Check an Israeli used car with one API call (license plate -> history report)

#api #automation #opensource #israel

Buying a used car in Israel means opening a pile of Hebrew government pages: registry, annual tests, recalls, off-road list, leasing history. All of it is public open data on data.gov.il, but it is scattered across about ten datasets and hard to query in bulk.

I wrapped those datasets into two Apify Actors so you can send a list of license plates and get one structured record per car.

What you get

Israel Vehicle Lookup (basic, $5 per 1,000 vehicles found)
make, model, year, color, fuel, ownership type, first-on-road date, last test date, license expiry and days remaining, VIN, trim.

Israel Used Car Check (full report, $20 per 1,000 reports)
registry status (active/inactive/off-road/scrapped), odometer at last annual test and average km per year, previous use (private/leasing/rental), structure/color/LPG/tire-size changes, open safety recalls with the fault description, test validity, specs (body, engine cc, horsepower, gearbox, airbags, ABS, stability control, towing) and a plain-English list of things to ask the seller.
You are charged only for plates that are found.

Call it from code

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('lior-tools/israel-used-car-check-vehicle-history-by-plate')
  .call({ plates: ['12-345-67', '1234567'] });   // illustrative plates
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Plates not in the registry come back with found: false, so batches never fail on one bad plate. Dashes and spaces are accepted.

No-code

Both Actors work with Make, Zapier, n8n and MCP, so you can drop a plate column from a sheet into a workflow and write the report back.

Limits (read these)

No owner identity, accident history or liens. The government does not publish them.
Data is only as fresh as the government datasets.
Independent tool, not affiliated with the Israeli government.

Links

Feedback welcome, especially on fields you want added.

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