# Cars Scraper 🚗 | $2.99 / 1k | (`glasswing/cars-scraper`) Actor

Scrape Cars.com listings at scale. Get pricing, dealer info, specs, media and market data from any search or listing URL.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/glasswing/cars-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Raffy](https://apify.com/glasswing) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Automation, Lead generation
- **Stats:** 20 total users, 6 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$2.99 / 1,000 vehicle listings

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md):

```bash
npm install apify-client
```

In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md):

```bash
pip install apify-client
```

In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md):

````bash
# MacOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash
# Windows
irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex
```bash

In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md).

If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).


# README

## 🚗 Cars.com Scraper

Extract clean, structured vehicle data from **Cars.com** — the #1 US automotive marketplace — from any search-result URL or direct listing URL. Works for every vehicle type: new, used and certified pre-owned cars, trucks, SUVs, vans, hybrids and EVs. Each listing comes back as one tidy record grouped into vehicle, pricing, dealer, history, features and media.

✨ **Try it:** paste any Cars.com search URL, hit run, and watch results stream into your dataset.

🛡️ **Reliable by design:** the scraper passes Cars.com's Cloudflare anti-bot protection automatically — no manual captcha solving, no extra setup.

### ⚡ Why This Scraper

| Capability | What You Get |
|---|---|
| 🔍 Search scraping | Pull every listing from a filtered Cars.com search URL — by ZIP, make, model, price, mileage, fuel type, body style and more. |
| 🎯 Direct listing scraping | Paste a single vehicle-detail URL and get its full record. |
| 🛡️ Anti-bot handling | Cloudflare verification is solved automatically on every run. |
| 🧹 Research-ready output | Normalized numbers, cleaned URLs, grouped sections, no repeated raw metadata. |
| 🏪 Dealer data | Dealer name, up to 3 phone numbers, address, rating, review count, website, hours and distance. |
| 💰 Market pricing | Price, deal badge, listed date, days on market, market range and a compact price history. |
| 📸 Images & features | Ordered vehicle photos plus equipment and options grouped by category. |
| 🔋 EV intelligence | Recurrent battery score, expected range, battery kWh, warranty, plug type and charging data when available. |
| 🌎 Wide coverage | Large searches are automatically split into price bands so you don't lose results to Cars.com's per-search cap. |

### 📦 What This Scraper Extracts

#### 🚙 Vehicle Details
- Year, make, model, trim, body style
- VIN, stock number, mileage
- Drivetrain, transmission, engine, fuel type, doors, MPG
- Exterior and interior colors
- Condition (New / Used / Certified Pre-Owned) and seller notes

#### 💰 Pricing & Market Data
- Listed price and deal badge (Great Deal / Good Deal / Fair Deal)
- Market price range and price-vs-market comparison
- Listed date, days on market and full price history

#### 🏪 Dealer Information
- Dealer name, address, city, state, ZIP
- Business phone numbers, exactly as displayed on Cars.com
- Star rating, review count, website and opening hours
- Private-seller personal contact details are masked for privacy

#### 📜 Vehicle History
- Certified pre-owned, one owner, clean title
- No accidents, no open recalls, personal-use-only flags

#### ⭐ Features & Options
- Full equipment list grouped by category: Safety, Convenience, Entertainment, Exterior, Seating

#### 📸 Listing Images
- Primary photo, image count and ordered high-resolution photo URLs

#### 🔋 EV & Battery Data (bonus for electric vehicles)
- EPA range, expected range and charging times for EV and plug-in hybrid listings
- Recurrent battery health certificate (battery score, battery kWh, warranty, future range)
- Gas and diesel listings simply return `isElectric: false` — no empty EV fields

### 🛠️ How to Use

**1. Get your URL** 🌐 Open Cars.com, apply your filters (make, model, ZIP, price range, mileage, body style, fuel type…), and copy the URL from your browser.

**2. Paste it in** 📋 Add up to 20 URLs to `startUrls`. You can mix search URLs and direct listing URLs.

**3. Set limits** ⚙️
- `maxItemsPerLink` — listings to pull from each URL (default: 5)
- `maxItemsTotal` — total cap across all URLs (default: 20)

**4. Run** ▶️ Records appear in the Apify dataset in real time.

### 📥 Example Input

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.cars.com/shopping/results/?zip=60606&maximum_distance=9999&sort=best_match_desc",
    "https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/6c4c32aa-6102-4a45-80b3-e667a6b9d447/"
  ],
  "maxItemsPerLink": 5,
  "maxItemsTotal": 20
}
````

You can also pass a single direct listing URL to extract full details for one specific vehicle.

### 📤 Output Schema

The actor returns one clean object per listing. URLs are cleaned, tracking parameters are stripped, and duplicate display-only fields are avoided. This shortened preview shows the shape (example values masked):

```json
{
  "listing": {
    "listingId": "1a2b3c4d-0000-0000-0000-1a2b3c4d5e6f",
    "listingUrl": "https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/1a2b3c4d-0000-0000-0000-1a2b3c4d5e6f/",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-06-11T12:33:04.891622"
  },
  "vehicle": {
    "title": "Certified 2024 Tesla Cybertruck Cyberbeast",
    "condition": "Certified Pre-Owned",
    "year": 2024,
    "make": "Tesla",
    "model": "Cybertruck",
    "trim": "Cyberbeast",
    "vin": "7G2XXXXXXXX000000",
    "mileage": 5637,
    "specs": { "fuelType": "Electric" },
    "ev": {
      "isElectric": true,
      "specs": {
        "expectedRange": 273,
        "epaRange": 320,
        "dcFastChargingMins": 22
      },
      "batteryCertificate": {
        "provider": "Recurrent",
        "score": 98,
        "scoreLabel": "Excellent",
        "battery": { "batteryKwh": 122.4, "batteryWarrantyMonths": 96 },
        "rangeEstimate": { "futureExpectedRangeMaxMiles": 264 }
      }
    }
  },
  "pricing": {
    "price": 98213,
    "dealBadge": "Good Deal",
    "daysOnMarket": 6,
    "marketRange": { "min": 93723, "max": 104243 },
    "priceHistory": ["06/06/26 | Listed | $98,213"]
  },
  "dealer": {
    "name": "Example Motors",
    "phones": ["(XXX) XXX-XXXX"],
    "address": "1234 Example Blvd, Houston, TX 77001",
    "city": "Houston",
    "state": "TX",
    "rating": 4.2
  },
  "history": {
    "certifiedPreowned": true,
    "oneOwner": true,
    "cleanTitle": true,
    "noAccidents": true
  },
  "features": {
    "Convenience": ["Adaptive Cruise Control", "Heated Seats"],
    "Safety": ["Backup Camera", "Blind Spot Monitor"]
  },
  "media": {
    "primaryImage": "https://platform.cstatic-images.com/xxlarge/...",
    "imageCount": 7
  }
}
```

For non-electric vehicles, the actor returns:

```json
{
  "vehicle": {
    "ev": {
      "isElectric": false
    }
  }
}
```

No empty EV battery certificate is created for gas, diesel or other non-EV listings.

### 💡 Use Cases

🚘 **Dealers & flippers** — Monitor competitor inventory, track price drops, and spot undervalued vehicles using price-vs-market data and deal badges.

📊 **Market researchers** — Build datasets across makes, models, ZIP codes and time periods for pricing analysis, inventory studies and trend reports.

🏷️ **Price-comparison tools** — Power real-time vehicle pricing widgets and apps with structured data.

📞 **Dealership lead generation** — Pull publicly listed dealer business contacts from active listings across a region.

🔋 **EV market analysis** — Electric listings include range, charging and battery-health data in the same feed — useful for EV reports and aggregators.

🔁 **Automation** — Trigger on a schedule and pipe results into Google Sheets, Airtable, Supabase or your CRM via Apify webhooks (n8n, Make, Zapier).

### 🔒 Privacy

This actor is built with responsible data collection in mind.

- ✅ Private-seller personal contact details are masked in all output records
- ✅ Dealer business contact data is retained only when publicly displayed
- ✅ No login, authentication or account credentials are required or used
- ✅ Only publicly accessible listing pages are scraped — no private or gated content
- ✅ Data is intended for lawful business purposes such as market research and pricing analysis
- ✅ Users are solely responsible for how they use the extracted data in their jurisdiction

### ❓ FAQ

**Can I scrape a specific vehicle by its listing URL?** Yes. Paste the direct listing URL (e.g. `https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/...`) into `startUrls`.

**Can I scrape multiple cities or ZIP codes in one run?** Yes. Add one search URL per ZIP or region to `startUrls` (up to 20). Each is scraped independently up to its `maxItemsPerLink` limit.

**Does it work with Cars.com filter URLs?** Yes. Apply any filters on Cars.com (make, model, year, price, mileage, body style, fuel type…), copy the URL, and paste it in — the scraper respects your filters.

**How do I get more than 10,000 results from one market?** Split your search into filter buckets — for example price bands under $20k, $20k–$40k, over $40k — then combine the datasets. The actor also auto-splits oversized searches into price bands for you.

**Do I need to solve captchas or configure proxies for anti-bot protection?** No. The actor passes Cars.com's Cloudflare verification automatically on each run.

**Does every electric vehicle include battery data?** EV and plug-in hybrid listings include a battery certificate only when Cars.com exposes a supported battery report. Other EV data (range, charging) is included whenever available; non-EV listings return `isElectric: false`.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Add Cars.com search result URLs and/or direct listing URLs. Maximum 20 links per run.

## `maxItemsPerLink` (type: `integer`):

Maximum listings scraped from each input URL. Hard maximum is 10,000 per link. To scrape more, add multiple links.

## `maxItemsTotal` (type: `integer`):

Maximum listings scraped across the whole run.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.cars.com/shopping/results/?zip=60606&maximum_distance=9999&sort=best_match_desc"
  ],
  "maxItemsPerLink": 5,
  "maxItemsTotal": 20
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("glasswing/cars-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("glasswing/cars-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call glasswing/cars-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=glasswing/cars-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "Cars Scraper 🚗 | $2.99 / 1k |",
        "description": "Scrape Cars.com listings at scale. Get pricing, dealer info, specs, media and market data from any search or listing URL.",
        "version": "2.0",
        "x-build-id": "4Co013y3Pdpxia9Lq"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/glasswing~cars-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-glasswing-cars-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/glasswing~cars-scraper/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-glasswing-cars-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK",
                        "content": {
                            "application/json": {
                                "schema": {
                                    "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/glasswing~cars-scraper/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-glasswing-cars-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "components": {
        "schemas": {
            "inputSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "required": [
                    "startUrls"
                ],
                "properties": {
                    "startUrls": {
                        "title": "Cars.com URLs",
                        "minItems": 1,
                        "maxItems": 20,
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "Add Cars.com search result URLs and/or direct listing URLs. Maximum 20 links per run.",
                        "default": [
                            "https://www.cars.com/shopping/results/?zip=60606&maximum_distance=9999&sort=best_match_desc"
                        ],
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        }
                    },
                    "maxItemsPerLink": {
                        "title": "Max Items Per Link",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "maximum": 10000,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Maximum listings scraped from each input URL. Hard maximum is 10,000 per link. To scrape more, add multiple links.",
                        "default": 5
                    },
                    "maxItemsTotal": {
                        "title": "Max Items Total",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "maximum": 100000,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Maximum listings scraped across the whole run.",
                        "default": 20
                    }
                }
            },
            "runsResponseSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "data": {
                        "type": "object",
                        "properties": {
                            "id": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "actId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "userId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "startedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "finishedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "status": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "READY"
                            },
                            "meta": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "origin": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "API"
                                    },
                                    "userAgent": {
                                        "type": "string"
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "stats": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "inputBodyLen": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2000
                                    },
                                    "rebootCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "restartCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "resurrectCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "computeUnits": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "options": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "build": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "latest"
                                    },
                                    "timeoutSecs": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 300
                                    },
                                    "memoryMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1024
                                    },
                                    "diskMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2048
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "buildId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultKeyValueStoreId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultDatasetId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultRequestQueueId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "buildNumber": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "1.0.0"
                            },
                            "containerUrl": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "usage": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "usageTotalUsd": {
                                "type": "number",
                                "example": 0.00005
                            },
                            "usageUsd": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "number",
                                        "example": 0.00005
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```