",
    "date_of_first_registration_in_nz": "1503921600",
    "no_of_seats": "5",
    "fuel_type": "01",
    "alternative_fuel_type": "",
    "previous_country_of_registration": "",
    "result_of_latest_wof_inspection": "P",
    "expiry_date_of_last_successful_wof": 1607166000,
    "latest_odometer_reading": "3125",
    "licence_type": "L",
    "licence_expiry_date": "1598529600",
    "transmission": "6-gear automatic",
    "number_of_owners_no_traders": "2",
    "power": "140",
    "class": "XMA",
    "industry_class": "PRIVATE",
    "industry_model_code": "",
    "mvma_model_code": "CX5FAW5GSX25P4",
    "road_transport_code": "",
    "transmission_type": "6-GEAR AUTO",
    "plates": [
        {
            "plate_status": "Active",
            "plate_type": "ST",
            "registration_plate": "KTY257",
            "effective_date": "1503921600"
        }
    ],
    "vehicle_usage": "01",
    "number_of_owners": "4",
    "safety_economy": {
        "electric_range": 0,
        "electric_consumption": 0,
        "fuel_stars": 9,
        "fuel_consumption": 7.5,
        "co2_stars": 8,
        "co2": 172,
        "yearly_co2": 2.41,
        "driver_safety_stars": 10,
        "driver_safety_test": "Based on 2017 ANCAP rating for 17+ models with dual frontal+side+head airbags",
        "pollutants_stars": 0,
        "test_regime": "A79/04",
        "safety_promo_badge": "ANCAP",
        "ruc_rate": 0,
        "ruc": 0,
        "others_safety_test": "",
        "others_safety_stars": 0,
        "warning_severity": "",
        "warning_message": "",
        "warning_action": "",
        "warning_details": null
    }
}

Error response example

{
    "code": -1,
    "message": "Missing Developer Key."
}

Note:

All times and dates are represented as UNIX timestamp.
Many values are coded. See Tags and Codes in HTML or XML for definitions.

— 2017-04-09 👩‍💻 API